Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-06-02

Being an Unusual Ending
To a Usual Complication.

small room under the caves. In vain the mem
berS of the family protested, even signifying
that she owed it to them to renounce her
humble position. But on that Antoinette re-
manned obdurate. Her gray alpaca with the
sheer organdy touches continued to flash in
and out of the great rooms of the great house
over which her little daughter qualified to
reign as mistress.
There was something strangely tenacious in
the benign makeup of the girl Ella. Time after
time, in order to solve the curious situation of
this household, Antoinette importuned her SON.
in-law and daughter to let her leave in order to
ease the curious dilemma. And there Ella stood
obdurate. Painful, excoriating, even humiliating
as it was for her to reign mistress in the house
where her mother persisted in the role of SER
want Ella fatty refused to permit the older
woman to leave the Fresco roof.
No doubt about it, Antoinette doing her
daughter injustice by insisting that she
tain her humble role; no doubt about it, Ella
was doing her mother an injustice by refusing
to permit her the alternative of leaving the
house. And yet, the bond between these two
was so close Years of propinquity between
mother and daughter in the humble quarters
they had formerly occupied in that home of
magnificence had drawn them closely, ire
trievably together. The mere thought of sep
aration was mutually unbearable to them both.
The young Dick buoyantly, youthfully in love,
minimized the complication and accepted in
embarrassed good humor the role Of his mother
in-law trying to evade its more serious aspect
by treating her in playful manner.
"Antoinette, say, you haven't performed
your tasks we'll this morning" or, "Antoinette,
am afraid We will have to dispense with your
services as housekeeper if you insist upon such
familiar manner with Mrs. Fresco."
THESE little witticisms INDUCED in so good
hxyf SoF ELL E,aIv~
And yet, not all the Righteousness In the world
could save the situation from the curious mix
ture of pathos, irony and absurdity which char
acterized it.
Ella felt it. Dick felt it, Antoinette felt it,
Certainly the elder Fresco himself must have
felt it, although through all the period of these
attempts at adjustments he maintained his
jovial kind of aloofness, keeping well out Of
the controversy and exhibiting non-committal
air when called upon to pass judgment.
curious and anomalous situation, II ever
there was one.
It hurt the tender and pretty little Ella to
sit down at q table at which her own mother
was not present. 1t panied her young and stall
wart husband. 1t embarrassed Fresco.
For months after this marriage the social
world that had at one time poured into this
house stood off bewildered and dumfounded,
and yet there were going on in the financial
world rumorS that revealed the fact that Alex.
ander Fresco in the little time since the death
Of his wife had practically tTipled his many
millions.
There came time when, despite the cat
astrophic thing that had happened in that
home, the socially exclusive found 1t the better
part Of valor to call upon the new little Mrs.
Fresco jr.
Cards were left on the silver salvers in the
hallway that had been left here, OF and on,
for years and years, but now that they were
applied to little Ella 1t fairly took away the
breath of Antonette and her daughter.
The time had come for q strategic decision
to take place in that household. When the
social world had set its stamp Of approval
finally upon the new little wife Of Dick Fresco,
it was time to begin to prepare her for the COM
pick and difficult role that stretched ahead.
THEN something happened that again threw
out of focus every single precedent In the
home. At ten o'clock one Sunday morning,
standing in the superb drawing room Of his
home as abashed as a boy of II, Alexander
Fresco asked Antoinette to marry him.
At three o'clock that same afternoon by the
procedure of special license and special dis
pensation the event of their wedding took place
in that same beautiful drawing room, the sole
witnesses to the occasion being the servants Of
the household and Mr. and Mrs. Fresco, jr.
It was again a matter of months before q
stunned community was able to pull itself to-
gether and decide upon its next strategic move