The Washington times., 1931-05-16


made into a talking picture by
Metro G Ol d WV n-Mayer with
Marion Davies in the leading
rOle.)
The great-grandfather Of Les
lie Edgerton had once been
governor of a Confederate
State. It had cost the grand
father of Leslie Edgerton one
million and a half dollars to
run on O. foredoomed ticket
for President of the United
States.
The father of Leslie Edger-
ton had married a Miss Henri
eta Crosby, of Crosby, Conn,
and had retrieved the million
and many more by Subse-
quently inheriting. by proxy of
this wife, the Crosby watch
factories.
The paths of the Crosbys
and the Raricks crossed occa-
Siona1ly, chiefly at Bailey'S
Beach, public charity func-
tionS, bridges, bazaarS, teas,
and occasionally in a purely
social way.
Jenny has ventured to in
clude the Crosbys in what had
been the largest dinner dance
Of the season, with which she
had magnificently set tn e
winter ball rolling the night
after the opening of the opera.
The Crosbys had regretted"
Jennifer had cried, with her
usual irrelevant QUESTIONABLE,
which she hurled, while smart
ing, at such situations, Where
do they get off? The Edgetons
don't set my hair on fire"
Be that as it may, when the
Edgertons regretted, one of the
high-water-mark hopes for their
dinner had tainted within Jen-
infer and her mother.
Leslie had sat opposite Jenni.
fer at a Hunt Club subscrip-
tion-luncheon two days later,
and made no reference either
to the occasion of the dinner.
dance itself, which had caused
talk because of its elaborate
ness, or to her regrets.
Very Exclusive
That had somehow ranked
in Jenifer more than the
original refusal. It was as if,
with a preciostiy that was
chisled thinly into her face and
lay along the delicate arch Of
her brows, Leslie had set about
wounding a wound.
A Rarick had never set foot
on Parmley, where the Edger-
tons kept open house all win
ter on their enormous estates
skirting Tarrytown.
Jennifer was about to set
foot there now. A small bizarre
looking foot, in a white-fur
sandal that was mounted on a
four.inch heel.
Parmley ran back into the
Pocantico Hills. The house
itself rose off a cleared emin-
ence in the heart. of four
hundred heavily wooded acres.
A terrace. tiled in bright blue,
shone around it like a lake.
Marble stairs. flanked with bal
uStrades and lions, led to the
blue-tiled terrace from lower
ones Of green turf.
The building itself was long
low one, Of enormous width, no
particular depth, and a white
ness to 1t as if a Mediterranean
sun were perpetually beating
down. Some wag had tagged it
Carnegie Library" because of
this low width and the pairs of
Carrara lions that crouched be-
side the four flights of marble =.
Staircases.
''White "Bete-NOire"
The Edgertons had decided
to have d sense of humor about
this 6S-room white elephant,
which five years previous had
been rushed to completion in
time for Leslie's birthday.
Henrietta Edgerton promptly
christened it her white bette
noire" and had the coping of
the superb swimming pool,
which was out of natural rock,
elaborately inlaid in black and
white symbolic beasts of two
heads and four tails.
The white crash of this house
into the finest stretch of forest
land within its radius from New
York was q sore point with
Tim Edgerton. It had cost easily
over q million and q half, and
there 1t stood, an affront to his