Show NOT A A BIT L KE HER HEROES The que Man Ian Mary Wil Wilkins Wilkins kins is Engaged To New York Herald Early springtime is nearly here and the th book world at large and the social f OcI 1 world Of two little l communities Randolph I Mass and Metuchen N J J are wonder r Ing lug and wondering whether Mary IS Ill Wil WI 11 kins authoress author Is really going to marry Charles M lL freeman doctor The last time either of the principals in ill this lit literary literary drama was quoted upon the mo ale momentous topic was in November Then Dr JJr Freeman said We shall surely be married this year He and she ar are srA past the period of ro romantic romantic I mantic attachments He is a settled bus business iness moss man of 33 or so she Is a few y yrs rs hIs senior In her books her heroes hero 8 have h been cavaliers whose blood tingled at the j bare mention of femininity Dr lr Freeman Is sedate and In no way picturesque He Ho has performed no heroic deeds en I dured no agonizing trials He Is just an ordinary man Miss Wilkins heroes have all ln been poor men Dr D Freeman e inherited e Js l tl i considerable r means and a lucrative bust busi business bustness ness Her leading men diameters characters have hae been young Dr Freeman appears is as if far past youth Her men have Invariably been en comely Dr Freeman Is not what Is 13 usually called handsome though by no means unprepossessing The ostensible reason o for tor the delay dela in consummating their betrothal has been that Miss Wilkins has been immersed In her most ambitious work that she could not divert her thoughts to personal mat matters matters tem until she had bad written u Pints Finis and und forwarded the book to the publishers She Is a methodical worker in that she sit sits down in her ber den every morning and devotes herself to the task lJ rOle her for tor several hours but she does not set up the outlines of her story and then fill flU in the structure She has more or less distinct mental pictures ot O Othe the tho climaxes ot or her chapters out no noc al ul always ways a perfectly clear conception on or ot the Hie g bi fg finale when she begins to write Randolph where Miss Wilkins has re resided resided resided sided in the same old dwelling for al aI almost almost most twenty years is close by the great grf at eastern factory factor towns where strikers and lockouts arbitration boards and labor ar arbitrators may be studied under a micro microscope scope cope Hence Hance say sar her Miss Wil VU king kins absorption in her book which treats ot of t labor conditions But the authoress Is not a cloistered nun by any means The nub Hub is distant only a pleasant ride by trolley via South Braintree or Milton and many find ind Miss Wilkins and the devoted c chum um of t her schooldays school days whisking off to a tea or reception In Boston Her companion compa lon has hus i grained gained the sobriquet of Cerberus Miss Wilkins has a kindly regard for tor all her hern n who while not permitting th to tl t lionize the tho celebrity c that is 15 isn in n their midst yet like her genuinely For instance when Wh n I called on a recent Sun Sunday Sunday day ay afternoon heard I upstairs a steady tap tap ding What Is Miss using a type typewriter typewriter typewriter writer here hetre in Puritan New al almost 1 most within the palo polo of Salem witch nitch on a Sabbath afternoon I ejaculated Cerberus laughed Yes and worse The work Is being done tor for a preachers daughter Subsequently I heard that Mis Wilkins had md offered to go over to a monologue that the young ot or a neighboring minister was wa to recite at a churca enter entertainment entertainment entertainment a tew days d Ys thereafter We Ve had chatted on a multitude of top topes topics ics Ice es that bright winter n The rhe curious big gnarly elm whose seemed to beckon to us from her study window presented a striking picture as the sunlight its trunk and limbs In n speckled beauty and I 1 was not sur surprised surprised that this ardent student of nature Intimated that she contemplated writing a monograph upon trees Alter Im married Ill Keep l dogs re remarked remarked remarked marked Miss Wilkins once Dr Freeman cares nothing for dogs but he likes to drive a sound speedy horse Miss wil WU wilting tins ting abhors horses Still SUIl lest it be bethought bethought bethought thought that their tastes and attributes be bo as far apart as the poles let it be set down here that both love literature and he lie finds delight in golf coif while she finds hen happiness in rural walks studying nature Miss Is a Her complex complexIon Ion ionis ia is beautiful Her eyes ees are ar bright and of 01 a lovely blue Though the corners other of ot her mouth turn downward she is not a L Lr pessimist nor sombre in any way Thoughtful r she h IN i is undoubtedly but her r personality per Is so pleasing that one looks upon her as a clever clover woman of the world rather than u a typical New Eng nd spin spinster spinSter ster t of literary a bent bentShe bentShe She he began to write t when she 3 IC was rag 14 4 sending her first contributions to the Bos Boston Boston Boston ton Budget tIt It was a n story based ba ed on her childs s play rainy iny afternoons afternoon with hor her paper dolls and the shadow pictures r she used to throw on the wall sitting curled up before the blazing hearthstone Miss Wilkins is not married she does not keep dogs but she possesses a cat Priscilla Allen and once said Cor Cerberus borus berus we rented a monkey monk e Yes really You know Miss Wilkins likes to write I animal stories and we just had to have a I monkey Why once we went to see Pro Professor Professor fessor Garner who has studied monkeys you ou recollect at short range In Africa Well VeIl one gather anything of real Interest from his conversation We Vo wo women women women men positively need a monkey for life Ufe so bo we tried to borrow one and Then we wo decided to rent ono one Tho Thu animal dealer hesitated about bout that hut at last he said mId If It wo we returned the monkey in as good condition as we got him hed let us have one He lie gave us minute directions about that monkeys diet milk and bananas and so on uIn In n it week that monkey tyrannized this tills household Ho reveled in goodies di dia and a 31 heI perched ee he would No o he g probably at simians es 65 escape escape cape that but he certainly must have been bilious when we returned him to the animal dealer Still Miss Wilkins was enabled to get the local color the real roal realists realists talk about 2 2 S Tho The Lathrop homestead where Miss Mies Wilkins and her school girl chum and the mother have resided for tor so many years Is years old A century old the ceilings are low the beams and timbers huge and solid Steam radiators radiator mitigate P the cold old wiIl winds s th that t sweep swe p across cro the th brica gathered by Miss WilkinS while a td id a piano quaint old engrav engravings e engravings av ings ana and urge arge modern modem platinum prints are aTO scatter d about Without the white house with green blinds bUnds small porch and side door description de fits the Lathrop homestead as aptly as any of Its neighbors The home Dr Freeman has selected for hIs hia bride ia is smaller JUST ju HJ a Metuchen Is smaller than Randolph I L is modern without and within It was at the tho home of Henry M Alden at Metuchen that Miss Wilkins and nd Dr Freeman met Sub Subsequently Subsequently he saw her at Plymouth Mass where the authoress and ner iter vigilant guardian had a cottage last summer and later the wooer found his way to se secluded secluded eluded Randolph He does not nt appear to have havo been an Impetuous wooer that would U be quito quite foreign I to his nature a and yet Miss l Wilkins w does not n t wear a her heart hearton on her sleeve But he did win her favor When e It came e to setting th the day Q there thet was a hitch Both believed e v it i best ei to have hao her literary chef finished first She Is a rapid writer said Dr Free Freeman Freeman Freeman man Sometimes Som she does words in ina Ina ina a day but she does not map out her stories and modifies or expands them as the circumstances develop one phase or another So postponements occurred and the snug at Metuchen Is still sUll un unoccupied unoccupied unoccupied occupied |