Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-08

NM dwelling in an obscure part Of
~ the city to 20-room old man.
sion that had once belonged to one of the
prominent families in the city. She was q
worker of the kind of indefatigability that
seems to be fed by the secret springs of a
mysterious vitality
The boarderS used laughingly to declare that
Marion Rowland had some sort of a sixth
sense by which she could detect that towels
were lacking in Mr.. Ayers room; waShStand
was leaking in Miss Van AntripS room; the
Gadsby youngster was scufing the parlor wood
work. that the kitchen plumbing had de-
veloped leak.
With all these earmarks of efficiency for her
work, Marion Rowland was far from being the
conventional landlady. She was a cookbook
ing well preserved woman, who showed little of
the wear and tear of her 10 years of widowhood.
Many of her boarders even loyalty declared
that from the rear you could scarcely tell her
and her daughter Shirley apart. That, of course,
was exaggeration, and Marion Rowland was the
first to laugh it away as such. She laughed
great deal, and her laugh was infectious Her
boarderS enjoyed these strains of her good
humor sounding through the Railways of the
house, and as Shirley herself declared, she found
her mother better all-around companion than
the majority of the younger people of her own
set. And yet this 'set" was the pride of Marion
Howland's life. 1t represented the peak of her
achievement 1t was the realization of one of
the brightest of her ideals Shirley Howlands
set" was one that was planes removed from the
realm of the boarding house in which she had
been reared.
MARION ROWLAND had steadfastly set out
to keep her small daughters life clear of
as much possible of the environment into
which stress of financial circumstance had
forced her. When the little Shirley was wears
old, Marion was already beginning carefully to
see to it that her social Affiliations were made
outside the boarding house
The social world into which Marion had mar
ried, only to be widowed before she had had
time to place her foot on the rung of social adj
vancement, was the one thing she coveted for
her daughter. Marion herself had missed it,
marrying from her role of saleslady into her
brief period as wife of Kenneth Rowland well
known society man-about- town
1t was extraordinary that in all the lean
even ferocious years of her struggle as widow
Unexpectedly left penniless with child to rear
how Marion's congenital good nature bloSsomed
and doomed. Her struggle in the none too
congenial atmosphere of the boarding house
had left her unembittered At 40 she was per-
sonable, indeed highly attractive, and in no
uncertain manner successful Her boarding
house was known a first-class conservative
residence for f1rst-claSS conservative people,
Her daughter, Is and lovely, had accomplished
the miracle her mother had planned for her.
Shirley moved in the first realms of the CITY,
Her friends were the daughters of the towns
WealthteSt and most exclusive, and never once
In her bright career as society girl, was Shirley
to feel inability TO COPE in clothes at least with
the performances of her more prosperous girl
friends
Inevitably, of course, there came times when
the peculiarities of her environment embar-
raSsed but there, fortunately again, Shirley
blessed with some of her mothers fine
reSiliency Of spirit. She had audacity, courage
and fine, but not overemphasi2ed pride that