Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1931-08-21
BY FANNIE HURST
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A ARI0N HOWLAND'S board
MI ing house had grown under
Nv i her capable fingers from a
small, slx-room dwelling In an
obscure part of the city, to twenty
room old mansion that had once be-
longed to one of the prominent fam
lilies in the city. She was worker
Of the kind of indefatigabillty that
seems to be fed by the secret springs
of a mysterious vitality.
The boarders used laughingly to de-
clare that Marion Rowland had some
sort of sixth sense by which she
could detect that towels were lacking
in Mr.. Ayers room; washstand was
leaking In Miss Van Antrip's room;
the Gadsby yOungster was scufiing the
parlor woodwork or that the kitchen
plumbing had developed leak.
With all these earmarks of efficiency
for her work, Marion Rowland was far
from being the conventional landlady.
She was a goOd-looking, well-pre-
served woman, who showed little Of
the wear and tear Of her nineteen
years of widowhood. Many of her
boarders even Loyalty declared that
from the rear you could scarcely tell
her and her daughter Shirley apart.
That, of course, was exaggeration, and
Marion Rowland was the first to laugh
1t away as such. She laughed great
deal, and her laugh was infectious.
TInt. hao vi nj e.tp ,Ne
her goOd-humOr sounding through the
Railways Of the house, and as Shirley
herself declared, she found her mother
better all-around companion than the
majority of the younger people Of her
own set. And yet this "set" was the
pride of Marion Howland's life. 1t
represented the peak of her achieve
ment. 1t was the realization of one
of the brightest of her ideals. Shlr-
ley Howlands "set" was one that was
planes removed from the realm OF the
boarding house in which she had been
reared.
Marion Rowland had steadfastly set
out to keep her small daughters life
clear Of as much as possible Of the
environment into which stress of finan-
clal circumstance had forced her.
When the little Shirley was three
years old Marion was already begin
ming carefully to see to 1t that her so.
cial affiliations were made outside the
boarding house,
The social world into which Marion
had married, only to be widowed be-
fore she had had time to- place her
foot on the rung of social advance
ment, was the one thing she coveted
for her daughter Marion herself had
missed 1t, marrying from her role OF
saleslady into her brief period as wife
of Kenneth Rowland, well-knOwn So
cietyman-abOut-tOw
It was extraordinary that in all the
lean, even feroclous years of her strug-
gle as a widow, unexpectedly left pen
niless with child to rear, how Ma
riOn's congenltal good nature bios
somed and the bloomed Her struggle
in the none too cOngenial atmosphere
Of the boarding house had left her I'M
emblttered. At forty she was person
obiNT hllluttlNtt Hlu III
no uncertain manner, successful. Her
boarding house was known as first
class, conservative residence for first
class conservative people. Her daugh-
ter, eighteen and lovely, had accom-
plished the miracle her mother had
planned for her. Shirley moved In the
first social realms Of the city. Her
friends were the daughters Of the
towns weathest and most exclusive
and never once, In her bright career
as a society girl, was Shirley forced to
feel inability to cope, In clothes at
least, with the performances OF her
more prosperous girl friends.
Inevitably, Of course, there came
times when the pecullarlties OF her
environment embarrassed, but there,
fortunately again, Shirley was blessed
with some Of her mothers fine reslll-
ency Of spirit. She had audaclty
courage, and fine, but not over
emphasized pride that In many ways
helped her somewhat anomalous stu
alton. Shirley had her hearthurts all
right, her secret regrets that her home
background was not the home back
ground Of many OF her friends, but no
one was ever to know 1t, least OF all
her mother, who nevertheless sensed
It and sensed II deeply.
It was inevitable then, as Shirley
blossomed into adolescence, that from
time to time there should occur In the
boarding house Of shifting scenes and
shifting personalities, little situations
that were troublesome to Marion and
to Shirley alike. For instance, shock
ingly, Il was rumOred all over town,
that young Hammond johnson, an
architect who had occupied Marion
Howland's thlrd-noor front for over a
period Of three years, had drowned
himself Of despair over his hopeless
passion for the daughter Of his land
lady, who treated him I'm the snme
aloof manner she treated all Of her
mothers borders Calm, courteous,
polite.
There had also beer the rather Diff
cult situation Of Otis Greer, married
man who had boarded with his wife
in the Rowland house for at least FIVE
years, cOnfessing cxcltcdly one night,
while In his cups, 10 n dining room
filed with boarders, that he desired 10
divorce his wife and marry Shirley
Rowland,
DIR. r.. ERNEYHOUGH,