The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1931-10-23
HOW THE
|BEVERLY.GIRLS
| CARRIED ON
BY FANNIE HURST
"a by Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate.l
(WNU Service.l

90 by Mcclure Newspaper syndicatel
tWNU Service.l
TSHE exterior of the Beverly mall
sion was one of solid and st0lid
magnificence. It was a double
house. red brick, Georgian. with
q beautiful example Of fan-light over
the white doorway and a side garden
that was walled in by red brick over
grown with Ivy to about the height
Of q man.
The street on which stood the Bev-
erly mansion was also one Of rather
solid and stGlid magnifcence. old fam
lilies in old homes, whose children and
grandchildren, and in one or two in
stances, reat-grandchildren had been
born under the same roof.
: 1t was the sort Of street from which
the closed carriage and the pair Of
spanking bay horses had departed re-
luctantly, as it gave way to the auto
mobile. 1t was as if the double row
of locust trees which shaded it, had
attempted to form barricade, shield
A416 thC AOiCL 4tCAuG xkO1u tnC CL'
croaching glare and hurry Of the
growing city.
The Beverly sisters, Linda and
Wanda, had been born in the house
they occupied. They were an exam
pie Of great-grandchildre having been
born into the same house that had
been occupied by their forebearers.
1t was quiet, austere household now,
the entire lineage including the girls
parents, having died out. There were
only the two Of them now, pale-haired,
pale-eyed, rather pale-mannered girls,
with the slender wrists and ankles
that bespoke good stock, and the re-
pressed and careful bearings that be-
spoke good breeding.
There was portrait Of the two
girls, done fifteen years before when
they had been fourteen and fifteen,
seated on stone garden bench,
small lap dog between them. 1t had
been painted during the last year of
their parents lives and an effective
pair the girls presented 1t is true
that the bill for that painting still con-
tinued to come at regular intervals,
even during the fifth year following
the death of the paternal Beverly. But
then, SO many bills continued to ar
rive at all too close intervals.
What had happened was the not un-
usual predicament of the heirs to a
supposedly large fortune, finding that
their inheritance had been a myth.
Except for the elaborate home In
which they continued to dwell, by UNI
told scrimping and sacrifice, the Bev
erly girls were practically penniless.
1t was cruel fight to keep up appear
ances in that top-lofty looking man
sion. There were no servants, not
even a gardener. It was inevitable,
of course. that people should know
that the Beverly girls had not inherit
ed the large fortune that had been ex-
pected. But no one in town, and mi
raculously no one on that pretentious
street, knew to what extent these two
girls secretly struggled to keep up the
pretense Of even semi-affluence.
One by one, certain art objects Of
value had disappeared from the house
paintings, silver, worries and bronzes.
It was said in the neighborhood that
the peculiar thing about the Beverly
girls Was that although they went
about socially practically not at all,
they seemed to sleep the greater part
Of the day. That was true, but for
pathetic reason. 1t was after the
shades Of night had fallen, that Linda
and Wanda ventured to do the house
and garden work which there were no
other hands to carry on. Under COW
er Of darkness one could wash win
dows, scrub steps, scour the beauti-
full fan-light over the entrance, weed
and spade and dig in the garden.
The Beverly girls were workers. all
right; they beat rugs out of windows,
painted cornices, and even, one spring,
painted the entire length of pergolas
and trellises in the garden without
ever being detected in the act Of man.
nal labor.
The degree to which they were old
fashioned and pathetically snobbish,
never dawned upon these two girls.
They had been bred in an atmosphere
of artificial gentility. They knew no
other standards.
There was one annual ritual, how.
ever, which amounted almost to q leg
end, which the girls performed at any
sacrifice 1t usually meant long.
weary hours Of needlework, which
they secretly sold to the Woman's ex-
change, and the sacrifice Of more OBJ
jects Of value from the household, but
every spring, come what might, regu-
lar as clockwork. the girls added bit
TO their lovely grock garden. and
called in the services Of landscape
gardeners for the extension.
The Beverly rock garden was known
as the finest In the state. On those
rare occasions when the Beverly girls
had guests, they served them tea in
it, as their parents and grandparents
n