The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, November 25, 1915, Page 13

Copyright, 1~uy, ™ “You are entirely mistaken as to the plans that Jane and Aunt Augusta have for the league they are forming this morning, Uncle Peter.” 1 began to say with delight as to what was likely to ensue. “If you would only listen to Jane while she”— “Don’t want to hear a word she has to say! All ‘as the crackling of thorns under a pot’—all the talk of fools.” “But surely you are not afraid to Xisten to her, Uncle Peter,” I dared to ¥y and then stood away. “Afraid? Afraid? Never was afraid ,ot anybody in my life, Augusta not ex- cepted!” he exclaimed as he rose in his fwrath. “The men of this town will {show the uprising hussies what we {think of ’em and put ’em back to the lheels of men, where they belong—be- Jong, hey ?” ¥ And before I could remonstrate with im he was marching down the street e a whole regiment out on a charge at was to be one of extermination or icomplete surrender. i The Crag told e that evening that jthe mayor’s office of Glendale had mreeked of brimstone for hours, and the mext Sunday Aunt Augusta sat in their i 'w at church, militantly alone, while ! : lhe occupied a seat in the farthest lim- il ts of the amen corner with equal mili- cy. \ Jane didn’t throw any rocks at any- jpody’s opinions or break the windows ef anybody’s prejudices. She had the most lovely heart to heart talks with the women separately, collectively and in both small and large bunches. I ‘had them in to tea in the combina- plons that she wanted them, and I ust say that she was the loveliest fthing with them that could be im- agined. | "The subject of the rally was a fine jone for everybody to get together on from the start, and before any of them realized that they were doing jpnything but plan out the details of f big spread, the like of which they ad been doing for hospitable genera- i ;tlons, for the railroad commission they [Were organized into a flourishing rzquallty league, with officers and by- lnws and a sinking fund in the treas- L] “Now, Evelina,” said Jane as she sat on the edge of my bed braiding her Ilneavy, sleek black braid that is as big S| as my wrist and that she declares is i her one beauty, though she ought to know that her straight, strong figure, ruddy complexion, aroma of strength and keen, nearsighted eyes are—well, if not beauties, something very win- ning, “we must not allow the men time to get sore over this matter of the league. We must make them feel immediately that they are needed and wanted intensely in the movement. ’.l.‘he§ must be asked to take their place, shoulder to shoulder, with us in this fight for better conditions for the world and mankind in general. - True 1o our theory, we must offer them our honestly express our need of them in -our lives and in our activities. “I asked young Mr. Hayes to take me fishing with him tomorrow in order to have a whole quiet day with"him alone, so that we could get closely in touch with each other. I have had wvery little opportunity to talk with him, but I have felt his sympathy in’ several interesting glances we have ex- changed with each other. I am look- ing forward to the establishment of a perfect friendship with him.” I told myself that I was mistaken in thinking that the expression in Jane's £yes was sottened to the verge of dreaminess and my inmost soul shout- ed at the idea of Jane and Polk and 3 t.heirdayalonelnglq‘ ‘woods. comradely amectlon and openly and-: .of ‘voice and expression of eye. is the Wue Solution of ‘most of the compllcuted mnu and woman problems. |-/ I am anxious’ to see it tried out in five |\ 7 " other: different communities’ that' we will select. I- would not seem to be -| indelicate, dear, but I do not see any signs of your having been especially drawn emotionally toward any of your friends, though your attitude of sister- ly comradeship and frankness with them .is ‘more beautiful than I thought it was possible for such a thing to be. You are not being tempted to shirk any of your duties of woman- hood because ‘of your interest in your art, are you? I will confess to you that the thmg that brought me “down upon you was your:news of this com- mission for the geries of station gar- dens. I think you will probably ywork better after this side of your nature is at’rest. Of course, a union with Mr. Hall would be ideal for you. You must congider it seriously.” —There are. some men who ate big enough to take a woman with a wound in. her heart and heal both it-and her Ly tueh love. Richard is one of that kind.” What could any woman want more. than her work and a man: like that? After Jane had laid her strong mlnd- ed-head on the hard pillow that I had had to have concocted out of bats of cotton