Evening star., 1933-10-22
Vacation for Mother
By Ahce d. Kelly
1t Meant, as 1t Usually Does, Doing
Things to Make Others Happy.
Illustrated by 4. e. Skrenda
Illustrated by 4. e. Skrenda.

job, personnel manager at Max & Maurices.
And then home to the apartment Quiet, and
alone 1t was all so right" The first thing
which had been hers in all her rs years.
Barbara slipped off her smartly tailored Office
frock, and got into ridiculously girlish pajamas.
She looked like child dressing up She
wouldn't look Is for another 10 years at least.
Just now her face puckered When 1t
puckered in the office, Miss Sims, her secretary,
few. When it puckered outside the Office men
who with her had been known to sink
50 low as to say things like:
Dust a tired ikle bttsy grille, isn't she?"
But when it puckered and she alone she
threw something She threw something now
Mother" she said.
Barbara reached for her purse and took out
CT it folded piece of gray-blue stationery.
Darling child, she re-read,
am longing to see you and as think
need a vacation dny,Udy tDds iconder-
ing if you could put me up and put up
uith me for fortnight, starting nert
Monday. haven't been in Ne,D York for
gears and do you realize, you naughty
child it's fourteen months since you're
been home?
Well, there was no way of getting out of it.
She couldn't write and tell her not come.
That was what was so awful about mother.
Sentimental irritating overwhelming in some
ways, but she caught at your heart strings in
some absurd manner you simply couldn't
really hurt her.
DARBARA knew. She had been the little,
dainty girl daddy and I longed for" for
years She hadn't been sent to boarding
school, when her whole adoescent soul cried
aloud for athletics and other girls. Surely you
don't want to leave mummy and daddy and
mir hon in tbe OF he
ear-drenched violet look in her mothers eyes
Barbara had given in and had hated herself.
Finally she had gotten away. There had
been boy and a girl love affair and mother
always lovingly, unselfshly, stupidity medding
had spoiled things-or Barbara believed she
had 1t had been silly enough, but Barbara
couldn't laugh at it yet. Just little too much
of the so nice of you to take my little girl
out"-"Not eating lobster, Barbara Have you
forgotten all those naughty tummy aches that
kept poor mummy up nights?' Come, bed
time now, grille" and Tony had drifted away
to be consoled by Marcia Littlefield who ruled
her parents with merciful but unf1inching rod
and whose home was, in consequence, the most
popular in Greenfield
On that occasion Barbara hadn't been i'm
pressed by Mrs. Evans tears. She had had
tears to shed herself BY lowering the baro-
metric pressure of the entire household for
days on end she had forced her parents to give
tory; but it had been victory. Barbara had
come to New York with introductons from her
father She had been taken on at Max &
Maurice's, the biggest and most exclusive en-
semble shop in town, with branches downtown,
uptown and all over the continent. She had
been promoted and promoted. Her employers
had long since forgotten that she looked like
one Of the loveliest and most useless dolls ever
made. They thought of her as an asset,
treasure, and just the kind of hard-boiled
business woman the firm needed.
And now this visit! She did love her mother,
and she would cheerfully have given up q
fortnight or more to taking her around.
But Maurice was coming back from France
and would be in New York just two weeks
before going West to inspect all the branches
to the Coast. Maurice was old Maurice
Dubois son and Max La Vernes nephew. He
was general manager for the firm although he
was under IS and he was Barbara knew, quite
the handsomest, the most wonderful, the dear
est person who ever lived.
All the American in him made him big; all
the French made him dark and magnetic and
charming What made him blind Barbara
didn't know. But it was a sad and unmistak-
able fact that he never once saw her. He was
courteous, he praised her ability and congratu-
lated her on her excellent management OF her
department. He politely asked her to dine once
and to lunch once. But that was ALL
ND then she saw him one night at the
~ Venezia with Joan Mcintyre, an appall-
ingly vigorous debutante. Joan was one of their
best customers, and on that night, she had
looked ravishing. Her party was being COL
legiate Barbara saw that Maurice was
thoroughly enjoying himself; a comic paper cap
askew his dark hair: being hit in the eye
with SerpentineS