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Show MODERN MARRIAGE,' BY ROB EDEN, TELEGRAM'S NEW SERIAL f CHAPTER ONC Tho lobby of tho Croatvlew apartments apart-ments was pleasantly comfortable, I spacious and In good taste. Mlml , Parriah always felt a prideful glow of satisfaction when aha entered I it. It waa a part of her home, oven if sho never used It for anything but a passageway. As much a part of her home aa the three rooms on the sixth floor she and Doug occupied and for which they paid K a month rent-ridiculously rent-ridiculously cheap, they toid each other and often their friends when the amount Included such conveniences conve-niences as a switchboard with 14-hour 14-hour service, the lobby which they r could utilise If they wished, an f electrlo Ice box, a roof garden which was open In the spring and summer months and a subterranean garage. What more could you want for I6S a month T It didn't matter that the Parriah apartment faced the flat wall of another apartment across the alley they didn't care , about that because neither of them (waa home In the daytime except on Sundays and Mlml on Saturday afternoon af-ternoon Doug didn't get Satur- I day afternoons off and even on Sundays they weren't homo much. , In the lamplight with the curtains drawn they couldn't aee out from their living room, and in their tiny dining room the drapea were pulled both night and dy. for this (seed on a narrow Inclosed court. J In the mornings both aho and t Doug were eo busy getting ready to I go to work that they had no time i to think of sunny breakfast rooms, ' and on Sundays they were too lasy. a It waa so good to be able to aleep J late, so good to know that thla was I their day together, every minute of 1 It; a day, to be sure, to be spent with their friends, but shared in a J way which made it particularly ' their own, too. . Goes Shopping ' W Mlml left her office at 1 o'clock Ft Saturdays, hut she usually shopped i awhile before she came home. This ! afternoon It was 4 o'clock when ahe enured the lobby of the Croatvlew and went to one of the self-operating elevators, three bundles in her . "rms. On was a pair of silver ssndali. J with narrow ribbon-like straps of I silver, and Jeweled clasps. Seven y ninety-five. Too much, she said to j herself, too much for dancing slip- 1 y ! . ... . m:y.y vnrn . . - V- 'Y '..I l" '.--I 7 -v ' ' ' V . - Mimi and Doug Fairish, two young moderns In matrimony,, unschooled in economics, econom-ics, fond of comforts, confident of the future . . but what does the mysterious future hold in store for them? sad not lowered her voice la the least Candy heard what sho said la tho kitchen, where aha waa pressing press-ing Mr. Parrlsh'a black satin tie. "Seem a shame, anyway, for you and Doug to have a maid, when you only would have dinner to cook for yourselves. Ts pay $25 a month just to have your house eleaned and your dinners booked. No laundry, no breakfasts, no lunch." Twenty-five dollars a month and Candy's carfare, and that represented represent-ed a well-ordered house and peace of mind. But It waa useleas to explain ex-plain to Ella all that Candy meant to her and did for her. She had tried to In the beginning, for you alwaya had to explain every financial move to Ella. Bhe wouldn't understand. Sh never had. She oouldn't understand Mlml and ahe couldn't underatand Doug Doug loss than Mimi. "If you're working to have more things, mors luxuries as you say you are, then It aeems to me very silly to waste a fourth of what you earn on a maid," she went on, "There's still tho throe-fourths left, and I can apend more time with Doug." Mlml replied. The dla-slnaas dla-slnaas caught her again, and ahe saw not one, but three Ellas oa the couch. Three Ellas wearing the same dull brown dreaa that had been new. when ahe met Mlml at tho train from Newton three years ago. The brown took the life from her hair, dredged tho color from her face and eyes. Haant Learned Yet 'My-dear, you haven't learned much aboutmarrlage yet," EMa'a voice cams through the disxlneas that aeemed to be In her mind aa well aa her body. "All men can be managed, and If you wished you could manage Doug as you pleased. You consider him entirely too much " "But I don't want to manage him," Mlml protested, and the dullness dull-ness auddenly left her. "You'll have to If you want to get anything out of your marriage. All men have to be managed, Mimi. You're Just too stubborn to admit ad-mit It" A little allenc followed that and Into the ailence came the aubdued buss of the front door belL Candy cam through the dining room. "Let me answer It, Miss Mimi" "No, I wllL" The girl alipped out of her chair and,, going to and the geraatum bath salts she liked snd which Mr. Parriah had ' given her la great e, nan titles last ' Christmas, They knew that she ' wore a four B shoo, and aa eight : and a half stocking, snd they knew ' that shs waa ut the height of j Candy's daughter. Rose, who was ' eleven and atill growing aad Bow ' was five feet three inches tall. ' Wasn't Rose wearing dreaaaa that' belonged to Mrs. Parrish and a ' cost not shoos, though T Candy and her friends and. moat of all, , Rose, were sick about this, for ' Rose hsd large feet Tho Parriah family might know very little about Candy, except about her Rose, but Candy and 1 her friends know a good deal about them. "Candy," Mlml