Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1931-12-04

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TT ONLY coming home had been
the warm relaxed experience It
Il should have been. Y I
There they all were. bless them.
In the boxy old red brick house In
which every member of that family
Of Ave children had first seen the
light Of day.
1t was house plastered over, time
and time again. with the most poig-
nant memories Of Emily Stofeld
Brandt's life. Her baby finger prints
were still on one Of the under layers
Of wall paper in what had once been
the nursery, and which now served
as guest room during family reunions
or visits Of the married children.
Emily had seen the light Of ado
lescence in this house, the happy
teens, the first eager twenties; love;
Coming back to 1t, after five-year-
period as the wife Of a young attache
to q Far East government, was the
reward Of q silent nostalgia she had
privately endured through every one
Of the long intervening months. Not
even her mother, with hair that had
gone even. whittier in the interval, and
who now sat In her accustomed place
at the head Of the table, her hand
in the familiar gesture of fitting the
teapot, had sensed to what extent
this girl had been lonely for her.
: In many ways, all except the fun
damental one, 1t was an ideal home
coming. There were all four Of her
brothers and sisters, with wives, hus-
bands, children, around that board,
and her father, even with his deaf
ness and increasing debilities, still
sitting with his handsome old author
ity at his place where the sIdeboard
mirror reflected him three times.
The only one missing Of all the lit
tie compact group was Robert bis
work as attachs did not permit a
visit from the Far East.
This was Emily's trip. alone, after
1--WE years. back to the sweet warm
scenes of her childhood.
This was Emily's trip-sllently, Sc
cretly, her trip. Not even Robert yet
knew the deep-rooted mission Of her
trip. She had come home to the bosom
Of her family to unburden that mis-
sion. Df
How good and staple and right and
normal and decent they were. Ellison
and his blond wife, Marie. Their
marriage had taken, all right. Re-
gardlng them across the table, they
seemed to Emily, so tired, like sleek
purring young cats. Even the high
handed, always difficult to manage
sister Hilda, had found her mate In
Hugh. Their banter, II nervous and
high, was quick, good natured; their
shafts of glanees seeming to dart
through intervening figures straight
for one another. The same with Mer-
Gina and Roy. The brood which came
home occasionally to roost at the pa
ternal board was a thriving one.
The brood had come home now 10
do honor to Emily. Ave years absent,
and the only one Of the children who
had as yet set foot on foreign land.
AUNT Emily, do Cinnamon eat dead
rats?"
How good to be among these, her
own! The prattllng children Of her
brothers and sisters; the warm I'M
Outstanding glances Of those with
whom she had grown up.
Daughter, tell MS about Roberts
work"
"Ah. father, Robert will go far.
These years are just his apprentice
ship He takes to diplomacy like a
fish to water"
swell, the family needs some one
to shed little glory Of distinction
on 1t. what say, fatherT t
This from Roy, at thirty-five a lum-
Der millionaire. and already known
for philanthropies.
Curious of his wife. Letta, sitting
beside him. with her hand touching
his, to utter that, "What, yes2"
But oh. how good to be home among
them. How 1t eased her heart and
at the same time, wrung 1t with the
tightness Of pain.
To have to enter a wedge here
To have to inject into this WELL
woven group the first strange allen
note Of disharmony. And yet the time
had come; irrevocably the time had
come. Five years Of warding 1t off
had been only evasion.
Thank God her mother would IN
derstand. No matter how difficult
the telling; no matter how bitter for
her to have to hear the woman there
in the lace cap, fitting the teapot
with gesture dear to Emily, would
understand.
Later, the rest Of them must know.
Father. whose high pride would suffer,
Merclna. who would seem unsympa-
thetic, but stand hercely by; Roy,
who might not comprehend, but would
rally with sense Of clan oh, II
was going to be hard to tell these
people. whose lives were on even keel.
And strangely II would be hardest
Of all to tell Robert. It seemed I'm.
possible. and vet was possible. that
In all the years he had not seemed
to suspect. At the ship. bidding her
farewell. tears hnu actually popped
into his self-eentered eyes.
"Come back sOOn ard we'll, dear"
he had wlIls,S q 20 her In a brief
'uon"m n"'hy iron me crowd.