The Waterbury Democrat., 1933-06-26
CHAPTER xLvIrI


 Eissy Briggs mother stopped by af vernon's drug store to buy some bicarbonate of soda, She had eaten too much chicken salad at the wedding reception and besides she wanted to talk over the ex- eikement with somebody and she SO In. Mrs Briggs was wearing her new violet crepe de chine with a little knot of artificial roses pinned 10 her fox fur. She felt very ele. sant. much dressed up.
 Lovely wedding!" Miss Anstice was beaming. Lovely pair"
 The bridegroom is a very handsome man." Mrs Briggs con- trihuted. "I thought Monnie looked a bit fiyaway and wasn't that a real plain dress for her to choose? l can't imagine why she didn't wear . veil"
 Miss Anstice raised her lor- Enette she had learned to use in London and regarded her neigh bor coolly.
 '.Monnie looked perfectly beau tiful," she told Mrs Briggs, and that biscuit colored frock was in the best possible taste. Her hat was a French one"
 The tone alone should have squelched the irrepressible mother of Rissy but 1t failed to.
 Well, 1 thought it looked mighty funny, sitting on the side of her head so that you could see all her curls. An she didn't look like . grownup woman, as 1t seems to me bride should look. That hot an the dress, too, made her look like & little girl. Even though she's years older than my Rissy!" This last was delivered somewhat spitefully.
 Miss Anstice bowed, sweeping out of the store majestically and thus putting an end to the. con- versation. Baffled, Mrs Briggs gaxed after her. Poor woman, she had genuinely longed to talk over the details of the wedding but as usual she had said the wrong things. She sighed, feeling angry and frustrated. 1t was upsetting. any way you looked at 1t, to sec the O'Dares getting up in the world this way. Hadn't they al- ways been "as common as you UT me-" to quote Mrs Briggs favorite expression? And look at them now --Monnie marrying boy every body said was millionaire, Kay going (so the story rnn) east to college next fall. Bill and his mother taking an apartment in Cincinnati while he took an engi- neering course, with Mark trailing along to enjoy the advantages of a city school.
 It was all perfectly disgusting, Mrs Briggs told herself self righteously. For her part, she'd never encourage her daughter to marry for money. Who would have thought this Charles Eus- tace would turn out to be so grand? Nobody had known until Monnie's engagement was an. nounced back in the early spring, how ''well connected" he was. And an orphan, too. That made 1t oven more.-well, certain.
 Mrs Briggs took up her pack age and her handbag and started home. 1t was just like Rissy to fiounce off with those girls-her "crowd" she called them-leav- ing her mother to go on alone. But wasn't that Gertrude Hamp- stead just up ahead? She might ger few more details from Ger trnde who was intimate" with the family. Hadn't there been something between Gertrude and Bill O'Dare several years back?
 Well, see you were there, vlnegary tinge. Quite blow
 Gertrude looked really pretty in that blue outfit. Funny she had never thought of Gertrude before except as q plain girl.
 Tt was beautiful, wasn't 1t? They just left. waited and caught the bouquet" Gertrude ex- plained. Mrs Briggs observed for the first time the small nosegay of blush roses and pale sweet peas that Gertrude held.
 My. my. quite exciting! You'll be the next" Why couldn't Rissy have caught 1t? That would have been something to talk about.
 Gertrude smiled, looking tran. Quilly sure of herself.
 Well. we weren't going to an- Saounce 1t til. Bill comes back next spring but he said today we might as we'll" She held out her left hand, showing the mod est pearl ring.
 We'll. well. thought Mrs Briggs, marching off with a sour express sion. so that was the way of It! That yellow -haired hussy hadn't got Bill, after all. and she had Quarreled with her old friend, Edith O'Dare. about the story. It was all very disappointing. Rissy's beau of the moment was a clerk at one of the red-front stores on Main street and here Edith o'Dare's children were turning out