The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1938-07-01
Bv Zen Rmes wILLInms

| humor for the day. She had always
administered praise to him like a
medicine, skillfully. 4
The house was old, Of brick, four
square, with French roof, the
slopes broken by gables that adj
mitted light to the servants quar-
tiers and storage rooms on the up
per floor. 1t had been built by Ar
thurs grandfather, in what was
at that time open country; but now
it was crowded among others, most
of them of later period, and re-
tanned only narrow area of lawn
and garden, with room for a tennis
court beside the garage in the rear.
A sluggish stream meandered be-
hind the garage at an angle across
the rear of the lot; and there was a
pergola of brick and stone behind
the tennis court, built by Arthur's
father, on the bank above the water
where ducks came to feed. Rhode
dendrons ten or twelve feet high
screened the house from the street
in front, and there were hedges
along the lot line on either side. Out
side, the house was as it had been
built, save for the English ivy which
cloaked the walls; but inside there
were changes. Arthur's mother,
when she was mistress here, had
torn out walls, intalled bathrooms,
dressing-rooms, closets; redecorat-
ed again and again.
Mary was at the table when Mr..
and Mrs. Sentry entered the dining
room; rose punctiliously to greet
them. She was tall, lovely girl,
her cheeks little followed so that
her cheekbones and the line of her
jaw showed firmly; and her eyes
were apt to be grave, even when
she smiled. She wore this morning
a suit of blue-gray homespun, and
her father, seeing this, commented:
'Looks as though you're dressed
for business"
She nodded. "Yes," she agreed.
'I'm going to the hospital" She
spent part of every day there as a
volunteer, tending convalescent pa
tents, learning something of nurs-
ing and medicine in the process.
The hospital was Mrs. Sentry's pet
charity; but Neil Ray, rather than
her mother, was responsible for the
fact that Mary's interests were thus
directed. Neil was studying medi-
cine, planning to follow his father
as medical missionary in China;
and he wanted Mary to marry him.
81 told him." she confessed to
her mother the night he proposed to
her, "that I was no kind of wife for
any kind of missionary" Yet she
had thereafter plunged into this
work, as though thus she might de-
serve him. That was months ago.
Mrs. Sentry had spoken her mind
to Mary, with the franlness upon
which she prided herself. "Ridicu-
lous!" she said. "To 60 way off to
China! And preposterous for him to
let you humble YOURSELF You've lost
your head over this young man."
But the only result of her advice
had been to awaken in Mary de-
fensive and antagonistic attitude,
make her increasingly critical to-
ward them all. Thus she said to
Mr.. Sentry now:
"And speaking of hospitals, you
look as though you ought to be in
one, father. Been burning the cam
die at both ends?"
"Had a bad night" he explained.
"Lay awake, fighting to get to sleep,
for hours"
"You don't look sleepy" Mary
commented, in dry, professional
tone. "You look as though-well,
as though your nerves were all
shot" She smiled. Probably Iv-
erish," she suggested. "Stick out
your tongue!"
Mrs. Sentry said in a dry tone,
MARY, I'm beginning to object to
this clinical atmosphere in the
home"
"You find so many Objectionable
things about me lately, motheri"
ITO BE CONTINUED