The Washington times., 1931-05-04

Wf1CeSS.I
was drifting like a bit of land
disasSociating itself from the
mainland to become an island,
out into some high tide beyond
his reach. Jenny and Jennifer
and his boy Avery were on that
island. He was back helpleSSiy
on the mainland; and Jenny
mark you, mind you, no other
wise to it, was to blame. The
bitterness of that tore at him
constantly, like a flame pulling
itself off the candle.
Jennifer, for a time, while
she had been a little pupil at
Mary Institute. had been some
thing of an eager student, with
a hint Of her mothers old air
of desire to know. about her.
Rarick had said little. but her
school reportj had been a
source Of deep private pleasure
to him; and once he had car
ried about in his pocket an es-
say of hers, written on ruled
paper, called why We Love
Ruskin." He had filched it off
her desk and returned it there
a few evenings later when he
observed the child Scrambling
among her possessions for what
might have been the essay.
S ddenly that browniSh,
rather studious Jennifer of
those day; back in the solid
square house on MACPHERSON
Avenue had slipped from her
ittle-girlhood into q high
strung, mature-faced disclple
of her mothers ambitions for
her. The home in Westmore-
land Place. Finishing school in
Tarrytown.
The little brown jug of a
Jennifer Of the MACPHERSON
Avenue house was now the slip
of young miss (straight as a
paper-cutter. with the sophiSti-
Gated eyes that for the life of
him her father could never
catch and hold in a glance,
And now that brown child
back there, whitened because
her freckleS seemed to have
come off. this Jennifer whom he
was casting about, in his futile
way, to save, what was left of
her. for himself, must have her
fifteenth birthday in a housN on
Fifth Avenue that almost faced
the Metropolitan Museum.
To think that he, John Rar
lex, who had once dreamed
dreams no bigger than that
walking trip through the Pyre-
nees, should be in a position to
give her such a house.
Complex Appetites
Could his dreams for Avery,
the boy, slip between his fin
gers, too, as this mother of his
began to demand his rights for
him? Would Avery grow up
alien to a father who seemed to
have no shred Of youth left that
would enable him the better to
understand the youth in his
children?
From what was it he was
struggling to save them?
Success had done its share
to teach Rarick himself new
and complex appetiteS. He was
a philatelist Of elaborate and
expensive tastes. There was in
one Of the pockets of his,
waistcoat, which was hanging
over the foot Of the bed,
famous Ghostic gem, heliotrope,
engraved with the sacred name
"Abrasax." A museum in Bos-
ton had been bidder against
him for that gem.
There were in that same
pocket, result of those same
tastes acquired through his
growing wealth, an ominous
anC luminous opal, q tiny agate
ring with a runic inscription
of the late Saxon period, and q
transparent aquamarine cut en-
cabochon with the figure Of a
hump-bull. In his library, at
this period, were celebrated
"firStS" upon the shelves:
Tintoretto, a GreuZe, and a
triptych Of the Cimabue period
upon his walls.
Mother Is Supreme
What Jenny was demanding
for herself and her children
were the equivalents of the
runic gems. the celebrated firSts,
and the misty Greuzes.
His children, even the small
boy, Avery, approached him
only through the mother. The
mother herself approached him
as a diplomat goes to the con-
ference table, her points care
fully tabulated in the portfolio
of her mind.
A man, If he loved them,
could hold out only so long
against his children.
He swung himself to a sit
ting posture on the side Of the
bed. and reached for a robe TO
slip on over his nightShirt. He
was short, conference.-the,