for her I laid my face against my own, made of the soft breast feath- ers of a white flock:- of hovering hen mothers. and wept on their: softness. A light ‘was burning down in the 'lodge at the gate of Widegables. He hasn’t gone back to his room to sleep even when I have Jane's strong mind- edness in the house with me. I re- ‘membper that I gave my word of honor to myself that I wouldn't try any of my modern emotional experiments on him the first night I slept in this house alone, with only him over thefe to keep me from dying with primitive woman fright.” I shall keep my word to my- self and propose to-Richard if my con- tract with Jane and the five seems to call for it. In the meantime if I choose to cry myself to sleep it is no- body’s business. . Jane has arisen early several morn- ings and spent an hour before break- fast composing a masterly and Machia- vellian letter of invitation from the Equality league to the inhabitants of Glendale and the surrounding country- side to and beyond Bolivar to attend the rally given by them in honor of the C. and G. railroad commission on Tuesday next. It is to come out to- day in the weekly papers of Glendale, Bolivar, Hillsboro and Providence, and I hope there will not be so. many cases of heart faflure from rage: that the gloom of many funerals will put out the light of the rally. I hope no man will beat any woman in the Harpeth valley for it, and if he does I hope he | will do it so neither Jane nor I will hear of it. : It was Aunt Augusta who thought up the insulting and incendiary plan of having the rally as an offering of hospitality from the league, and I hope if Uncle Peter is going to die over it he will not have the flnnl explosion in my presence. Privately I spent a dollar and a half sending a night letter to Richard all about it and asking him if the commis- sioners would be willing to stand for this feminist plank in the barbecue deal. He had sent me the nicest letter of acceptance from the board when I had written the invitation to them through him as coming from the per-: fectly ladylike feminine population of Glendale, and I didn’t like to get them: into & woman whirlwind without their own consent. I paid the boy at the telegraph office $5 not to.talk about the matter to a human soul and threat- ened to have him dismissed if he' did, 80 the bombshell was kept in until this afternoon. : Richard replied to the telegmm with- characteristic directness: Delighted to be in at the fight. Seven. § of us 'rabid. suffragists, two on the fence, | and a half roast plg will convert the other, - Found no answer to my question n let.te !ut Tuesday. Must! : ““RICHARD. | It was nlce ot Jane to write out nnd’ get ready her-bombshell and then go'| ‘off with Polk so as not to see it ex—' plode. But I’'m glad she dld. Ho.w— ever, I 'did advise her to take a copy. of it along with the reels and ‘the “in lunch basket to read to him ag a starter of thelr day to be devoted to the estab- a small commumty like this it lunnch ment ofa pertecl: trien dship’ between 13 rmgn cheviot i L s one of Polk’s" tishing days. He uat she thinks she owns him_ and all the trout in Little: Harpeth, and she landed in the midstof: the picnic with"her fighting clothes on. “Where are you and her going at— fishing?”’ she. asked 1n -a calmly con-~ trolled volce that both of them had heard before and which made us quail | In our hoots and metaphorically ‘duclk our heads. . “Yes, we—er—thought we would,” he answered with an uncertaipt‘y of voice and manner that bespoke abject fear. = “T'll be'd— if you shall!” came: the - .- explosion, hot and loud. “I want'to go fishing with you, Polk, my ownself, = and she ain’t no good for nothing any-. - way. You can’t take her!” “Henriettal” I both beseeched u.nd commanded in one breath. . “No, she ain’t no'good at all,” was re- iterated in the stormy young voice as Henrietta caught hold of the nose of the panting auto and stood directly in the path of destruction if Polk had . turned the driving wheel a hair's breadth. “Uncle Peter says that she is er going to turn the devil loose in Glendale, -so they won’t be no more whisky and no more babies borned and men will get they noses rubbed in their plates if they don’t eat the awful fruck she is er going to teach the women to 3 cook for their husbands. An’ the men won’t marry no more then at all, and T'll have to be a old maid like her.” ‘nnoany, Shice Taat night that Polk humiliated me s completely as & man can humil- late & woman he has looked at me like a whipped child, and I’ haven’t looked at him at all. I have used Jane as a widespread fan behind -which to hide from him. How was I to know what was going on on the other side of the fan? It is a relief to realize that in the world there