The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1926-09-03
With Parental
Approval Y
BY MARTHA M. WILLIAMS

net going-not even invited-be-
sides, the shoes are too long for
you"
"All which, though true, has
nothing to do with the case" San
dy retorted, her nose very high. II
would have been invited but for
your lie-you told the Clarks /
didn't dance"
Il didn't! Who told you?
They .lied,' Felicia cried weakly.
her voice betraying terror "All /
said was your mother never want
ed you to dance"
But not word that she died
five years bacll--and told me at the
I very last how sorry she was she'd
been so hard and narrow. Poor
dear. She couldn't help it. an or
phan ward in your family that
thought wlckedness into every
pleasant thing, and ate up half she
had, after eating up all their own.
FINDING them out / do believe hurt
her worse than being so plum
dered-" Sandy burst out, sparks
Of fire in her eyes. "But we're
! wastin' breath that can be better
spent. Mine in saying you shan't
wear my black satin pumps-now
nor ever-burn 'em up first"
indy - properly Alexandra
Semmes-was semi-private secre-
tary to Banker Lawrence, going III
and out eight miles daily by help
Of the trolley. She loved to dance,
better than to dream of a Price
Charming. And she did often
alone, timed by q neighbours radio,
In the dusk of her big room with
oil the windows wide. If she Had
said so, folks would have looked
askance-even without that they
were given to saying behind 'the
hand how queer she was. How
very queer. Yet, oddly, she was
better liked than Felicia, who by
influences not generally named out
l0ud-being ecclesiastical or polit-
ical-fed in public pastures, seek
Ing always the most money for the
least work.
In their small -girlhood Sandy had
disliked her tepidly. Now that they
were rising twenty dislike had
changed into blazing contempt.
The affair of the dance and the
shoes was typical-she determined
to wear the pumps to rags, as soon
as she knew of Sandy's misfitting
gift. 1t might better have come
to her The sender, an old teacher
gone higher in the school machine,
had written with the parcel: "Too
long, l know, dear Sandy-but so
slim and soft, they deserve to be
seen on your beautiful feet"
Felicia went to the party-in
borrowed shoes, rather than miss
1t. Too narrow, too long, her
heels were blistered by their slip
ping up. But that didn't hurt half
so much as the fact that they split
up and down the middle-which
meant putting a new pair n place
OF them. Fifteen dollars was an
awful price to pay, even for dane
ipa wifi ,oll the best partners.
surrey fsn0urrT-TTy- fr1tucitf- 11ffdfe Han
that-else Felicia would know the
reason why. She began sedulously
to cultivate Mrs Lawrence, who
YVES as good as she was beautiful,
and guileless to the edge of imbe-
cility. Presently she was hearing
of course told regretfully-the
tale of Sandy's wiekedness. Did
Mrs. Lawrence feel it right to have
her husband subjected to such in.
fluenceS? Mrs Lawrence sighed
deeply, blushed and said vaguely
she trusted Elbridge as she did her
God. But next week Felicia danced
for joy--for Sandy's desk in the
bank had q new occupant-and
Also and further Mrs. Lawrence
had been more than kind-taking
Felicia in her car all about the
county, on her speaking tours,
Sandy wasn't mentioned.
So time, ambling withal, brought
another holiday imminent. Felicia
somehow felt that the feast would
mark Il climax in her affairs.
Banker Lawrence had said rather
pointedly that there needed to be
changes in county affairs. She had
never managed to get really ac'
quainted with him-but his wife's
Kindness more than made up for
that. OF course they might ask her
to the holiday dinner-Nlrs. Law
renee had spoken vaguely of a pos
sfble absence. But nothing was
settled--it was happy, hopeful
Felicia that breezed into the coun.
ty offices bright but not too early
the Monday morning of that week.
She found the mea there twitter
ing, the women gasping. The
friendlie5t of them fought with the
unfriendliest to tell the news.
Willard Lawrence, sole heir to the
banker, was fetching home a wife
and who should that wife be but
Sandy Semmes!
Luck Pure, blind, bull luck
Nothing else. Son Willard had a
scientific complex-a very robust
one-he had taxed his eyes till
blindness threatened just when
there was required the most diff
cult, the most accurate, the most
tedious calculation-for which his
father had chosen Sandy, sending
them away to seaside home
where, in a darkened room, young
Willard could listen to the results
Sandy read him. outside noted
mathematician checked them-and
found never a flaw. She had made
the tedious job labor of love-in
result she had won the love of her
employer. They had been married
a month--with full parental APP
prOval-of course she'd never go
back to the bank--but think of her
uueening 1t there at the Lawrence
house. Felicia waited to hear no
more. Instead she made haste to
n,l- tn