Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-06-10
Pot-Cheese and Roses.

+" CGENIA HAY dropped a lump
- of butter into the bowl of
creamy curd, added salt and a
IL dash of paprika, and lastly
poured in all the cream off the
mornings milk. She tasted critically.
| 1t was good. very good.
With swift movements she nodded
| the pot-cheese into two balls. wrapped
one of them in paraffiin paper and
| laid it upon an oldfashioned blue
plate and threw a fringed dolly over
the whole.
| Il don't care if it is only pot-cheese.
to take it to her." she said to herself.
She took her shawl from the nail
| behind the kitchen door and threw
/ it over her little gray head. Then
quickly, lest her courage fail her, she
went out of the back door of her tiny.
old, gray house and across the street
to the back door of the big, new.
golden house whose many windows
caught the morning sunlight.
She knocked timidly and an elderly
woman in a large pinafore opened the
door.
Good morning" said Mrs. Mac
Vancs housekeeper. Come in"
Give brought Mrs. McVane a
little something" Eugenia said. She
saw on the kitchen table great heap
of rich pink roses which the house
keeper had evidently been arranging
for a beautiful cut1glass vase when
she was interrupted.
"Wouldn't you like to take it to her
yourself?" asked the kindly house
| keeper "She is sitting up this morn
ing. I'll show you the way upstairs,
and then all you will have to do Is
to knock at her door"
A sweet voice summoned Eugenia
to enter and the opening of the door
placed her in the presence Of her
neighbor.
Mrs. MacVane sat upon a chaise-
| Tongue with a bowl of Violets on the
| table beside her. A stack of books,
another stack of magazines. and a
portfolio of engravings showed what
had been done for her entertainment.
But she leaned back on her silk cush-
ions, very pale and languid, without
a spark of animation in her blue eyes.
ooh, it's Mrs. Hayr' she said family.
How do you do?" she seemed
mystiffed by her humble neighbours
appearance.
1.-THE housekeeper said I could bring
you what I'd brought for you"
Eugenia stammered.
All at once her offering seemed in
iescribably humble and trivial To
present pot-cheese to a woman who
was used to Parma violets and Ameri-
can Beauty roses, She wished she
had not come. What a fool she was.
Mrs MacVane would think it strange
that she, an almost complete stranger,
should dare offer her anything so
absurd as pot-cheese.
What is it," the invalid asked.
"Set it down here on the table, please.
And then take that chair. l am sure
you will find it comfortable"
II can't stay" Eugenia murmured
hastily. 1--we got to go right back"
The long, slim fingers lifted the
dolly, the blue eyes studied the paraf
fin wrapped ball curiously.
Eugenia shook with embarrassment.
Its only pot-cheese," she tried to
explain. II made it myself, it's warm
yeti wanted to bring you some
thing"
Mrs. Macvane smiled.
'It looks very nice. Thank you
very much"
She held out her hand. Eugenia
took it, looked into the blue eyes and
escaped. Yes! She felt that it was
escape. She did not breathe freely
until she was out of the house.
Back again in her own kitchen, she
sat down and choked over her
temerity.
"Old women do such ridiculous
things" she scolded herself. I'm
getting to be an old woman"
She sat thinking drearily when
Mrs. Croffert. her next-door neigh |