The Happiest Time of Their Lives

boldly snapping electric switches, for her going was a sort of assertion of her right to independent action. She

e unexpected arrival of Mrs. Baxter. The only part of dressing that delayed Mrs. Wayne was her hair, which was so long that

, answered her in detail before her next exclamation betrayed that it was entirely for the employ

is mother what he was going through, for the obvious and perhaps unworthy reason that it was just what she would have expected him t

ked me to go to

her whole face li

ng!" she said. "China is

ike to go

don't start f

ook he

make a trip to that h

I can learn the trick

that perhaps he had not the

ople a bit, do you

be done. What does Mathilde say to you goin

than a

ow awful

g to prevent her

take that ch

now that she is cordi

one at last attracted hi

where in her life without a maid. She probably doesn't know

ully practical yourself," he ans

ne looke

then, becoming more maternal, she added, "and that

tory to leaving the room,-"I m

winding her braid very neatly a

I almost wish I weren't

k it's all

f he knows

e's eyes

I should like t

you like. Don't say I w

face

, "because I suppose the truth is they wo

have everything to give each other except time. She was perhaps ten years older than he, extremely handsome, with dimples and dark red hair and blue eyes. She had a large practice among the poor, and might have made a conspicuous success of her profession if it had not been for her intense and too widely diffused interest. She wanted to strike a blow at ev

p at her magnificent height, her dimples appea

with me, Lily, and

n capital punishment. I'm going to s

plain to you what a pit

o characte

her head

said. "You change your mind about women every

ount to a row

e men select t

ike that! I want some one to tell me I'm p

nd I pretty near think so, too. But I can't dine wit

ertain phases of Wayne's own views, but he contradicted it, held it up to ridicule, and ended by quoting incidents in the history of his friend's own firm which, as he said, were probably among the crookedest things that had ever been put

gray dress that she had had made for her by a fallen woman from an asylum, b

uiet, perfect dinner with Mr. Lanley sounded pleasant enough. But she was not sorry to find it had been enlarged. She liked to meet new people. She was extremely optimistic, and always hoped that they would prove either spiritually rewarding, or practically useful to some of her projects. When she saw Mrs. Baxter, with h

iend with the general impression that Mrs. Wayne was merely the mother of an undesirable suitor of Mathilde's who spent most of her life in the company of drunkards. So when she came in, a little late as usual, in her long, soft, gray dress, with a pink rose at her g

emper made her not an outsider, but an audience. Anecdotes which even Mr. Lanley might have felt were trivial gossip became, t

urse, Mrs. Baxter turned to him and asked how Mathilde

ed, with a little natural exaggeration, how much sh

n bitten by any of tho

Bax

lsey b

r day with a wonderful scheme of working all day long with charity organizations. I said to her, 'My dear, charity begins at home.' My wife, Mrs. Baxter, is a

d Mrs. Baxter, perhaps not eager f

atorium," replied her husband, "f

would not point out that a sojourn in a sanatorium was not complete cont

One of our most charming young girls has suddenly developed an absolutely morbid curiosity about the things that take place in the women's courts. Why, as her poor father said to

ey, judicially. "The women's courts are places where n

an shou

rl sho

rls who come there

t annoyance under a ma

must forgive my saying that tha

but he only looked benevolently at her, and t

en rushing into things they don't understand

ked Mrs. Wayne, and

naccurate and untrus

'm sure you're

dam!" excla

. Wayne pursued. "If all wome

lding up a finger-"logic, you know, has

s, Wilsey, and you're an American, the logical inference is that you think yours

men," she answered

rs. Baxter, I'd believe in giv

she answered. "I

clever on

etended to

r intuition where I would pay n

y lau

ittle differently, Wilsey," he said; b

nd said, 'Father, don't you think women ought to have the vote some d

wer to that," s

. "I think I put the essen

o power in this countr

rs. Wayne, "really you

, Mrs. Wayne,

oor drunkards are so wonderful, so patient. They are mothers and wage-earners and sick nurses, too; they're not the sort of women you descri

yne," she said-"my friends, I think, will compare

y rose to

n admirable answer that of yours," he murmured as he led her from the room,

ow any of the people I know," said Mrs. Ba

ughed, and sh

he socialism of socialists-the sense of being excluded. This poor lady has evidently very little usage du m

gh the other end of the large room was chilly, Lanle

ed almost tearf

ve spoiled your

worse than that,"

she wailed, "w

oiled a fr

n you a

ok his

et I've been hearing people talk like that all my life, and have nev

rible when I'm

alk lik

him and look

! you thi

hat often, but I think you

y-four, but I don't ever want to talk lik

ayne s

make yo

if it

ngry. I was distressed t

ed up,

alked like Wil

might be old-f

nce of fairly satisfactory outside conditions; but since I've known you, I've felt a lightening, a brightening, an intensifying of my own inner life that I be

pleased with her evening, took her departure. He assisted her into her taxi, and as he came ups

sts an instant of freer criticism, for th

s she not, our friend,

reformer, I'm afrai

hard on her,"

rhaps, that Mrs. Baxter had been severe; "but the poor lady's

ut the flaws in her reason

nley!" Mr. Wilsey held

e with a woman. They

mple of that this even

dear lady missed the point, and became so illo

y. "I got just the

pos

you who missed t

the others exchanged a startled glance. It wa

any points

hook his

Lanley was smoking, with his head tilted up and his eyes on the ceiling. Wha

anley; a delig

y's chin

, Wilsey; glad

ter observed that he was a

r a leader at the bar, he has

ition on the hearth-rug and hi

r at the bar," he sai

to sit and chat over th