The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-07-17
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Ry ELEANOR EARLY VIZ @ 1929 yNEA Jer"ee ne
? @ 1929 By NEk JerMee Ir>e.

L never knew before, she said, !
that YOU could tell an old maid by /
the way she shores. Now wouldn't |
you just know she was a spinster?
THEY took a taxi to the Y. w, |
u because Jack declared it |
mightn't look right to be arriving |
after midnight her first night. And |
when they reached there number |
Of girls we're on the steps, so that !
they had to say goodby most cir |
cumspectly. Molly was rather glad. |
She knew she would have cried If |
It was dark or the street was de- |
serted.
Tomorrow Jack would be on his !
way TO New York And it might !
be weeks and weeks before she saw
him again! She flung her arms I
about him.
Don't say goodby, sweetheart! |
Just good might
She kissed him swiftly. and ran |
I'D me stairs. He waited on the !
sidewalk until the door had closed |
behind her. She did not turn to |
wave. And he knew it was because
she was crying.
That night she wrote Jack, and /
mailed it, next morning. with q
special delivery stamp. 1t was in |
the Office in New York. waiting for
him when he reached there.
She also wrote her family, telling |
them at length of her perfectly !
marvellous opportunity" her desire !
to be independent and self-support- |
ing, and her determination to be !
happy through lf-expreSsion. She |
mentioned also her dreams of sue !
cess and frame II was q rather |
stiff letter, she was afraid, and she |
felt that she had not expressed |
herself very well. She sent it by
air mail, and hoped for the best.
A few days later she received a /
reply from her mother
Now, MollyS mother was a rather
old-fashioned woman. She had no
new tangled ideas about independ
ence nor gainful occupations for
women. Moreover, she was, at the
time, very lonely woman.
4 n
"nEAR daughter" she wrote
- Dad brought your letter
from the postoff1ce this noon when
he came home for dinner. It was
strange, the way it arrived just as
it did. I had spent the morning
preparing a paper to read at the
Wednesday Club We are having a
debate this week: Resolved, That
the Modern Girl Is Happier Than
Her Grandmother. had taken the
negative. And it so happened that
I had read recently an article in q
magazine by some we'll known Wom-
an writer. I forget her name at the
moment.
We'll. daughter, she said some
thing like this-'The point is, she
said, that there are grades in hap
piness, and that the inferior kind
based upon selfishness, competition
and publicity may make the mod
ern woman happier; but it Is not
so becoming to her, nor so beneh- |
Cial to others, as the frugal happi-
ness enjoyed by her grandmother
My dear daughter, your father
and I believed that YOU were en-
gagged to a fine young man whom |
We had hoped to meet this sum- !
mer. We had thought our little |
girl was coming home to US. and |
we had planned such lovely times /
TO have together. I had put your
name up, dear. for the Woman's |
Club, and your poor father has been |
planning to buy you q little car
However, I do not wish to empha-
size our own disappointment. But
what about your young man, Molly? |
Have you, for the sake of securing
more liberty. andSa Wisp or TWO of
indignant personal happiness, bro
ken your promise to him, as well
as sacrificed your loyalty 10 us?
My dear child. your poor aunt
Minnie would turn in her grave if
she could know what her money
has led you to. And a position on
q newspaper of all things! You
write of the 10y of living, and of
expression. Your aunt Minnie
certainly derived considerable salts
faction from living ali her days
without reproach. She was never
heard to worry about self-eXpres-
sion, which is a new disorder, She
believed that she expressed herself
very we'll.
she impaired dignity. 4 spir-
itual elegance which Younger Wom-
en- do not feel, being obsessed with
the fear of being enslaved and sup
pressed I have quoted that. Molly,
as best I car from the article by
the magazine writer, because it SO
exactly expresses what I would like
to say to you
Molly dropped the letter impa-
tient:v.
IF that isn't Just like mother"
she thought unreasonable.
Then a f1gure on the back page
caught her attention. 500" She
snatched the paper up hurriedly.
Her mother had written toward
the end of the letter. your father
and 1 have talked things over. and
have decided not to stand in your
way. After all, you have, I sup
pose, a right to pursue happiness
in your own fashion. Aunt Minnie's
estate will not be settled for some