Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-25

v.
She saw that Adelaide never sent back
her plate, and so she did not dare to.
But she learned before long that
Adelaide had private vice Of her
own. At night, lying in her bed, she
would hear her door open Stealthily,
listen to the creak of the stairs as she
went down and follow her mentally to
the pantry. Adelaide ate in secret.
In the morning there was q rising
gong, followed in due time by prayers
in the library, the servants standing.
There would be a rustic, she and Ade-
laide and old Sarah knelt in front Of
their chairs, the servantS-who mad
no chairS-aS best they could, and
Sarah would read: "Since 1t is Of Thy
mercy that another day is added unto
Another day. Who wanted another
day?
There would be the odor Of bacon
and tea, the rather musty smell Of the
upholstered chair seat, the even mus
tier odor Of the old black garments
of the elderly women.
In Missiles eyes there was often the
look found in the eyes Of lost dogs and
orphan children. She was still grieving
for Stella, but 1t had become dull ache
for something loved and long since lost.
On Sundays she went to church with
them
Once In a blue moon there would be
a letter from Lambert. Her grand
mother would open 1t with shaking
hands, adjust her glasses, read it care
fully.
your father sends his love, Mar
celia"
Adelaide would watch, furtively. re-
sentfully.
shes sending him money" she said
to Missile on day.
MY father?"
eyes. She's made herself poor for
him. She's always doing 1t. I can 60
ragged, for all she cares"
There was a bond between Adelaide
and herself, the bond Of hatred fol-
Lambert.
She did what she was told, made her
self out of cambria the long-sleeved,
high-necked night-dreSSes which AIDE
laide cut out for her. She would sit
by a window sewing-the house was
Theoretically sealed against fresh air
and lift diSspirited eyes now and then
to the street. Sometimes she would
think she saw Harry Sloane going by
and she would color and 60 back to
her needle.
Ellen, of course, never came, but Mis-
sic guessed that Tommy was prosper
ing. The safety bicycle was sweeping
the country. Inns were being built out
side of town, the Wheeler's Retreat, the
Century Run, the Wheelman's Haven.
The drop frame for women had come
in; large, portly women in full heavy
skirts with baskets on their handle
bars cycled to market, to the stores
Society had taken to It, gave bicycling
picnics, made excursions. One or two
grave women had had bicycling skirts
made, an inch, two inches OF the
| ground!
One day an intrepid creature in such
skirt rode in to call on Sarah, lean
ing her bicycle against the sacred iron
deer. Sarah saw her from window
and declined to receive her.
There must be some one to uphold
the decencies," she said.
So Missile reached and passed her
seventeenth birthday. She was rather
lovely. Her long soft hair was drawn
loosely back to q knot at the nape of
her neck and her eyes were candid and
luminous, her mouth wistful In repose.
She had a wealth Of love in her; some
times it rose like q wave and she felt
she must hberate it. She would en-
barrass Adelaide by putting O young
arm about her heavy waist, contemplate
some advance to her grandmother and
then lose her courage. Also she was be-
coming woman.
One day the seamstress, Mrs. Boro-
day, fitting basque on her, said, with
foreign frankneSs:
Some day some man will find you
very beautiful"
Only she said "zome."
Mrs. Boroday was a Russian, wor-
ried-looking woman with Spectacles.
Her husband had been exiled to ST.
IBERIA as q nihilist and had escaped.
Now and then Missile saw him waiting
at the gate for his wife; an enormous
man with black beard. He had a
! terrible fascination for her, this man
who wanted to see the Gar of Russia
dead and who had plotted to that end
He would stand there whiting at a
stick as he waited. Then one day he
sent her spool box made of cigar boxes
neatly glued together to make drawers,
all of 1t highly vanished. She was
obliged to reassort her ideas Of him
after that.
It was through Mrs. Boroday that