The Ely miner., 1930-12-26

when they beneid her. new. mod
ernized. alert. youngish woman. Re
juvenated, trimmed down, intellectually
improved Even her manner was
crisp and new and quick.
Richard Brisbane, who had been
away two years. was TO come back
and find his mother more than fifteen
years younger, and younger in a way
that took lss breath. She was the
mother. all right the mother whom be
sdored and toward whom he had felt
9ualms in bringing home even so un-
deniably right bride as Veronica.
Marion Brisbane net her children
with q reserve, with a competency.
with charm. that was as diSarming
TO her daUghter-in-law as Il was 10
her son. Richard had not prepared
Veronica for this complete. self-suf5-
cient mother-in-law. She had ex-
pected different type Of woman, an
Older. less. trim, less self-confdent per-
son. Richard had failed in his descrip-
tion OF her.
The new regime, so carefully insti-
tuted in the heart of Marion Brisbane,
began She met her daughter-in-law
on equal ground The petty jealousy
that pricked e. her being, she kept
fastened down like q jack-in-the-box
her sons evening kiss. which was for
his wife frs1; little meetings of their
hands beneath the dinner table; the
covert, adoring glances that were ex-
changed in her presence. Neither by
word nor manner did Marion betray
heart hurt 10 Veronica They met
woman 10 woman. And once having
made her decision, glad 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 al
most boyish about her. Leyel-eyed
athletic and charmingly playful.
Gbere was DO nonsense about her
Marion Brisbane was glad OF her
trim 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 admiration OF
her improved appearance. with be-
wiidered and wistful eyes. the heart
of Marion Brisbane felt right with
in her
She was not the legendary mother
in-law.
and then this began TO happen, SC
slowly, so insidiously. that Maricn
Brisbane, herself. was The last 10 real
ize tiff ever she realized IL Grad
uaIly, sub1ly. the status OF the house
hold began 10 ascertain itself. Never
once did Marion Brisbane relax the
rigid conservation of her puzzled self.
Her daily massage. her daily hair
dress. ter routine manicure, were re-
ligious rites. II was the inner woman
who began 10 relax. Marion began
once more 10 be a mother. Some of
the old dominating attitude crepf out
in her manner toward her son. Once
or twice in the beginning. while she
was still conscious Of IL she found
herself 10 her horror. ut1ering an ad-
monition 10 her daughier-in-law.
Marion. who had so resolutely decided
never TO intrude her opinions or her
mandates into the lives OF these two
younger ones
Gradually, the inner Marion began
TO revert 10 type II was impossible
not to want 10 serve in a maternal
capacity. these two, who had so much
TO learn and who stood az the threshold
Of lifetime together.
Marion began TO baby Veronica, TO
serve her in a hundred undignifed
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. subtly,
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 legen-
Diary sSse. but behind the trim rig
ging of Marion Brisbane, an artificial
structure was beginning to collapse.
Richard saw ii happening, and smiled.
consciousness of the facts. She felf
| only secret sense of elation that her
first impressions Of her mother-in-law,
which had been chilling, rather terrify-
ing ones, were all wrong.
She was not the formidable, formal,
cold and trim modern woman she had
appeared In the beginning. Behind
that cold exterior Veronica was grad
ually beginning TO find the sort Of
woman she had dreamed Richards
mother would and must be- A terror
was beginning TO thaw at the heart of
Veronica, and new kind of sweet 10
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-