Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-11-11

~ JACK quack?" Shirley Til
Sbf lotSon. alias Duck, begged
her mother. Coo coo" Mrs.
~ TilSon, alias Dove, granted
y her daughter. When Duck
was a child. Dove had invented this
system by which either party to theil
kFgument could appeal to close it al
c3ce. 'Quack quack?" might be ig-
no-ed; but once Goo coo!' had beer
Uttered there was no appeal.
and then, "Oh, Dove" Shirley eX-
NlsAned, with interrogation in her voice
Sllirley, standing in the doorway OF
the little apartment, one hand on the
knco, paused as though the question
hah caught her in mid-fight.
Mrs. Tillotson, seated at her little
paiting table, might have been the
dove her daughter had chriStened her
She had nothing of Shirley's height
and although she must once have beer
beautiful, no trace of Shirleys kind OF
beauty.
How did you happen to go in for
flower painting, Dove?" Duck threw
ut her mother.
Mrs. Tillotson cast a look at her
daughter. This was another one of the
strange questions Duck was asking
nowadays, she reflected These QueS-
tons always opened unexpected vistaS
into the past or the future How much
In love Duck was And no wonder
Dan Edison. Inwardly Mrs Tillot-
son burst into happy laughter. Yet the
ISext instant her heart sank like a
Broken plummet. With the appearance
81 Dan Edison SO many of their plans
oven Little House-had vanished into
the limbo of unrealized dreams.
"Oh, had a variety Of reasons" she
answered After your fathers death !
found I must do something to take up
my mind, as people used to put it then.
I had to find peace somewhere Also ]
needed money"
What 1 meant, Dove" Shirley point
ed up her question, lis how did you
happen to do this particular kind of
painting?"
1T was rather odd the way it came
about" Dove went on. II had always
painted in an amateur way, but never
got real longing to work until l took
that trip with your father through the
Netherlands. The flower pieces of the
old Flemish masters in the Dutch gall
leries simply enchanted me. came
home and began to paint like mad
punches of flowers in vases. I never
shall forget my joy when I accom-
pliShed my first convincing dewdrop.
your fathers death real flowers were
too expensive"
oh" Duck interrupted, that's why
you took to copying the colored prints
in books
"Yes, and it was fortunate accident.
For. soon after We got here. Andy NC
Farland saw some of those copies, liked
them, and has b 2en ordering them ever
since. He saved me from having to get
a regular job"
DUCKS gray eyes turned away from
her mother. Presently she said,
when I'm an old maid or 10 or 80 or
90, and think back On my childhood
and girlhood, I suppose the thing shall
remember most yearly IS noSing about
with you, looking fer old botanies."
Dove turned her head in her daugh-
ter's direction Il don't think you'll be
an old maid. Duck" she said, smiling
family. THAT brings me to my last
motive in painting flowers. Peace of
mind first, money second. But, most OF
all, wanted to have resource against
loneliness when my daughter should
marry.
Il knew 1T" Duck interrupted with
tragic triumol.
All, she had walked straight into the
trap LUCK n3I idlQ IOF ueI. Love NcHl
on steadily. however. You see, all
my life, I've teen preparing myself for
the time when you should leave me. It S
a frightful business. Duck. this being
the mother of an only daughter
Its not half so frightful as being The
daughter of an only mother" Duck as
serted. "You get SO used to having her
about, especially When she's such a
sport. But don't you worry about los
ing me by matrimony, Dove. shall
never leave you"
"Oh, yes, you will" Dove made this
statement with conviction and she man
aged to be gay. "Of course. you will
That's the way life is. I certainly don't
intend to have an old maid daughter on
my hands. All the years you've been
growing up, I've kept that in mind"
Then how about the Little
House"
ooh, the Little Housed" Dove echoed
with a fine assumption of an amused
contempt THAT was only game We
r,aved. I invented it as sort Of
n1ake-believe for those first difficult
lonely years 1t took us through hare
period, and r7w the thing to do is tc
forget all about it"
Ducks lips closed firmly. Il sham