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Show . i. .. - f SHORT STORY OF THE DAYj toward the station, admitted themselves them-selves at 'their wits end and began to talk darkly of Colney -Hatch. The tradesmen became accustomed to waiting wait-ing for knocks to be answered, and having banged at doors sat on their baskets and dosed. The evening found Mrs. Wall the only calm person within the radius of a couple of hundred yards. Mrs. - Wall i had no children. . "They interfere dreadfully with one's society duties." she had remarked once. And her path on occasions of this kind was rendered the more easy. A rumor flapped Its wings up apd down the road to the effect that a professor had been down from London to dress Mrs. Wall's hair; the guests did not know whether to tee perturbed or gratified grati-fied by this information; the uninvited remarked with pious gloom that pride sometimes went before a fall. Fairy lamps were among the branches of the i two small trees in front of the house. The nninvlted said this was overdoing it Mrs. Wall's well-to-do sister drove ! up at about 7:30; the fact that the -cab had yellow wheels caused the uninvited to say that there was decency to be observed ob-served In all things. "So good of you to come early! Delighted! De-lighted! What a etranger you are! And hoWs the neuralgia? How rweet of you to bring your husband!" From her well-chosen phrases you might have thought Mrs. Wall was receiving re-ceiving at Devonshire house. . But for the narrowness of the passage and the difficulty experienced when two stout-ish stout-ish people tried to pas by each other you might (permitting imagination to fly) have been reminded of Buckingham palace. There was. Indeed, something regal about the whole proceedings. The parlor maid snatched wraps and overcoats over-coats from the guests as they arrived and ran upstairs to fill bedrooms with them, and the guests were ordered to go out of the window doors of the dining-room Into the marquee, or if they desired coffee to go into the drawing-room. drawing-room. "F. J. is so sorry." replied the hostess with her fan at the open neck of her dress, ber head at a regretful angle, "but he will not be down .until quite late. So exasperating, is It not? But a perfect slave to business; believe me. a perfect slave! Never happier than when he is at work. Let me Introduce you to my sister." Mrs. Wall's sister resembled Mrs. Wall In the way that 75 per cent. Is like SO per cent. . Now the road could see the model that Mrs. Wall had taken; ta-ken; want of means had prevented her from becoming Identical with the model, but she had made desperate endeavors en-deavors to get. as near as possible. Mrs. Wall's sister used double glasses with a golden handle in an awe-inspiring way whenever any other guests, with only the knowledge that comes from reading penny society Journals, ventured ven-tured an opinion or a piece of fashionable fashion-able news. Mrs. Wall's sister made it a point of honor to contradict everything; the guests became brow-beaten. She took pity on them after a while, and selecting four of the ladles took them to a corner of the marquee and in an undertone un-dertone told the true particulars of a case hinted at tn the newspapers, the exact details of which had not yet appeared ap-peared in print. They stood around her respectfully, eagerly; Mrs. Wall beamed upon the others to Intimate that In the corner history was being made. A suggestion sug-gestion was made iy a lady, whose roil of music rested on the hat stand In the hall, that some one should ' be invited to sing. "Whoever can that be?" A long-continued knocking at . the front door followed by a ring. One of the servants came white-faced and whispered; Mrs. Wall dropped her plate of strawberries, and brushing the guests aside hurried out. "Send them away," she gasped to her sister; "send them all away." "There's a medical man with him, ma'am." said the servant, trembling. Upstairs in the front room hats and coats and feather boas had been thrown in a corner. On the bed lay F. J. Wall. , "Complete breakdown," said the doctor doc-tor candidly. "Overwork. No man could stand It. Such beggarly pay,' too." "F. J.." she said imploringly, on her j knees beside the bed, "I're been thoughtless. Why didn't you warn me?" "My dear." F, J. spoke with difficulty, difficul-ty, but he spoke with courage. "I was was so proud of you." The Tattler. THE WIFE OP P. J. On the rare occasions when she referred re-ferred to her husband. Mrs. Wall spoke of him as the managing man in his firm; once she hinted existence of Imminent Im-minent probability . that be would he taken Into partnership, afterward- ex- plaining that F. J. had talked the matter mat-ter over with her and she had decided that it was not worth his while. Mrs. Wall preferred, everything being equal, not to talk of business, and when other ladles became garrulous in regard to their husband's city work she listened with a look of pained tolerance. On some one expressing compassion for the hard times that husbands had to undergo, under-go, Mrs. Wall .made no effort to disguise dis-guise her views. , "They enjoy It," said Mrs. Wall decisively. de-cisively. "Husbands ought to.be the bread-winners. So long as we look after the home, or" here she hedged "see that it is looked after, they quite understand un-derstand that It is the natural thing for them to earn the money." Mrs. Wall looked over her shoulder at her reflection reflec-tion in the mirror; she was a woman who became nervous if not within sight of a looking glass. "Any news?" "The people at St. Heller's are thinking think-ing about letting a couple of rooms." "So sorry," said Mrs. Wall, with a tremor of the head, "for people who have to cut down expenses. F. J. allows al-lows me more than I know what to do with." The suburb knew Mrs. Wall was bragging, and Mrs. Wall suspected that the suburb knew this, but occasionally she really did the elaborately expensive thing, and this extorted from neighbors a certain kind of admiration; to a road which paid S4 a year for rent there were interest and sport in watching the procedure of such a woman as Mrs. Wall. Moreover, her smart and frequent fre-quent new costumes suggested a text for many an evening sermon. Husbands meeting in the 8:38 train to the city told each other that they were becoming thoroughly tired of hearing the name of 1 Mrs. Wall: there was no risk in proclaiming pro-claiming this aloud, for F. J. Wall himself him-self caught (it was rumored) the 7:35. An early bird. F. J. Wall, and a late one. too: those on the lookout peering through Venetian blinds reported that at times it was past 10 ere he reached home, carrying a bag and walking slowly. : o o Mrs. Frederick J. Wall. : - at home : : Wednesday Evening, July 13. : : R. 8. V. P. I . o Not everybody received the proud white card by the morning poet on a day at the end of June. Those who did discovered this on summoning their immediate neighbors by rattling at the fence which divided back gardens. "Shall get mine by the next post perhaps." per-haps." said the neighbors hopefully. The optimism was not In all cases well grounded. Mrs. Wall for the Important Im-portant evening party had made cautious cau-tious selection; In one case it was found that a wife had not been asked because her husband had outgrown his dress suit. Information in regard to the evening even-ing came slowly, but servants set to work with energy. Mrs. Wall's two girls (called by their mistress, cook and parlor maid, but invested with their titles by maids who resented their height and general haughtiness) gave scraps of details, and these with the bits secured from tradesmen were pieced together. "Her sister's to be at the party the one who married so well and got a separation from her husband." "It's not to be a sit-down supper, only a hand-round." "She's going to hire some one to play the piano: seems unnecessary; I can play all right if I only like to practice." "There's to be a marquee out on the lawn at the back. She's had to ask the neighbors both sides so that they shouldn't look over." i "Wonder whether the husband will put In an appearance. He might. Just for the aalfie of novelty." I The threatened brilliancy of the approaching ap-proaching evening threw other events Into a deep shadow. Husbands who hinted, that buttons were required found themselves begged not to exhibit selfishness; children for no fault. of their own were placed in corners or sent early, to. bed; the little dressmaker and her assistant cousin who : live"- in'' the street, second turning .to the. ItCt SJAE |