Evening Star Newspaper, March 2, 1930, Page 95

THE SUNDAY STAR, \\',\SIIINGTO?X. D.WC’..V‘M/\RCU 2 1930. e e I S Silver and Gold—-ByMargery Land May Another Story of Aunt Martha and the Sage of Whipple Hill Finds a Practical Way to Settle the Dispute I'hat Comes at Least Once in the Life of Every Married Man and Woman. F you've ever been in Linsdale, you've heard of Aunt Martha—she whose cheeks are like peonies, and whos2 wis- dom is as toothsome as the flaky, gold- en pies which emerge from the kitchen her house on Whipple Hill. Ples and tarts and pastries were Aunt Mar- tha’s specialties. There was nothing, she said, like the pie business for giving you a chance to look in on people’s souls. And souls—or rather the curious way souls had of getting themselves into kinks—were Aunt Martha’s sideline, There was Jane Craig, for instance. Aunt Martha had always thought Jane a laughing, happy-hearted creature until the afternoon she went to her house to make and serve the refreshments for a three-table bridge. ‘The sun parlor, where the game was in progress, was a riot of sweet peas and roses, and the young matrons gathered there looked like bright- winged butterflies in their gay, Summer dress. “Pretty as tulips and as care-free as hum- ming birds,” Aunt Martha thought. But that was before the game, and the talk began in earnest and scraps of their conversa- tion floated to her ears. “Selfish! Selfish and lazy, that’s what all men are.” “Oh, they have the easy time of it! It's the woman’s job that’s never done, my dear.” “Easy! I'll say so. What with his luncheon clubs and conventions and silly parades I'm willing to bet that the average man doesn't do two hours’ work in a day.” ’ THUSonnndou.hwwesmtvereutm ' slightly shrill, the pretty, perfumed ladies continued their lament. As they shuffied and cut and dealt the cards they regaled one an- other with the glaring defects of, the Dicks and ‘Toms and Harrys to whom they had sworn to cleave for better or for worse. And from what Aunt Martha could gather as she went in and out with the sandwiches and mints, there wasn't any better about it. From their com- plaints it would appear that to none of these lissome, fresh-skinned wives had the matri- monial grab bag yielded anything but an an- noyance. When the party was over and she and Jane had gone into'the living room for a chat, Aunt “I declare, I used to wonder why there was S0 many divorces. But after hearing you young folks talk it's the marriages I wonder at,” she said. Into Jane’s vivid, heart-shaped face there flashed a petulant expression. “Well, if women had the snap men have, things would be different,” she said tartly. “I never go downtown that I don’t see hordes of them, standing on the street corners and laugh- ing at each other’s jokes. As Dora Parsons said this afternoon, what with their parades and speeches and silly monkey caps, the average man——" She stopped as Bob Craig— tall, blond and keen-eyed—came swinging in through the hall, After bending to receive Jane's lukewarm, unenthusiastic kiss, he said: “Gee, Aunt Martha, I'm glad to see you! Stay to supper, won't you? I've had the bots all day, and for a man who is running in low gear I don’t know a better pick-me-up than you are.” Into Aunt Martha's eyes—blue as gentians against the soft white of her hair—there came a fond expression. Bob Craig was one of the boys for whom she had baked cookies and gingerbread in their marble-shooting days. “Low gear? That don't sound so good com- ing from you. I always think of you as ridin’ on top of the wave.” Lighiing a cigarette, Craig flung himseif down in a chair. “Oh, well, T am! Usually. But I've had a disappointment. The realtors’ convention meets in Monroe tomorrow and I was counting on being there. But Miss Higgs, who looks after my office, is down with a spell of acute indigestion and I'm afraid I can’t get away.” Jane sat bolt upright. In a tone of bitter triumph she exclaimed: “There, Aunt Martha, what did I tell you? This is Bob's second trip since Christmas, but the children and I haven’t been anywhere in a year." Bob flashed her a look of open hostility. “Why not tell the whole truth, Jane?” he said coldly. “You know very well that I was named as delegate to both of these conven- tions with all expenses paid. Whereas the :_mmcr you and the kids spent in Colora- “Hasn't been paid for yet,” she finished wearily. . “IL seems to me I've heard that one before.” With a smothered