Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-06-27
SUB ROSA
BY MIMI.
She Hates to Say mo"

"Oh, what beastly week end In store
for me-" Daphne groaned. miserabIy.
Why" inquired her brother Jerry,
unsympathetically
Lawsons. They're the most tiresome
people I've ever met in my life, and
they've asked me to come down and
spend three days with them. 1 wish
I'd never said Yes"
Why did you?" inquired Jerry, still
unsympathetically
"Oh, couldn't refuse. I just hadn't
the heart. I simply can't say No to
people. I'm too tender hearted"
Daphne studied herself in the mirror
with admiring self-pity.
But Jerry refused TO sympathi2e. He
knew his sister too well. He knew that
what the poor Lawsons made Daphne
suffer would be as nothing to the dose
she handed them In the end.
Daphne didn't like the Lawsons
They bored her to tears. But the weak
ness of her nature had never yet per-
mitted her an honest answer to an un-
welcome invitation.
However, the weakness of her nature
did permit her extreme rudeness to peo-
into doing something she didn't want
to do.
She went on the principle of never
disappointing anybody. Unwelcone
suitors. bids TO the wrong kind of
dances were always welcomed hypocrit-
ically by the popular and pretty d.
And she firmly believed that the kind
ness of her heart In accepting all invi-
tationS was to be commended.
She didn't realize that by accepting
an invitation she half-formed friend
ship. BY accepting another from the
same source she made that friendship
seem very real.
The disappointment she handed peo-
pie when they discovered that her
friendship was shallow, insineere
which would have followed simple re-
fusal for a week end.
Daphne had already spent two week
ends with the Lawsons, who adored her
beauty and natural charm.
On both occasions she had hurt their
feelings with her casual indifference,
but on both occasions they had forgiven
her, making little excuses for her to
themselves.
Now she was going again-more
against her will than ever--Simply be-
cause she didn't have the moral cour-
age to give them a definite mo" and
break off this one-sided friendship.
This time she would be trifie more
distant. a trifie less interested. Eventu-
ally the whole inharmonious tangle
would right itself. The LawSons would
come to realize that they we're not
Daphnes friends - had never been
This knowledge would hurt them q
thousand times more after they'd made
so much over her than her first re-
fusal could ever have done.
There Is no actual disappointment in
fiicted on comparative stranger when
one refuses his first invitation
But there Is cruel disappointment in
store for him II one is leading him into
a mistaken illusion OF friendship.
It isn't fair TO start something We
don't intend to finish.
II we accept invitations from people
whom we are not prepared to like, we
are wantonly laying UP unhappiness for
them.
The girl who Is brave enough and
honest enough to refuse offers of friend
ship from those she could never pos
sibiy like Is more Of a Christian than
the weak-minded little sister who hates
TO say No"
tCopyrlght, 1927
Mimi will be glad TO answer any inquiries
directed to this paper. provided stamped.
addressed envelope is inoioSed,