Evening star., 1929-06-30

were exchanged in her presence. Neither ny
word nor manner did Marion betray heart hurt
to Veronica They met woman TO woman.
And once having made her decision glau
kind of satisfaction over the wisdom OF de-
termination spread itself over the heart OF
Marion Brisbane.
Veronica although American born, had the
cool. proud quality of the Britisher. There
was something almost boyish about her. Level
eyed athletic and charmingly playful. There
was no nonsense about her. She was the sort
of woman before whom it would be difhcult TO
weep.
MARION BRISBANE was glad Of her trim
AvA figure and her trim manner and the air
of camaraderie with which she was able to
meet the stranger and If her son sometimes
regarded her, in spite of all his spoken admira-
ton Of her improved appearance, with be-
wildered and wistfal eyes. the heart of Marion
Brisbane felt right within her.
She was not the legendary mother-in-law.
And then this began TO happen, so slowly.
so insidiously that Marion Brisbane, herself.
was the last to realize it-f ever she realized
it. Gradually, subtly, the status of the house
hold began to ascertain itself. Never once did
Marion Brisbane relax the rigid conservation
of her physical self, Her daily massage, her
daily hairdress, her routine manicure, were
religious rites. It was the inner woman who
be mother. Some Of the old dominating
attitude crept out in her manner toward her
son. Once or twice in the beginning. while
she was still conscious Of 1t, she found herself,
to her horror, uttering an admonition to her
daughter-in-law Marion. who had 80 YesO-
lutely decided never to intrude her opinions
or her mandates into the lives of these two
younger ones.
Gradually the inner Marion began to revert
to type 1t was impossible not to want to serve
in q maternal capacity these two who haC SO
much to learn and, who stood the threshold
of q lifetime together.
Marion began to baby Veronica, 10 serve her
in q hundred undignihed ways. to meet her
no longer as woman to woman, but as mother
to child. And with the change in Marion there
came the change in Veronica. Again. snbtly,
the attitude of Veronica became that of the
younger woman.
There was a mother-in-law in the home.
Not in the comic or the legendary sense but
behind the trim rigging of Marion Brisbane
an artificial structure was beginning TO coll
lapse. Richard saw 1t happening and smiled
Veronica saw it happening and had no con-
sciousness of the facts. She felt only a secret
sense of elation that her frst impressions Of
her mother-in-law, which had been chilling,
rather terrifying ones. were all wrong.
She was not the formidable formal cold and
trim modern woman she had appeared III the :
beginning. Behind that cold exterior Veronica
was gradually beginning to find the sort Of
woman she had dreamed Richards mother
would and must be- terror was beginning
to thaw at the heart of Veronica and new
kind Of sweetness to flow in.
The mother of Richard was the kind of
woman she had dreamed she would be.
And the mother of Richard, without realizing
that the artificial structure that she had
created behind the mask of her face was
tottering, turned out permanently to be the
kind of mother that Veronica had dreamed the
mother of Richard must be-
tCopyrieh. l9eo9 ssN5