ejaculation, Bob sprang #o his feet. - “Yes,” he answered, in a voice dripping with “Yes,” he answered in voice dripping with sarcasm. . . sarcasm, “and all this talk about the delight- fully easy time men have isn’t so new to me, either. You needn’t worry, however. I can't go to Monroe. But I would if Miss Higgs were on the job,” "ie said defiantly. ALL during the heated exchange Aunt Mar- tha had looked on placidly, her serene blue eyes going from one mutinous young face to the other. “Well, well,” she said, taking advantage of a momentary pause in the hostilities, “I think you ought to go, Bob. I really do. It's a shame Miss Higgs is sick, but since you’ll only be gone for a day or so I don't see why you can’t leave the managin’ of your office to Jane.” “To Jane?” Bob's tone was ironical. “I'd just as soon leave it to Junior. After all, my work isn’t exactly the child’'s play Jane thinks it is, you know. She’d be as helpless as a 2-year-old baby.” Jane’s cheeks flamed scarlet. “Oh, is that s0? Well, I've just as much sense as you have, Bob Craig. You seem to forget that I used to work in an office.” He made a swift, deprecatory gesture. “For three months the Summer before we were married, and in your father’s office, too. Don’'t make me laugh.” In the brief pause which followed—a pause in which Jane was visibly at work on a crush- ing retort—Aunt Martha caught Bob’s eye in a look that commanded. “You silly young things—fussin’ over noth- in’. Jane’s as bright as new paint, Bob. Of course she can handle your office. Do her good, too, to get away from housekeeping for a bit. The children can stay with me, and if anything turns up that she doesn’'t under- stand, she can always phone Miss Higgs, remember.” But this was exactly what Jane determined not to do. Her pride was up in arms. This was her chance to prove that her ability equaled his own, and she intended to avail herself of it. “A business that gives a man as much leisure as Bob’s can't be so overwhelming. And, anyway, all I have to do is to attend to the immediate details. The rest can wait until he gets home,” she was thinking the next morning as she opened the office.doors and installed herself in the chair behind Miss Higgs' desk. Nor were the immediate details—as she called them—Ilong in thrusting themselves to the fore. Hardly had she taken her seat when the phore at her elbow rang with an insistent clamor. “Cralg Realty Company?” said an irate fe- male voice. “Well, this is Mrs. Dudley at the Plaza Apartments speaking. My hot-water tank is leaking again. And I tell you I'm get- ting sick of it. I want a plumber, and I want him right away.” In soothing, dulcet tones—which would have been impossible to Miss Higgs, whose voice was rather nasal—Jane assured her that the plumber would be out at once. But it took 15 minutes of dialing to find one who would promise immediate attention to the job. In the meanwhile, a bald-headed, rotund man, who looked over his spectacles, had entered the office and was waiting for her to get through, “I'm Towery from the board of health. I was in here last week to see Mr. Craig about cutting some weeds on those vacant lots of his on Queens street. The folks who live next door are complaining about the mosquitoes. Seems the lady’s got hay fever and is afraid of the golden rod. It's been put off a long time. I'd thank you to attend to it today.” It was on the tip of Jane’s tongue to tell him that the matter would have to wait until Bob's return to the city. Bat her injured pride re- strained her. The yardman who came to Her place one day a week could be pressed into serv- L e fl'uf' 2 A so new to me.” ice. He lived in an outlying section on Stoner Hill and Jane told the rubicund Towery that she would, look him up when she went to lunch. HARDLY had Towery departed when the phone rang again. This time it was the note teller at the Citizens Bank. The payments on a morigage note which Bob owned were overdue and the insurance company had just rung in to say that the policy covering the house had expired and had not been renewed. “Thank you. I'll see to it at once,” Jane On Jane's brow was the groove of con- centration which she had so often noted on Bob’s. promised glibly, but this, she found, was not 80 easy to do. The delinquent Gibsons, who owed Bob the note, did not have a phone. And It was only by much persistent and exasperating use of that instrument herself that Jane finally learned the name of