The Wilmington morning star., 1947-05-21
T.: ~. H!::!AyE831E352, . K F!!;;E
nnbAS King hav"s 0HNI HDDOii

ard Page, after a little nod from
Mrs. Arden, took the seat at his
other side.
They we're all here around his
mothers table 10 share Bills trl-
umph. But, like Bill, they aid not
speak of it as such. Mr.. Winston
and Oliver Matthewson asked Bill
a few technical questions about
thu trial and then turned their
conversation 10 other matters,
Bills father sank into his usual
quiet. his mother gave her atten-
ton to the rather awkward SER
vices of the colored woman, Bella,
, Mrs Winston and Allithea Mat
thewson began talking of gardens.
But what they did not say pro-
claimed loudly that his winning
the case was no more than they
had expected. The effect of this
on Diane was to make her feel a
rank outsider. She could not
claim the right to such eXpecta-
ton: theirs went back to years
before she had known Bill, even
to those successful attorneys and
jurists in past generations Of Ar
dens. "A family of good lawyers"
The mellowed wood Of The old
table around which they sat, the
old-fashioned candelabra cleaning
in its center, the highboy against
one wall, the very walls belonged
to those generations. Diane saw in
contrast the garish hotel suites
which had been home to her, in
creasing in elegance as her father
prospered, Not always offering the
security a home should give. She
remembered a hurried packing in
one place, her father storming.
They we're being-ejected. Wasn't
that the word? The management
wouldn't wait for her father to
put over some deal. 1t had hap
pened when she was too young to
feel humiliation, and now, N the
stranee mood Of her, she recalled
it with a little savage relish. Her
father had put the deal over!
Within a week they we're estab-
gished lu%xuriously in another hotel,
in another city.
On the wall opposite her hung
a portrait of Bill's grandfather.
Diane found herself staring at it,
thinking: 81 suppose the best Dad
has of his father is a tlntype! It
he has any,"
She suddenly observed that the
high forehead, flat temples AID
straight nose we're like Bills.
Looking from the portrait to Bills
father. she was a little startled to
see that he. too, had these same
features. Perhaps they were hand
ed down. along with the hi3nboys
ard the old portraits, and the legal
minds.
While she had-what? She could
not remember her father ever
speaking of his father. She knew
no more of her own mother than
that she had lived as a girl in a
remote mining camp. j. Emmett,
prospecting, had met her there,
fallen in love with her, and taken
her away with him.
DANES brooding eyes went over
the women at this table, seeing
each secure in a pattern which
had been woven a long time ago
What of understanding could one
of them give her mothers lot, or
the hard experience that had made
Paula what she was? o. ker IA
Their? Or her?
She was reused from her strange
train of thought by Mr.. Winston,
next to her. He was back on the
tr1S. Il hope, after this. that this
radical element growing here in
the city will not be so quick to
Jump on men of position! l think
Staples should sue the Post for
those libellous columns it has been
printing!"
Oliver Matthewson shook his
head. ''Staples can afford to ignore
them"
Rufus editorial. Diane looked
quickly at Page, expecting Page
to defend them. But a faint deep
ening of the color of her cheeks,
a haste to ansWer something Ali.
thea Matthewson had said to her,
were the only signs Pag CAV of
having heard her father.
"Rufus should be here, with
Page!" Diane thought, holly. He
wasn't, because Page was afraid
to tell her parents and these others
what she had told her at the
pool.
II he were here, he would be an
outsider, like herself. PROBABLY
she smiled-he'd answer Mr.. Win
ston by saying he still believed
Martin Staples guilty. Throw it