Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1932-02-12
By Fannie Hurst

Theresa was a trial No getting
L away from that. And as she grew
older. the many aggravating little
facets to her personality grew. more
pronounced. fss---i = -.is-
She had been a dominating young
girl, she had been a dominating wife
and, not unnaturally. a dominating
mother. Not that her dominance had
ever actually unbalanced her thou
sand and one ingratlating traits. Like
all emphatic personalities. she was no
good at halfway measures. The
mother OF Theresa, all her life, had
been as high-handed as she was soft
hearted; as domineering as she was
merciful.
Her husband, whom she fretted,
even as she was later to fret her
daughter, declared all Of his married
life with her that she enervated him
with her excess of vitality, robbed
him of ambition by virtue Of the super
abundance of hers, wore him down,
tired him out, exhausted him. And yet,
with these legitimate grievances, he
adored her, as those who knew the
mother of Theresa could testify-glo-
ried in her dominance, complained bit
terly of her all his life, and died in her
arms. blessing her
With Theresa, her only child, every
one predicted total eclipse. There was
no withstanding the overshadowing
figure of her mother. The girl could
not be expected to develop person
atty of her own while her mother
ate for her, slept for her, thought for
her, and reached decisions for her.
And all that was true enough until
Theresa reached the age Of twenty,
when suddenly there developed in the
girl, who lived beneath the shadow Of
her parent like chick under the wing
of the hen, a slow, a cumulative,
rebellious kind of anger that gathered
within her like storm, but unlike
a storm did not burst but rolled up,
rather, into a great, portentous gloom.
Strange, but for some time the
mother of Theresa, too absorbed In her
career of living for her daughter, did
not realize the change. And therein
lay danger for the mother Of Theresa,
because slowly, oh so slowly and i'm
perceptibly, the girl was bucking her
will against the alleged iron one OF her
parent, and 1t was to trahsplre In the
end that the mother Of Theresa had
no iron will at all, but an extremely
malleable one, only awaiting the In
dlvidual with the purpose to over
throw 1t.
And so It was that gradually, bat
with unrelentless consistency, slowly,
surely. the daughter gained the upper
hand in the relationship of parent and
offspring, and within a twelve-month
after she was twenty the transposition
Of their positions was complete.
Almost imperceptibly robbed Of her
domination by daughter who would
no longer tolerate dictation, you could
see the mother whlten, weaken, age, as
she loosed her hold and gave way to
what time had shown to be the
stronger personality Of the two.
Not that there was an open issue.
Outwardly, the situation was prac-
tlcally the same. That Is, in the be-
ginning at least, the old respect and
obedience to the dictates Of the par
emf were there. But somehow, within
herself, and to her own secret lOath-
ing, the girl had turned against her
parent. The older woman "got on her
nerves." as the saying goes. She was
capable Of being short with her, curt
In her replies. even rude. And under
this treatment, the mother OF Theresa,
so astonishIngly vulnerable to domino
tion once you pierced her armor, be-
came tlmld. haunted creature.
little afraid Of her child.
Not but what the younger woman
fought off this power of hers when she
baheld II descending into her hands.
She wanted to be gentle with her moth
err and patient and all the things that
as faithful dotlng parent she knew
were deserved, but the terrible Impa-
thence and rancor were stronger than
her will.
"Have you noticed how badly
Theresa's daughter Is treating her
these days? What has come over the
girl! Why. she Is positively rude and
horrid to her. And what n change in
Theresa. She stands for IT,"
True. all true, but not quite so SIM
pie as II seemed on the surface Un-
derneath her sense Of triumph over
the old domlneering ways Of her moth.
er. the girl was waglng bitter struggle
to throw Off this tendency to feel an
DOyed at her mothers slightest re-
mark to resent her interest In her
affairs; to leave her many questions
unanswered and to give her the curt,
uncourteOus reply instead OF the con.
siderate one she would grant a mere
stranger.
It came to be almost madness
with her. It was practically lmpos-
slble for the. daughter Of Theresa to be
civil TO her mother. although she
would awaken from a troubled sleep
resolved TO atone In n thousand ways
for yesterdays rudeness; and then.
Just let her so much as make sim.
pie statement or evidence a natural in.
terest In her daughters affairs, aud
there she was, ready with the singing
retort or display Of ugly manner.
"Tf only Mother wouldn't be mech
about Il nll," she prayed to herself.
DR.. z. ERNEYHOUGH,