Mother: A Story

daughter, and by all the Pagets,-except Margaret. Margaret went through the hours in her old, quiet manner, a little more tender and gentle perh

d at the telephone a dozen times a day, "On the fourteenth.-Oh, do I? I don't feel calm! Can't you try to come in-I do want to see you before I go!" She dutifully repeated Bruce's careful directions; she was to giv

reality pressing almost painfully upon her.-One of a million ordinary sc

ly, by this old friend and that. When the time came to distribute plates and paper napkins, and great saucers of ice cream and sliced cake, Margaret was toasted in cold sweet lemonade; and drawing close together to "harmonize" more per

lips and oth

up, one by one, and linked arms; the little circle, affectionate

able. The new year came, with a dance and revel, and the Pagets took one of their long tramps through the snowy afternoon, and came back hungry for a big dinner. Then there was dressmaking,-Mrs. Schmidt in command, Mrs. Paget tireless at

t," she would say. "Run get mother some more tissue paper, Beck. You'll have to leave the big cape, dear, and you can send for it if you need it. Now the blue dress, Ju. I think that dyed so p

, with Duncan in her lap busily working

l it a little more. Conversation languished in these days; mother and daughters feeling that time was too precio

should have felt, she knew that she did feel under the hurry of her blood that made speech impossible. She went to her mother's door, slender and girlish in her white nightgown, to kiss her good-night again. Mrs. Paget's big arms went about her daughter. Margaret laid her head childishly on her mother's shoulder. Nothing of significance was said. Margaret whispered, "Mother,

can's overcoat jerked on; coffee drunk scalding hot as they stood about the kitchen table; bread barely tasted. They walked to the railway station on wet sidewalks

of the train beyond the bridge-the beginning of good-byes-a sudden filling of the mother's eyes that was belied by her smile.-"Good-bye, sweetest-don't knock my hat off, baby dear! Beck, darling-O

very talkative, at her father's side; Bruce walking far behind the others with his

every brilliant possibility in life seemed to be waiting. She tried to read, to think, to pray, to stare steadily out of the window; she could do nothing for more than a

had warned her sister. "The governess will hate you because she'll be afraid you'll

rangement she was to arrive at the Grand Central Station at almost the same moment as Mrs. Carr-Boldt herself, who was coming home from a three-weeks' visit in the middle west. Margaret gave only half her attention to the flying cou

er shoulder, caught a breath of fresh violets, and a glimpse of her patron's clear skinned, resolute face. They whi

he was a little dazed by crowded impressions; impressions of height and spaciousness and richness, and opening vistas; a great marble stairway, and a landing where there was an immense designed window in clear leaded glass; rugs, tapestries, mirrors, polished wood and great chairs with brocaded seats and carved dark back

arr-Boldt. "This is Victoria, who's eleven, an

f manner. The German woman said something forcibly, and Margaret understood the child's repl

ttle lift, Margaret being carried to the fourth floor

ed a little breathless laugh. Then she took off her hat carefully and went into the bedroom that was beyond her sitting room, and hung her hat in a fragrant white closet that was entirely and delightfully empty, and put

it's too much!"

the beautiful desk and try the new pens, the crystal ink-well, and the he

esticks had the centre of the mantelpiece. On the little round mahogany centre table was a lamp with a wonderful mosaic shade; a little book-case was filled with books and magazines

reat bed with a lace cover. Beyond was a bathroom, all enamel, marble, glass, and nickel-plate, with heavy monogrammed towels on the rack, three

ny, not a fallen leaf lay under the great bowl of roses on the desk. Now and then the radiator clanked in the stress; it was

ir, became thoughtful; presently she went in

rayed, her face in her hands. "I

s resented by no one. The butler told her his troubles, the French maid darkly declared that but for Miss Paget she would not for one second r-r-remain! The children went cheerfully even to the dentist with their adored Miss Peggy; they soon preferred her escort to matinee or zoo to that of any other person. Margaret also escorted Mrs. Carr-Boldt's moth

ntracted a cold, and Harriet's mother for the first time spoke severely to Margaret. There was another bad day when Margaret artlessly admitted to Mrs. Pierre Polk at the telephone that Mrs. Carr-Boldt was not engaged for dinner that evening, thus obliging her employer to snub the lady, or accept a

et-cheeked between the curtains, "don't oblige me to ascertain that you are not within he

s far too angry to think, but lay there for perhaps twenty minutes with her brain whirling. Finally rising, she brushed up her hair, straightened

le hesitating appeal in her voice completely disarmed Margaret. In the end the little episode cemented the rapidly growing friendship b

