Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-25

II SUcpS Ot bLIc gray otOklC OollA at
i Kingsway as lightly as though the
day was just beginning.
"Good-by, Marjorie. 1 told Nina I'd
be home as fast as could have to
hurry
She smiled and gave Marjorie's arm E
careSsing little pat. She swung down
the street, slim and tall and buoyant in
her demure dark silk Office dress with
its broad organdy collar and cuffs. The
sun shone in her eyes, but 1t seemed to
her only warm and caresSing after the
thick-walled stone bank. Tommy had
told her yesterday that he eyes turned
notified topaz when the sun lighted
them like that.
Helen had been feeling this curious
tension of joy for week or SO now.
But it wasn't all being in love, because
she had been in love all Summer and
she hadn't felt like this. She walked
on past the business section of the town,
taking the bus about a mile to the part
of Kingsway where her cousin Ninas
house was.
It was a beautiful old house-dating
back, indeed, to the Colonies-and re-
built and restored by Nina Higginson
into a museum piece of perfection. The
turf was green velvet, from the reverent
care of 200 years. Somebody's ances-
tors-not Nina's-had felt passion for
seeing travellers pass, travellers having
been scarce enough to be pleasure In
Colonial Pennsylvania. Nina fretted q
little over the shallowness Of the stretch
of lawn. therefore, and had masked II
with thick hedge.
The green turf was very lovely, WITH
its golden overtones and the stiff beds
of old-fashioned flowers, sWeet-WllhamS
and johnny jump ups and love les
bleeding that had been there since be-
fore the old owners ancestors enter
tanned Washington. There were acres
of ground at the back and sides OF the
house. 1t was, indeed, nearly IL not
quite an estate. 1t had, indeed, once
been a very good farm. Nina, with the
admiration and cash OF the old husband
now no more, had handicapped it in
way which would have irritated the
other peoples ancestors very much. She
covered the excellent wheat lands with
arbors and such things. There were
trees, not where trees had been, but
where trees according to designs in
books ought to be. 1t was altogether
lovely if slightly stiff stage setting,
though it was unofficially more becom-
ing to tall, vivid Helen than to little,
quick moving Nina.
To the big. raw-boned, elderly woman
who emerged unceremoniously from be-
tween the slim white pillars as Helen
came up the walk the place was not al
all becoming. She was cook and work
ing housekeeper Her name was Tacy
Broomall. and she was back-country
PENNSYLVANIA from her enormous coil OF
dull brown hair, the kind which never
Trims or grays, to the round toes OF her
shiny black comfort" shoes. She was
entirely uncategorical and to certain
people her manner had more than a
touch Of the I'm as good as you be" OF
primitive America. But she cooked with
a French passion for creativeness and
intelligence which made her dinners
big social asset for Nina. SO Nina let
It 90 at that, being a very clever woman,
and passed off Tacy's more determined
gestures of equality with small humor-
Gus stories at which her guests shrieked.
Tacy was on neutrally good terms
with her mistress. But she gave Helen
more than neutrality; friendly Helen
who was always flying into the Kitchen
with magazines and scraps OF news, ana
praising her menus and asking her
about her cousins in Lower Dublin ana
Letter for you, Helen" she said. CIV
ing it to her. You're back early.
That's right. You go too hard, child"
"All right, Tacy, observe that 1 re-
cline in yon swing seat and relax COM
pletely while reading letter." Helen
smiled over her shoulder at Iacy'
You're a darling to worry ABOUT me.
It's from my little sister" e
Jessica, Helen's younger sisoer, nae
married casually at II, and 1t had never
occurred to her that her elder sister
shouldn't go on helping her when shc
needed it. This letter was an adorable
cry of thanks for the money to eaten
.Jessica and Lester up on the nstall-
ments ON the new bed room set They'd
bought in one of their accesses OF OPP
tinism when Lester had his last raise
Now, said JeSsica rapturouSly, she
wasn't going to have to ask Helen Tor
a cent forever and ever again, and she
was sending her the most beautiful red
coat with a fur collar and those stun
ming new deep cuffs, and all her love.
Helen's brow knitted little at this.
Because she'd been planning TO nave
her own good fur coat done over, and
now she couldn't.
oh. well. it was sweet Of Jessica. And
Helen read the letter again, smiling
over the love words in 1t. For Jesslca
meant them, every bit. She honestly
worshiped Helen, and love was much
more of a necessity to Helen than
clothes or anything else in the world.
She worked hard for them both. AT
the bank. where she was secretary 10
the president. In her cousins house
though charm had as much erect On
Nina Higgingson as on rock, ano
Nina liked Helen as much as she would
anyway. Among the girls and men OF
the town of Kingsway, on whom charm
did have an effect, and who followed
after Helen more than she knew. She
tried to be everything Mr.. Delamate1
liked in q secretary, except staid. She
6o
ity at the house, which were left over
from Tracy Broomal's capable rule.
ct suppose / ought to Scold her. But
she'd feel badly" said Helen, folding the
Letters She laughed little.
Her fathers people were Of sufficiently
good stock. But her mothers were bet
ter, If you happened to believe that
stock counted for anything in man or
beast.
Helen never forgot the day when her
too-galant, too-spendthrift father had
sold the down at-heel immense old
house his wife had brought him, pic
lures, sparse priceless furniture and all
and. of course put the money into
something wonderful that it, also, of
course, never came out Of Things al
ways happened to him like that
Her mother cried, off by herself; but
when passionately affectionate little
Helen found her sobbing in her bed
room, her mother had sat up and gone
to the dressing table and powdered her
face and rouged her cheeks and smiled
And she had gone down to where her
husband waited for her little shame.
faced and apologize, and made him
laugh over something.
She had laughed to the tired end,
that fashioned lady mother!
George Heather outlived his wife
some years. Helen never told anybody
that it was her mothers insurance,
painfully kept up through heaven
knows what economies, which saw first
her and then reluctant Jessica through
business school. She carried lax. lazy.
carressing Jessica, too, till Jessica had
tod k1ory