The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-04-22
MARY, DELLA

With his first million, his wife
took up French, hired a Japanese
servant and insisted upon an
italian car. The blood was running
fairly blue again by now and it was
inevitable that the son and heir,
Robert Henley Calkman II should
go to Yale. But after four years
without a single varsity letter or
fraternity pin, and nothing to show
FOR his effort but diploma, he went
back home to look after his fathers
factory.
In time Robert the First passed
out of the picture and Robert the
Second, discerning the signs of the
buretors, exchanged his fathers
mansion for a simple colonial and
ordered his sensible wife to put the
Calkman genealogy in the furnace,
or at least in the attic.
The Calkmans, you observe, were
on firmer ground.
And then it came time to put
Robert Henley Calkman III in col
lege, and where else should he go but
to Yale, where his father had made
such a distinguished record, and
might yet increase his contribution
to the endowment fund by a mil
lion or so?
n
."DUT my darling you aren't
ID really asking me to marry
you?"
Robert didn't remember that he
had mentioned the subject, but he
had been headed in that general di-
rection and she saved him a great
deal of a poorly prepared speech.
Bright girl, Marjorie Always a
jump ahead.
"Of course, I am, Marge," he as
Sured her as he took her in his
arms. And why not, sweetheartP
I'm foolish about you, darling. I'm
mad about you"
He kissed her timidly. "You know
I'm crazy about you. I'm" He
must have dropped line here, be-
cause he couldn't recall a single
form of neuroSiS or insanity that he
hadn't exhausted.
But it didn't matter, for at this
point Marjorie Marabee caught his
flushed cheeks between her hands
and pressed her lips to his. "Oh,
Bob you really mean it it's
too W, derful darling +. .dar-
ling" She kissed him again and
again and closed the series with a
kiss that threatened to put our bet
ter known movie actresses to shame.
Robert the Third grew suddenly
Self-conSciOus. This was laying it
on a bit thick, what? He had been
audaciouS in considering a proposal
when they had only known each
other a few months, and this was
like the climax of a melodrama; it
lacked motivation. Moreover, it
seemed downright indecent not to
meet with a struggle.
And you're going to be my big
handsome husband and be nice to
Margie and never get up cross in
the morning and. e..
Robert heard her voice, was
vaguely conscious that Marjorie
gradually was insinuating herself
onto his lap.
The trouble was, he told himself,
that it was all too good to be true
Why shouldn't he be dazed when
the sweetest girl in the world had
promised to be his wife? Yes, why
shouldn't he?
LIE put his arms about her once
l. l. more and was about to re-
sumo where he had left off, the
place where he was to say some
thing about a little cottage on a
hillside, when he senSed that they
were not alone.
MY dee-yah children e. > Mrs.
Marabee, standing just within the
doorway. Squinted through an enor-
nous lorgnette in an effort to dis
solve the impossible object on the
couch before her. Must I doubt
my eyes or have been blind
these many months? Marjorie
my poor, dee-yah little Mar
jorie
Robert the Third found the stu
alton not at all to his liking. Par
ticularly since he could not rise to
his feet without precipitating the
clinging Marjorie 70 the floor. He
was very much the villain found out,
and there seemed to be nothing he
could do about it save break down
and plead for forgiveness.
Am 7 TO understand that this IS
quite the approved conduct among
young people in this amazing age,