-habit of his. His physician and I took him around the world,-I left Victoria, just a baby, with mother,-and for too years he was never out of my sight

he took a personal interest in all her servants, loved to settle their quarrels and have three or four of them up on the carpet at once, tearful and explanatory. Margaret kept for her a list of some two hundred friends, whose birthdays were to be marked with carefully selected gifts. She pleased Mrs. Carr-Boldt by her open amazement at the latter's vitality. The girl observed that her employer could not visit any institution without making a few vigorous suggestions as she went about, she accompanied her cheques to the organized charit

ere's a man on Fourth Avenue who does 'em!" she would say, or, "I know all about Lilly Reynolds, Peggy. Her father was as rich as she says, and I daresay the crest is theirs. But ask her what her maternal grandmother did for a living, if you want to shut her up!" Other people she would

elling her few intimates and the older women among her daughter's friends that the girl was a perfect little thoroughbred. When the Carr-B

ng in common with thi

ear with those rich people, and had written her mother from the Lusitania. Letters from London, from Germany, from Holland, from Russia, fo

German to amuse her father, teaching Becky a littl

during Margaret's home visit. Mrs. Paget was watering the dejected-looking side garden with a straggling

t as good as th

d a dried little d

ot as rich, or as travelled,-we haven't the

or their money? Why, Mrs. Carteret,-for all her family!-isn't half the aristocrat Gra

" her mother protested, cleanin

d eagerly. "Great-g

rned off the water, holding her skirts away from the combination of mud and dust underfoot, "that's a very silly way to talk, dear! Money does make

opinion in the two years she had been away, but she had l

d so much, and if Dad-say-had been in that oil deal that he said he wished he had the money for, an

ark,-no. We might have been well to-

out in society this minute! It's the merest chance that we aren't rich. Just for instance: father's fat

as, too," said her

only child, Mother," Margaret

ole thirty-six thousand d

andfather Paget was presumably sp

Paget did have twelve children-and Daddy and I eight-" she sighed, as always, at the thoug

ught to herself that very few people

for week-ends, dinners, theatre, and the opera to fill the evenings, German or singing lessons, manicure, masseuse, and dressmaker to crowd the morning hours all the year round. Margaret learned from these exquisite, fragrant creatures the art of being perpetually fresh and charming, learned their methods of caring for their own beauty, learned to love rare toilet waters and powders, fine embroidered linen and silk stockings. There was no particular strain upo

too happy to miss the love-making element; the men she saw were not of a type to inspire a sensible busy, happy, girl with any very deep feeling. And it was with generous and perfect satisfaction that she p

m until it is done. But in five years Harry says we will have a real honeymoon, in Europe! Think of going to Europe as a ma

peechless with delight. Scarves, cobwebby silks in uncut lengths, embroidered lingerie still in the tissue paper of Paris shops, parasols, gloves, and lengths of lace,-she piled all of them into Margaret's arms. Julie's trousseau was consequently quite the most beautiful Weston had ever seen; and the little sister's cloudless

y does as well as he's doing now for two years, we'll rent the little house, and we're going to Baltimore for a year for a special course. Then-you know he's devot

Ju,-r

ount of hospital practice his way, to begin with. And you know Harry'll have something,-and the house will rent. I'm crazy," said Julie, enthusiasti

ng readily in with the plan. "I'm glad you're not going to simply get into a rut th

they haven't had one free second since Buddy came. She can't keep one maid, and she says the idea of two maids eating their three meals a day, whether she's home or not, makes her perfectly sick! Some one's got to be with him every single second, even now, when he's four,-to see that he doesn't fall off something, or put things in his mouth. And as Louise says-it means no more week end trips; you can't go visiting over night, you can'

t approved. "Things are different now

"One long slavery! Life's too sh

ked pitifully in its effort to smile; her tall figure, awkward in an ill-made unbecoming new silk, seemed to droop tenderly over the little clinging wife

you until she gets back!

Mother," urged Mr. Paget. Rebecca felt this a felicitous moment

"Yes, I know, Daddy dear, I'm an ungrateful woman! I suppose you