The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1936-03-31
Chapter Four
FIRST MEAL

IRIS flung herself across the honey
i comb Counterpart. sick with
ashamedness. All her gayety and
bravery were gone. To tell things to
a man who would be living in the
house!
"The one thing 1 have." she half
sobbed. "Privacy!"
There wasn't much of that even
at the moment. Aunt Ella clicked
the door open. "Supper's ready,
darling" she said.
Iris sat up and brushed her hair.
Aunt Ella, what made you take
boarder?"
Miss Lanning looked surprised.
why. darling. 1t will more than
pay for the table,
"Fd rather not have thing to eat
than somebody round the house all
dayi"
You're wrong. my DEAR" said
Miss Ella mildly-her invariable re-
ply to Iris's protests.
Miss Ella was small and thin.
with untidily-coiled iron-gray hair
and intensely-bright restless dark
eyes. She was dressed in a neat un-
fashionable dark wool dress with
white apron to keep it clean.
As she stood, her eyes and hands
moved. restless; but spiritually she
was immovable. The god on her al
tar, to whom she sacrificed herself.
and everybody within reach. daily
and hourly. had been her brother
Lawrence, Iris's handsome gentle
oblivious father. When you have
lived under such regime all your
life you accept it. But Iris was be-
yond herself tonight.
"Supposing / am young" she
cried. still with fire. what has that
to do with a boarder's being a
nuisance?"
when you're older" said Aunt
Ella. still with kindness. you'll find
that one does what one must, not
what one wishes"
You're taking away the last
thing that made life worth living!"
Iris sat erect in the middle IF the
mended counterpart.
IRIS, what possesses you? Would
l. you take the money from your
fathers memorial for your selfish
pleasures? Don't you know that en-
downing one room in the town mu.
scum for his permanent exhibit will
take all we can save for two years?
I'm hurt and astonished at your self
ishness." said Aunt Ella.
Then she patted Iris's shoulder.
"If there's anything in my closet
you can use to make over for Kath-
crimes tea, dear, you must take ii"
Then she heard some domestic
noise and scuIried away.
Iris lay still. Aunt Elias attitude
did not seem strange to her; she
had always lived with it. Presently
she rose and dressed. There wasn't
much she could do: she put on an
old red frock, nearly as short and
shabby as the other, but setting off
her vividness of ivory and dusk and
rose more sharply than she knew.
She went reluctantly down to the
dining room. Her uncle and Morgan
were there before her.
The dining room had been a state
ly place; the moth-eaten deer heads.
the enormous engravings. the thick
faded carpet, an Empire museum
piece OF a sideboard, all said that.
So did the fish and game pictures of
a departed day, brightly dead in
their oval frames, and the portrait
of an unmistakable arrogant Ian.
ming in the robes of a Supreme
Court Judge of Madison's day.
The price of that picture, Morgan
unused flor he came of sound com.
mercial stock on one side). would
certainly run to new carpets and
wallpaper for the whole house. not
to speak of new clothes for the poor
kid. Well. everybody to their taste.
He hoped the food would be good.
IT was. Iris waited on the table.
i altering provocatively from a
flushed silence to flashes of gayety.
Morgan was little annoyed-girls.
even here! And her occasional looks
maj e him think she wasn't much
more pleased than he.
But the table-talk was delightful.
Miss Ella and her brother and niece
had apparently bought all possible
books that a small income allowed,
and got everything else from the IL
brary; Miss Ella was genuinely
musical and artistic: Mr.. Lanning