The Coolidge examiner., 1932-06-10

nicely to the conventionalitie
of the community. She was twenty
and he was twenty-nine; they met
at the home of mutual friend, be-
came engaged three months later,
and married that same spring.
In the large industrial eastern
city where Niles was already max
Ing his way, they began their mar
ried life on a scale commensurate
with his income and at the end of
the second year were occupying a
small apartment in one of the up
to-date apartment houses on one of
the exclusive streets in town.
They were happy, formative years
of gathering friends and furnish
ings. An inveterate shopper, Mary
had the faculty of making a dollar
seem to stretch twice its usual resil-
iency. Their little four-room apart
ment, in Bradford Arms, an address
the young housewife glorified in CIV
ing to trades and sales people, was
so unusually caparisoned that a
magazine called Interior and Ex-
terror had sent a photographer to
take pictures of the living rooms
for inclusion in the publication.
Mary, and justly so, was proud
of her achievement of this home.
Busy, constructive years went into
its making. Niles took his pride In
1t too. 1t was pleasant to be able
to invite a client into the really dis
tinguished atmosphere of his sur
rOundings. The charming, well-bred
Mary, in her smooth good-looking
clothes, the pleasant lamplit living
room Of Sheriton, good old prints,
dim-toned rugs, books, freight, pew
ter, grand piano with its invariable
luster vase containing yellow roses,
gave forth an odor of success that
never failed to register instantly.
Clever woman, Maryl Clever as
the dickens.
From that point on, the advance
ment of the Niles Gregorys was con-
sistent and always a little ahead of
itself. That is, when Niles was
earning twenty thousand a year,
they seemed to be living at the rate
of thirty; when he was earning
thirty, it was as If his income must
be at least fifty. And so on, due,
Of course, to Mary's unceasing at
tention to every detail.
At the conclusion of the tenth
year of their marriage, while
Niles was steering ahead to greater
and greater success in his work,
their country place, thirty miles
from town, was the most preten-
tious and luxurious estate there
abouts. A far more luxurious place,
Mary took pride in explaining, than
Niles normally could afford.
She not only had the gift Of taste
and selection, but she had the in
domitable energy for shopping. 1t
might be said that the first ten
years of their married life was one
exhaustive shopping tour in Europe
and America. Not. mind you, that
1t was drudgery to Mary.
At the conclusion of the tenth
growth seem filed with the sense
of creating the setting for the kind
of life they wished to live.
AS Mary's friends put 1t, she
worked like stage designer, bent
on accomplishing the proper dra-
matte setting for their background.
With the country place called
Wildmere, she achieved 1t. On the
outskirts of town, adjoining the
most select country club in the
state, representing an actual out
lay of several hundred thousand dol
lars and giving the effect of hav-
ing cost much more, the beautiful
home of Mary and Niles rearer it's
turreted head.
1t gave you a sense Of reposa just
to enter these doors, to sink into
its restful chairs and divans, to
look out over its meticulous ex-
panses of garden and terrace, to
browse in it's libraries, relax in it's
music room, stretch out in it's lux
urious sleeping suites.
The home was finished.
Well, for another year or two,
there was the pastime, the excite
ment, and always the pleasure, of
bringing into this home the friends
and acquaintances who would ex-
claim at its perfection and revel in
it's comfort. 1t was a source of
perennial thrill to walk with them
through the beautiful avenue of
poplar trees. the geometric perfec-
tions of the sunken gardens.
Then one day, something seemed
to drop like a lead plummet to the
bottom of Mary's being. Now that
the house was finished, what next
What then? There were the usual
advertisements. Cards. Friends. The
aters. Travel. No children of her
own, but deep-seated interest in
a local child welfare charity TO
which she gave time and thought.
There were apparently as many in