Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-20

n one that conformed nicely to the
~ conventionalities of the community
She was 20 and he 90 when they met
- at the home of mutual friend, be-
came engaged three months later and mar
ried that same Spring.
In the large industrial Eastern city where
Niles was already making his way they began
their married life q scale commensurate
with his income and at the end of the second
year were occupying small apartment in one
of the up-to-date apartment houses on one OF
HE exclusive streets in town.
They were happy, formative years of gather
ing friends and furnishings. An nveterate
shopper, Mary had the faculty of making a
dollar seem to stretch twice its usual resiency.
Their little four-room apartment, in Brad
ford Arms, address the young housewife
glorified in giving to trades and sales people.
was SO unusually caparisoned that magazine
called Interior and Exterior had sent
photographer to take pictures of the living and
bed rooms for inclusion in the publication.
Mary, and justly so, was proud OF her
achievement of this home. 1t had taste, dis
tinction and quality away and beyond any
thing an ordinary woman might have been able
to achieve on the budget Niles earnings al
lowed. Busy, constructive years went into
its making Niles took his pride in it, too.
It was pleasant to be able to invite client
into the really distinguished atmosphere of his
surroundings. The charming well bred Mary
In her smooth good-lookfng clothes, the pleas
ant lamp-lit living room of Sheraton, good old
prints, dim-toned rugs, books freight pewter,
grand piano with its invariable luster vase con-
tanning yellow roses, gave forth an odor OF
success that never failed to register instantly
Clever woman, Mary! Clever as the dickens
FROM that point on, the advancement of the
Niles Gregorys was consistent and always a
little ahead of itself. That is when Niles was
earning $4,000 a year they seemed to be liv-
ing at the rate of $50 900; when he was earning
$4,000 it was if his income must be at least
$4,000. And so on, due, of course, to Mary's
unceasing attention to every detail
AT the conclusion of the tenth year of their
marriage, when Niles was steering ahead to
greater and greater success in his work, their
country place, 80 miles from town. the
most pretentious and luxurious estate there
abouts. far more luxurious place, Mary took
pride in explaining, than Niles normally could
afford BY then a rich man, the scale of
the estate, nevertheless, the outfttings, the
garages the gardens the swimming pool. the
tennis courts would have been still outside the
reach of Niles, except for the superb power of
Mary to manage her financial expenditures and
keep them reduced to minimum for value
received.
She not only had the gift of taste and Sc
lection, but she had the indomtable energy for
Shopping. 1t might be said that the first 10
years of their married life was one exhaustive
mind you, that 1t was drudgery to Mary. On
the other hand, there was a concrete joy in
browsing about foreign and American Cities
and bouncing eagerly apon the bargain of a
bit of tapestry, rare old chair, a gem of a
highboy tucked in some obscure shop down
some side street. Even Niles, a less eager
shopper, was not ayerSe to being dragged
through the by-Streets of Florence Italy; of
Charleston, S. c., or Munich, Germany on a
quest for the proper bit of wood paneling
luster glass or wood carving. It was nothing
to give an entire forenoon to matching a par
tcularly good bit Of cretonne, or rushing from
shop to shop for just the right shade Of silk
for curtains color of bath room thing
All this made the busy years of growth seem
filled with the sense of creating the setting for
the kind of life they wished to live
As Marys friends put it, she worked like a
stage designer, bent on accomplishing the proper
dramatic setting for their background With
the country place called Wildmere she achieved
it. On the outskirts of town. adjoining the
most select country club in the State, repre-
Senting an actual outlay of several hundred
thousand dollars and giving the effect of having
cost much more the beautiful home of Mary
and Niles reared its turreted head.
1t gave you a sense of repoSe just to enter
these doors, to sink into its restful chairs and
divanS, to look out over its meticulous expanses
of garden and terrace to browse in its libraries
relax in its music room, stretch out in its
luxurious sleeping suites
The home was finished
WELL, for another year or two there was the
~ paStime, the excitement, and alwaB the
pleasure of bringing into this home the friends
and acquaintance who would exclaim ut It's
perfection and revel in its comfort 1t was