Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-26
THE
| Mcckcr
Girls
By
Fannie
Hurst

III out of the language there was
something about the i've unmarried
.@% Meeker sisters that did suggest
them. .,..uu ~,
The Meeker girls were so apologeticaaiy I'M
married Each and every one of them met you
~, the sunnosition that you questioned her
standing.
The old homestead, inherited from their
narents. was filled with writings among them
selves and to their friends, when they called,
OF opportunities that might have BEEN
II IiIv had cared to accept Tom White!
It was known, among the Meeker girls, tkat
In 1899, during two weeks trip to the
Adirondacks. Edith had three times refused
young Canadian trader from Quebec VINO nao
kince become coal baron
Meta. long and affectionately indicted by
her sisters as the hirt of the family, hao
fturned down" right and left.
After the battle of vimy Ridge Ella confessed
b Q secret fiapce who had fallen
Teena the youngest, although non-committal,
nave you the feeling that life had not passed
her By. Besides, it was fact that Nicholas
lang. a widower of standing in the town, was
calling on her.
livery girl at one time or another in her
- life has a chance to marry, the Meeker
RHis were forever protesting, perhaps 700
loudly Thank goodness not one OF us has ever
felt the need to marry Just for the sake Of being
married Naturally we've had chances. Not
that it's the sort of thing We discuss
strangely this defense mechanism was not
one which the girls employed solely with the
friends outside the home, who as time went
On began to refer to them collectively as "the
Meeker Girls" 1t was something they practiced
AssiduoUsly among themselves, keeping their
Rpirits agog on the buoyancy Of . self-induced
heate Of mind z2'-s
.sMeta it's an outrage the way you treat
men! After all, no one expects you TO feel
called upon to marry every one who asks you,
hut surely you might let one or two OF them
can ut the house"
eff were TO let every man call who drops
into the ofice to ask me we'd have the neigh
bors all talking Just because happen to be
o stenographer in law ONCE doesn't give them
the right to presume, and they might as well
know IT,"
with Lily, now, it was different. After all, the
affair with Tom White was one TO leave It's
imprint across lifetime. The world thought
Tom white had died Of influenza following the
World War. The Meeker sisters knew better.
Tom White, just as surely as IL they had seen
te disintegrate, had taken to his bed OF a broken
heart after Lily had spoken her sorrowful re-
fusal. 1t was somehow fitting that Lily should
continue to keep her heart locked in its tower.
a.. Ella, too, for that matter. Poor Ella,
whose secret garden had been blasted in full
bloom.
And so it went among themselves. And life
ID the Meeker homestead, II It appeared mo-
nctonous to the beholder, was far from that to
the girls.
There was Meta. Evening after evening
around the pleasant sitting room fire Lily
seated as usual, Turkish fashion on the sofa;
MIA stitching away at handiwork, the girls
would listen TO Meta.
On, but she was a naughty. darling heartless
bisinerI No wonder even with her equal share
in the comfortable little estate shared by the
sisters, Meta had decided to venture out into
the business world. She was just the type to
make contacts, or rather, as the girls giggled
AmOng themselves. to avoid them.
THE way Meta handled the dificuit situation
OF the men about her th the ONCE was
mAsterfulI Naturally they svarmed about her.
Even at 80, there was q sparrow prettiness TO
Meta, but lots Of good 1t did the me@ Evening
after evening, filled with drUlleries, merciless
On her high handedness and, oh, so comical in
her word-pictures Of the luckicss creatures who
W0oed her. Meta recited her days.
- ~And he comes into the oElce where am
s1tting pretending to be bent over my type
Nxieer and says: Miss Meta-"
you don't let him call yoa Meta. do you,