Evening star., 1926-03-28

Marcy and Hilton went abroad for
their honeymoon and came home
to find their house progressing rapid
ly, but II would be necessary to spend
about three months with Mime. Tray
QUAR-, and the girl was a little ap-
! paled by that. The old lady was an
appalling person; she was tall and
gaunt and austere. with singularly ex-
preSsionlesS eyes and a hard voice.
She walked with a cane. and this
added to the impression of severity.
Marcy always felt subdued in her pres
ence, although her mother-in-law was
punctilliously courteous and affable.
! The wives of the other Trayquairs
were cordial and kind to her and made
her one of them at once--Mrs. Bruce,
who was a silent, sanity eyed girl
whom the name of Faith exactly
suited: Sylvia, Derwent's wife, who
was very beautiful and had a mutinous
mouth; Grace. married less than a
year to Lionel, who was very much
the sort of girl Mrs. Gray must have
been; and Helena--Mrs. Laurence
who was suave and polite with some
thing just little sly in her gaze.
II was Helena who paid the most at
tention to the newcomer in the family
and tried TO smooth the path for her.
"Oh. Marcy" she warned her. over
hearing an invitation, you mustn't
ever promise to go TO the DemmingS.
Hilton can't stand them"
But why?" Marcy was wide-eyed
and wondering. II think they're
charming people, clever and worth
while and"
"Of course" said Helena, impatient
ly. $50 do l, and so does everybody,
but that's not the point. They bore
Hilton; they bore all the boys. and
they simply can't stand being bored"
Marcy looked grave. But if you
like them, and like them, and we'd
enjoy being with them?"
Helena laughed. You'll get over
that" she said. I'VE all did. When
you're in Trayquair you do as the
Trayquairs do, or else there's a sicken-
ing row."
Marcy didn't like Helena nearly as
we'll as she did the rest and she re,
fused to shape her matrimonial course
along the same lines. The conse-
quence was that Hilton flew into one
of his shattering RACES and, to make
1t a thousand times worse. in the
presence of the assembled families.
She didn't want Helena's whispered
sympathy; she was white and shaken,
bitter and bruised inside, but she
wasn't going to discuss Hiltons short
comings with anybody in the world
but Hilton. After they went upstairs
she waited for his contrition. but II
did not come. He rehearsed his rage
again, covering any points which he
might have missed before, and then.
suddenly, like the sun coming out
from under a cloud, he smiled, caught
her in his arms, kissed her forg.vingly,
and said: IAN right! Well say no
more about it. The subject is closed,
and now that you know how I feel
about it, it need never happen again"
Margie brushed her hair 240 strokes
that night instead of 100. She had
never asked herself whether it was easy
for her to forgive. because in her short
life she had never had occasion to do
any forgiving. She asked herself now,
and she asked herself often in the
weeks which followed, while the new
house passed from the plastering to
the papering stage and she priced rugs
and chose electric light fixtures. Once
she told herself with twist Of the
mouth which wasn't at all like her,
After all, what's the use of worry
ing about whether I forgive him or
not? He always forgives himself"'
That came presently to be the hard
est thing to bear, the free and lavish
fashion in which her husband and his
brothers and his cousin forgave and
forgot when they had flown into
laundering RACES. Never mind" Hell
ena was always whispering, he'll get
right over it!''
But shan't get right over it," said
Marcy, shaken out of her resolve to
discuss the matter with her least liked
sister-in-law.
'Oh, yes you WILL or you'll learn
to pretend to-" said Mrs. Laurence.
That was Helen-suave, polite; the
coverer-up, the explainer, the. evader.
Marcy had them pigeon-holed before
long; the sly Helena; the craven little
Grace; Faith, the martyr; and Sylvia,
the rebel, hard and reckless. Sylvia
had no children, Helena had two, and
Faith was to have her first baby in
two months.
X X
THE tennis champion, who had been
wiping up the courts with oppo-
nents in another State, came home and