Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1931-08-14
FOUND A
MOTHER FOR
HIS BROOD

By FANNIE HURST

(69 by Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate.l
(WNU service.l
NTANLEY WICKERSHAM was
one of those widowers, youngish,
~ well-to-do, well set up, over whom
mothers with manageable
daughters, and the daughters them
selves sighed, in spite Of the fact that
Wickersham was the father Of four
children Zone Of them already begin
ming in his fathers buslness), the
others scarcely more than tots.
After the death of his wife, Wick
ersham broke up the beautiful home
they had occupied during the period
of happy marriage, and moved with
his orphaned family to large and
comfortable suite In a family hotel,
where he installed two governesses
and a maid to look after the two
little boys, aged seven and eight, and
a baby still crawling.
About once or twice a week, as
treat to his children, Wickersham dined
with his family down In the public
dining room. The youngsters loved
this, never seeming to tire Of the
sense of novelty afforded them by the
bright lights, music and gayety Of the
hotel restaurant. The eldest boy,
Jonathan, also took part In these oc-
casions. He was a sleek young fell
low, well set up, vigorous, just out of
college. The two men, father and son,
were presentable pair.
Sympathetic dowagers and mar
riageable daughters and widows, too,
looked with tender eyes upon the pic
ture Of this little family. The gray
haired, handsome and rather tired
faced father, his good looking twenty
year-old son, the three lovely children
and the governesses. A prosperous
type Of family, bereft Of the grace of a
woman at its head. There was some
thing ineffably pathetic about the lit
tie boys and the prattllng baby, to say
nothing of the eldest boy and the
handsome widower.
Wlckersham was meticulous par
ent, that is, he never lost sight Of the
fact that his children, each and every
one Of them, were entities unto them
selves, and as such, deserved his per-
sonal consideration. He was never too
tired, too harried, too harassed with
his large business interests, to listen
MS specifically and as interestedly to
the tribulatlons of his little girl, for
Instance, as he was to lend serious
attention to an important business
complication. The affairs Of his adult
son he needed with a careful cOnsld-
Grafton that was not so much father
and child, as man to man. The young
Jonathan did not hesitate to conflde
to his father his affairs OF the heart,
Of the soul, of the mind, and Of the
spirit. Wickersham the elder had sue
ceeded In establishing between him
self and his boy an Ideal camaraderle.
1t was this characteristic Of the lit
tie family which used to excite the in
terest and admiration of the occupants
of the family-hotel on those occasions
when the Wickershams dIned In a
group In the public dining room; the
little boys seeming quantity precoci-
OuHt tOilNtI sibB 81 OGElOuSiy Will tlltlT
father, who In turn listened, replied,
debated and discussed. Jonathan Wick
ersham had way Of talking to his
father, as II he were some one with
whom he was on amiable and rather
reserved terms There was absolutely
no family pickering; no undue in
tlmacies; no sharp reproofs.
Except for the fundamental fact
that 1t was family without a wife
and a mother at Its head, here was
aR Ideal brood.
II seemed strange, as the years
moved on, that man Of Wickershams
social and financial importance had
not remarked The dowagers wagged
among themselves over this fact and
the manageable daughters and the
manageable widows yearned II was
along about the time that the baby
was four years old. that Miss Felice
DAILY and her mother moved to the
hotel, and as fortune would have 1t,
occupied small table adjoining that
occupied by the Wlckershams.
An acquaintance was struck up In
much the fashion that hotel acquaInt-
ances occur, and II came about grad
ually that young Wlckersham and the
brunette and quite demurely lovely
Felice, began friendship.
There was nothing unusual In that
however. Young Jonathan was at that
period Of his life when his heart re-
His fickleness was standing joke
between him and his father. Girls had
come into his young life and girls had
gone out OF 1t again. More than once
he had poured forth what seemed to
him the pangs OF love affair which
was TO be the final and outstanding
one In his life, and more than once
had confessed to his father that the
flame had lllckered and died.
With Fellce II was different only 10
this extent. She was girl OF I'M
usual senstlyeness, combined with n
quiet beauty also that made her seem
creature under glass, as II were. She
was the sort OF girl who had been
educated In French convent and had
lived abroad with her mother for the
greater part Of her life. The American
"fapper" was new and astonishing
creature to her. She had none Of her
technique, none Of her characteristics.
Az Jonathan cOBBded TO his father,