The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-01-06

today I just barely mentioned it
again.
"Of course, if you don't want me
to tell you anything at all, any
more, why, I won't. OF course"
I don't care If you tell me-" said
Ermintrude. "Only I do kind Of
think you've got this Earl awfully
on the brain. If I talked about
Peter every living minute of the day
and night you'd get sick of it. too,
I'll bet.
Il guess maybe / love Peter as
much as you love your old Earl, but
certainly haven't got him on the
brain"
"Peter!" said the outraged Mary
Frances. why, Ermintrude HILL
Are you still thinking about Peter
Morrison? Just because he asked
you to his birthday party the first
one, and wrote note to you the
next day, and gets red when he
meets you on the street?
That's different. That's entirely
different. That's just childish
that's all that is. Childish. You
don't know the first thing about
real, true, deep, passionate love such
as ours"
Startlingly Ermintrude replied,
ooh, don't know as you know so
much about love, either" and point
ed her chin out provocatively.
4
1T was Saturday morning. They
i we're walking to the store to do
some marketing for Ermintrude's
mother. Mary Frances stopped,
stood still. well, if 1 don't" she
demanded, who does?"
Older people, guess said Err
mintrude, and tried to mask icono-
clasm, fragrant, with insouicance.
Older people," Mary Frances,
shaken, flung it from her.
Come on. We got to hurry,
mother said. Mother said" contin-
ued Ermintrude. as if by chance, and
happening to be on the subject of
mother, anyway, that younger peo-
pie didn't.
Last night Mrs. Mattason had to
go over to town to see her daugher-
in-law to borrow a couple of covers
for her bridge tables this afternoon,
so we took her over in the new
car. And she was worrying about
her grandchildren. the twins, and
she said modern girls didn't regard
love right, or something.
Il don't remember just what she
said. I was riding in front with
daddy and not supposed to be
listening.
And mother said something and
Mrs. Mattason said they didn't
understand about real love, and
mother said she guessed they did
as much as the girls of her period
had, or even Mrs. Mattason's period.
And Mrs. Mattason said why, or
what did mother mean? And
mother said she was becoming more
and more convinced that people
had to have been married ten
years, at least, and had baby or
two, and maybe even lost one (she
was thinking about my little brother
Danny, I guess, before they even
began to suspect the meaning of
love, let alone understand it or know
the first thing about il"
ooh, WELL" Mary Frances simply
flicked that away with feathery
gesture and lifted shoulder and
turned-up nose. "Of course. if you
thirk your mother knows more
about love than noted poets like
Laurence Hope, and Mr.. Browning,
and Ella Wheeler Wilcox and every
body, there's just no use in talking
to you at ALL
"DOETS, noted or not" commended
Il Ermintrude, cant mean every
thing they write-they'd go cuckoo
if they did. They just write differ
ent ways, hoping to please different
people-or for some reason.
IT don't know why. But you don't
have to believe every word they
write, like it was in the Bible, do
you? Besides that I guess maybe
there are few people in the world
worth taking advice from besides
poets.
And if you could hear what my
mother, I guess, maybe, you might
think she was one of them"
Who said I never took advice
from anybody but poets?" Mary
Frances demanded. II think your
mother is an awfully nice lady, Err
mintrude. But I guess she wasn't
the toast of the south when she was
girl. Now, my grandmother"
Il know. You told me. My mo-
Their didn't live in the SOUTH"
We'll, RoSalie did. In South
Carolina. And 1 asked her just the
! other daY how people knew for sure