Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-01-30

r.
full wife could make fine, strappin
chiel CHAP out O. him.
yearning tenderness toward him
the passion of a brood hen, stirred
in her breast. She wanted to en-
veIop him in her care; already he
seemed to belong to her. Feeling the
need to emphasize this to herself by
| speaking of him, she whispered to
Mary Macrimraon:
What think We o the new tailor?'
When Mary answered. Hes uEco
chilpet 0hin) and hung-y-like about
he jaw-bones," she answered tartly
He's no. hog-fat. For myself,
like man on the thin side"
WHEN the organist began the pre-
W lude to the first hymn Jean
took a deep breath.
Now he would see. Now he would
take notice. She charged the first
note with a vociferation that made
Mary Macrimmon drop her hymn
book. Never had her voice been so
loud. Never had she felt more cxul-
tant in it's power. He would he look
til the end of the verse when she
could show him the length of her
breath. That would make him take
stock and wonder. That was where
breath could show to advantage.
AS she reached the last phrase, she
filled her lungs. Now he would see.
This would be the best that she had
ever done.
Her voice rose powerfully above the
others. They were falling away. AS
the last note was reached, Jean )
voice took hold of the ragged edges
of sound and knit them up. Soon she
/ ha ci oil
But what was this? A voice full
and strong was keeping pace with
her. He was still singing. Was he
trying to compete with her? It
couldn't be. She glanced across at
him, her face red with the strain of
holding the note. Yes! He was viii
fully trying to outsing her. In his
| eyes was the insolent look of a duel
list who is sure of victory. Outraged,
Jean lost her hold upon the note, and
James Macdonald MacGregor's voice
doomed out in triumphant solo for two
| beats more.
! Affronted! Affronted she was and
shamed before the whole oongrega-
ton! Shamed and affronted in Ter
/ own kirk And by this; this wnipper-
snapper. Made mock of and be-
meaned by a half-starved bantam
cock, with a tile on his brainless head.
| jeans heart was fit to fly out of
it's cage, so angry was she. He would
come here, would he? Come here
and set up opposition to her father.
| Horning his nose in on a man that
| had worked in Drumorty all his life.
But that wasn't enough. lie must
| dare to outsing her, that had led the
| singing for years. He must make a
| byword of her that had defended him
/ against her own father. Oh, but she
was well punished that she hadn't
| hated him from the first, the swag-
gering dandyprat, the fribble popin-
| jay, all dressed up like a tattie-
| doolie, In that moment, she hated
/ him as only a heart that might have
! loved can hate.
| 1t had been bitter Sunday morn
| ing; and bitter, bitter walk back
from the kirk, with whisperings and
| laughter all about her, and handkieS
| held up to hide wide grins of amuse-
ment. 1t had been hard to bear with
Mistress MacKenty when she said.
with ill-disguised glee: ''Weel, weel.
| he's goin' t. lead the singin' as well
as the tailorin'.
| * * \; x
| pUT there has been comfort in see
A. ing the pleasure it gave old Penney
| to hear her fay the new tailor. So
/ delighted was he with her nickname
| for his rival that he pressed her to
! take the neck of the boiled fowl, a
delicacy which he only relinquished in
moments of great emotion. For Per-
ney was troubled with his heart, deep
| ly troubled and anxious, and he dare
| not speak of it. He had a secret which
| he believed was shared by no one.
| 1t was this: He didn't know how the
collar of a coat should be cut! For,
although he had been fully 35 when
| his father had died and left him the
| tailoring business, he had never up to
| that moment either cut or fitted a
collar. 1t had been the elder Mac
Farlane's belief that his son was by
nature bound to ruin any piece of
cloth into which he put pair Of
shears.
| In time he begrudgingly, and with
| loud-Voiced distrust, allowed Penney to
cut and fit trousers, and at a pinch,
when his eyes began to trouble him,
| he would let him work. on a portion
Of a coat. But never to his last day
would he let him touch a collar.
So Penney inherited the business
with a perfect knowledge of trousers,
a partial knowledge of waistcoats, and
a. complete ignorance of collars. For
so Jealous was old MacFarlane of this
knowledge that he had always retired
| behind a screen for the cutting and
| fitting of this mystic portion of the
garment.
| On the first day he was alone, Per
new had embarked on a series OF ex
periments. From then on, every suit
he cut was a hazard. This much he
suspected about collars: Something
had TO be cut on the crosswise, and
something had to be stretched. But
which had to be stretched, which had
to be cut crosswise, he never was able
to find out. Sometimes he did 1t one
way, and sometimes the other, but
little satisfaction resulted. When
occasionally, the miracle happened
and he would produce collar that
did neither stick out at the back like
a spout, nor shy away from the neck
in a coy semicircle, he had always
forgotten how he had cut that par
ticular collar, and, try as he would, ne
couldn't duplicate it.
Penney had never told this to a soul
not even his wife; nay, least of all, his
wife. But sometimes he wondered un
easily if she knew. There was some
thing too impassioned in the way she
defended him when a customer com
planned that the collar didn't fit. L
; looked like something more thar
chance that brought her hurryinf
down the stairs just in the nick O
time, and there was something more
than affability in her voice when sh'
exclaimed to the customer upon hel
! entrance: MY certies. but that JACKIE
brings out the breadth o. yer shout
2 ders.'
If. in the face of her evident ad
! miration, the customer still murmuret
] that the collar didn't set to his neck
/. she replied: Think we the collar
human? How would it know wher'
yer neck is? Haze patience and wea
3 it awhile. and come time. it will grow
/ to the set o. yer body" If he still
: complained, she would deride hin