Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1931-03-27
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THE
MISSES
MITTEN
50 50
BY Fannie Hurst
;s}:s}::s}:s 81
GO by Mcclure Newspaper syndicate.l

WC] ny haCSiuto NoW1PApot
"HE Misses Mitten kept one Of
those neighborhood not on
stores that are panacea for
housewives. There, at around
the-corner distance, were needles for
that emergency, tape, red-and-white
checked Bingham to fit a last-mlnute
determination to make kitchen cur
tains. rubber teething-rings, baby-rib-
bon and sewing-silks that matched.
Even In the heart of an enormous
city, with an elevated railroad bang
ing past Its door and the roar of traf-
nc on four sides, the notion store Of
the Misses Mitten had managed to be-
come a sort of neighborhood reno ~
vOus. People from the tall surround
ing apartment houses, little house
keepers, men whose business brought
them home at three O'Clock In the
afternoon, the youth of the block, had
formed the habit Of dropping in for a
few moments chat with the Misses
Mitten.
They were precisely what you would
suppose them to be from the nature Of
the calling and from the name itself.
Mitten. Neat-mouthed, neat-mlnded,
neat-bodled little persons who had
grown up in the neighborhood, who
had inherited the business from their
parents and whose faces were stamped
with starved kind Of virglnity.
Minna was forty and Bella was
forty-twO and, as Is almost inevitably
the case in such relationships, the
younger, although even slightly so,
had kept the fiuffier. MInna was like
a little kitten. She had q high, in
cessant little laugh like a small bell
ringing. Her pale hair had fuzzy ends
and she had the innocent ways of q
little girl-she was given to clapping
her hands in surprise or fitting her
head askance or poutlng prettily II
crossed.
Bella. who was heavier set and
whose brown hair did not frlz, had in
eyitably taken on a maternal attitude
toward this kitten sister. She babied
her. worried about droughts and diet
and her habit Of wearing too light
clothing in the winter. They were
sweet together and a nice example Of
sisters managing to live tremendously.
OF course-do not mistake it--there
was nothing particularly celebrating
about the lives they lived. Indeed,
there had been a time when such a
state of nervous depression had set
tied upon Minna, that Bella, sick with
dread, had feared for her sanity. The
routine. the dullness, the lack of So
cial opportunity and diversion had
done it. Bella herself. when much
younger. had passed through the same
troubled waters Their youth had
been a shut-up, starvellng youth,
without any Of the gayeties natural to
II.
Bella had fought through alone.
Mlnna had fought through to the un.
Outstanding mlnisterings of her older
sister
All that was past now The Misses
Mitten. Ostenslbly at least, had be-
guile ieSisHeu ~ the iuct thht there
Are gray moths and emperor moths In
the scheme Of things, and that their
role apparently was gray.
And just about this time, there came
into the life of Bella, the elder, a
good natured, good-humored, middle
aged bachelor. retired stock broker
who lived In the neighborhood and
who liked to while away idle moments
In the notion store. with what In
credullty these two sisters met the
situation is past the telling. Here was
something SO Unforeseen, SO outside the
pale or nope. so fantastic In Its pos
sibilities. that the Misses Mitten. be
tween the two OF them. could scarcely
scare up the realization to take II In.
Romance was leaning a shy. half
reluctant head into the narrow little
world Of the Mittens.
The kind Of life that had passed by
these two sisters with never a glance
In their direction was slowing as It
flowed by their stoop. Pa -t~
1t was nothing short OF breath-tak.
ing TO have the shop door pop open
and a florists boy. carrying a square
cOrsage box. or a long one with the
end cut out for still longer rose stems,
burst In with the words, "AiIss Bella
Mitteni' on his lips.
Flowers for a MIttenI
Then, too, the new excltemepts.
roroart ttoi,at, fth,ooA a.. s., A.,