the corner grocery store which was next to the Gibsons’ house and over whose phone they could, at times, be reached. For interminable minutes Jane sat with the receiver glued to her ear. When Mrs. Gibson —surly and suspicious—finally answered, it was with a short, guarded “Well?” which was followed by a minimum of information. In fact, all that Jane succeeded in obtain was the grudging promise that she would tell her husband about the matter when he came home. With a sense of frustration, Jane hung up the receiver. On her brow, as she receipted bills, jotted down messages and answered the numerous inquiries of clients who came in and out of the office in an apparently endiess stream, there was the groove of concentration and annoyance which she had so often noted on Bob's. “Thank heavens!” she thought when she heard the noon whistles blow, and then she re- membered that her lunch hour was already committed to the search for a yardman on Stoner Hill. Had this search been immediately successful, she wouldn't have minded the dusty ruts over which she bumped her car, nor the fact that the sun was streamitg down in = 4 merciless glare.* ' VIR & HANOwW W Jerry, the yardnan, ‘wad" ot to B¢ 'tound. ‘1t was half-past one before Jane could discover v . 8 Rid « “And all this talk about the delightfully easy time men have ien’t a stalwart to take his place. his sickle on the running board of her car, sped him over to Queens street and left decapitate the offending weeds. By the time she was downtown again it two. She was faint for want of food, but Bob had told her that the office was never closed for more than an hour at noom, dared not stop to get the cheese sandwich and malted milk for which she was famishing. She was dusty, too, and tired, and could just feel her nose shining. “Oh, well, as soon as I wash my face I'll feel ,” she assured herself, but even this was denied her. As she inserted the key in office door, a man came shambling out of shadows of the hall. “I rents one of Mista Bob's shacks, Miss. kinda looks aftah’ em foah him. And they’'s boy lives next door what’s behind in his rent and is plannin’ on movin’ out this evenin’.” Too exhausted to care about preserving the fine pride with which she had undertaken her job in the morning, Jane telephoned Miss Higgs. Crisply, competently, she was told to go to the City Hall, look up the city marshal and get a writ of provisional seizure by means of which the decamping rentor could be kept from mov- ing his things. “Mr. Craig has had his eye on that man. We don’t want him to get away. Better go at once,” Miss Higgs advised her, Jane went. From the Slattery Building, where Bob had his office, to the City Hall, where the marshal had his, was six long, scorching blocks. As she trudged them Jane found herself saying méntal- ly: “Poor Bob. Only, of course, he doesn't have this sort of nuisance to put up with every day.” I'r was while she was walting for the marshal to fill out the writ that Jane developed the faint headache which increased in violence dur- ing the ride to the house to make the service. “Lots of trouble—rent property. I often tell Mr. Craig that X wouldn’t put up with his grief for all the money in the world.” Fighting against a sense of dizziness, she “Oh, does he have much of it?” “Does he! He handles more rent property than any other agent in Linsdale. Don't see how he stands it. If I had his load to carry T'd go nutty,” the garrulous official said and, durm:thempmttothequflermdhek,h regaled her with accounts of the various mis~ sions of seisure upon which he and Bob had embarked. “Poor old boy. I don't see how he endures lt."unemthinkfimnlhelcdnenmedfln office when the telephone rang with an insist- ent clangor that jarred her already throbbing nerves, With rising irapatience, she snatched it up. A voice, several times more irate at four tham it had been at nine, assailed her. “Craig Realty Co.? Well, this is Mrs. Dud- ley again, and I just want to tell you that the way you handle these apartments is an out- rage. I called you the first thing this morn ing about that plumber and he hasn't beem out here yet.” “I'm sorry, madam,” Jane said. “He prome. lnedxl:eonhe’d See to you at once.” - 't believe a word of it. If you'd phoned him he'd certainly have been out here by this time. I've.a good mind to move out of this . mnt right away,” the outraged T. tenan$ .. Unschooled in the tyranny of renters, Jnne'!-;' temper broke its 3 i ’