are at least a few women like Jane, that don’t have to be pro- tected from Polk-and his kind. - Jane is one of the hunted that has turned and has come back to meet the pur- suer with outstretched and disarming hand. This, I suspect, is ‘to be about her first real tussle. Skoal to the vic- tor! “I advised your Aunt Augusta to ask you to talk again-to your. Uncle Peter, and Nell is to seek an interview with Mr. Hardin at ber earliest opportunity, though I think the-only result will be instruction and uplift for Nell, as a more illumined thing I never had said to me on the subject of the relation of men and women than the one he ut- tered to me last night as he said good- by to me out on the porch in that glorious moonlight that seems brighter here in Glendale than I have ever seen it out in the world anywhere else.” “What did he say?” I asked perfectly naturally, though a double bladed pain was twisted around in my solar plexus as the vision’ of Jane'’s last night in- terview in the "moonlight with the Orag and Nell’s soon to be one hit me broadside at the same time. I haven’t had one by myself with him for a week. / *‘Why, of course, women are the breath that men draw into their lungs of life to supply eternal combustion,’ was what he said when I asked him point blank what he thought of the league. ‘Omnly let us breathe slowly as we ascend to still greater elevations with their consequent rarefied air,’ he added, with the most heavenly thoughtfulness in his fine face. Did it ever occur to you, Evelina, that your Cousin James is really a radiantly beautiful man? How could you be so mistaken, as to both him and his per- sonal appearance, as to apply such a name as Crag to him?” Glendale is going to Jane's head! “And I have been thinking since you told me of the sitaation in which he and Mrs. Carruthers have been placed by this financial catastrophe how won- derful it will’ be if love really does come to them when her grief is healed by time. He will-rear her interesting children into ‘women that will be in- valuable to the commonwealth,” Jane continued as she-tied a blue bow on the end of her long black plait “Do you think-that there—there are any signs of—of such a thing yet?” I asked with pitiful weakness as I wllt-‘ ed down into my pillow. “Just a' bit in--his manner to- her, though I may be influenced ‘in my Jjudgment by the evident suitability of such a solution of the situation,” she answered as she settled h ‘back | agamstoneo!theposuofmymgh old bed and looked me clean’ thraugh and through. - .. “I hope you have been notlng these different emotional’ situations ‘and re- actions among your !rlends caremlly' in your record, Evelina,” she contin- ued in an interested and biological tone CHAPTER XIV. Jane Versus Henrietta. OW, why did I write weeks ago that I would like to witness an - encounter between Jane and élenrietta? I didn’t mean it, but I got it! Without ruffling: a hair or changing color, Jane stepped out of the ‘auto and faced the foe. Henrietta is a tiny . scrap of a woman, intense-in a wild, beautiful, almost hunted kind of way, and she is so thin that it makes my heart ache. She is being fairly erushed with the beautiful depending weight of her ‘mother and -the responsibility of the twins, and somehow she is most pathetic. I made a motion to step be- tween her and Jane, but one look in Jane's face stopped me. “Dear,” she said, in her rich, throaty. strong voice as she looked pleadingly at the militant midget facing her. Sud- denly I was that lonesome, homesick freshman by the waters of Lake Wa- ban, with Jane’s awkward young arm around me, and I stood aside to let Henrietta come into her heritage of Jape. “Don’t you want ‘to come with us?” was the soft question that follow- ed the commanding word of endear- ment. _ “No!” was the short but slightly mollified answer as Henrietta dug her toes into the dust and began to look A fascinated. “I'm glad you don't want to come be- cause I've got some very important business to ask you to attend for me,” answered Jane in the brisk tone of voice she uses in doing business with women, and-which interests them in- tensely by its very novelty and flat- ters them by seeming to endow them with a kind of brain they didn‘t know they ‘possessed. “I' want you to- ‘g0 up- stairs: and . get my . pocketbook. . Be careful, for there is over a hundred dol- lars ‘in the Toll' of bills—HEvelina will . - .give you the key to the desk—-mid go ‘down. to the dmgsfom, Ikeep ‘nice little clocks; an ‘wmd it up yourself tlnd watch lt all g day to see if it keeps time with the cloek‘ in ‘your, hall, and if it varies ‘hile you'are m the - ‘haye time, won't more complicated civilization, !—have, - Pol Seen you {ranscribing noti -book. ' B!noe I bave come G