celled, opening her eyea. . Wants to Know "Yes, Miss Mlml?" tho woman ; stopped at the grilled Iron gate , which was tho door of tho dining room. "What does It feel like having a baby?" "You goto' to have a baby, Miaa Mlml?" -"I don't know." "You don't want no baby, Miss i Mimi. . Why, you wouldn't know what to do with a baby!" A looting loot-ing of InUnae disappointment awept Candy. Her two years with the Parriahaa had been happy. She highly approved of both her master mas-ter and her mistress. They lived the life shs would very n)uch have Uked to live herself If she could. They didn't worry and they loved each other, and ao many of the people Candy bad worked for ahe had worked In other people homos sine she was bo older than her daughter was now worried and weren't In love. Candy didn't like the combination of worry and1 love. She liked love and youth and a carefree attitude toward life. Which waa why ahe preferred her rar-i rar-i rishes, which was why she tVked about them ao much to her frCnda and why ah set Miss Mlml Bp as ' a model for her daughter, f And now Miss Mlml was talking talk-ing shout a baby. "I 111 you, Mis Mlml. you don't know what you're talkln' about Why, you ain't got the remotest Idea what a baby Is. I had three , by tho time I was twenty-one , Roa Is the only one I got left ao I knows what la talkln' about Tyin you down when you're so young" ."I'm twenty-two, Candy, that's old i enough. If you were twenty-one I when you had three, then I ahould ' be old enough at twenty-three, ' which Til be when the baby coma." "It ws different with me" "I don't see any difference,1' Make a Dltferenao ' Well, if Miss Mlml didn't the ; difference, h waa blind, that waa 1 all and It waan't up to Candy to 1 Ull her what the difference waa. 1 'Children aometlmes, they make ' a difference," he aaid, cautiously. 'They make a difference In your 1 life." Candy had seen them change ' lives In families ahe had worked ; for. Sh wasn't thinking of her ' own life as she said that she was ' thinking of white folks' lives. "But -they don't have to." 1 "No, I guess they don't have to, but I hope if you do have a baby ' you ain't goln' to take things serl- ous like, like Mis' Cray." Mimi'a ' laugh rang through the room. ' "I promise on my word of honor that I won't Uke thing scrioua- like, whatever you mean by that ' Besides, I'm not sure that I'm go-1 go-1 lng to have a baby. You never ' do know until you go to a doctor, ' do you?" "I don't know nothln' about doctors. doc-tors. I never went to. none with ( my three." The phone rsng snd Mlml wsnt I Into the bedroom where the In- atrument stood on the table be-1 be-1 tween the two maple beds and un-i un-i der the whit lamp with the red i ball fringe. The phone, which was t white, cost th Famine 60 cents - a month extra on their bill, but 1 they didn't care because they didn't want a homely black phone spoiling th effect of their bedroom. r Robertson's store was calling to 1 remind Mr. Parrish that her bill f wu past dua. Mr. Parriah aaid '. It would be taken care 6f at once, i that it had flipped her mind, r But when in put th phone back on Its atandard she wasn't think- - lng of th suave voice of the credit t manager at Robertson. Sh was wondering whether ahe ahould tall 1 Doug today, or wait until latr . , . i Not about the atore calling, about i tho baby, t (Continued Tuesday. Copyright , 1M7, for Th Telegram) jf pera which wouldn't last many H dancing evenings. She should have bought the S2.M pair. They would have done. She'd ask Doug, but she knew the answer I j, even before she asked him. Doug y would want her to have the more i expensive pair. She hugged the bundles to her ,t as sh thought of him and thought ' nf what he would aay about the slip-V slip-V pern, and it was almost aa if ahe ( hsd her arm around him, holding thlra close to her. In the Wave of I'eeling that pasaed like a warm ,'awift current through her ahe knew she loved, him more now than ah i had two years ago when sh married mar-ried blm, and that he loved her more. Disable . ' When th warm current went away it left the new dixxineaa that ' v Uh had thought this morning was I f gon. Sh shuffled her bundles into w her left srm and with her right if braced herself againat th amooth I bronse walla of tho elevator. After the car atopped ahe atayed as she was, the floor still reeling under her. It waa only when aha heard a 1 bussing and knew someone waa ringing for the elevator that ahe , slid back the doors and atepped Into I the hail. !' Silly, getting disxy in an elevator, ao silly. Sh corrected herself immediately. im-mediately. She didn't get diasy only in elevators, ahe felt dizzy in other places, too. Yesterday, typing that , important letter for Miaa Fielding he thought ahe never would come . to the end of it Six sheets of paper she'd had to use to make three short readable paragraphs. Last lY night In the car with Doug going Lf for a little ride . . . If Nothing, of courae, nothing. She II only needed a vacation, but it 'I would be a long time to wait until J August The third of May today. I Rcllabel Candy I And ahe got so tired. No reason fl at: all to be tired today, but ahe : was, with practically nothing to do K all morning because Miss Jane U Fielding, assistant sales manager of I tho Chlldera' Electrical Products I company, had done nothing but sit f around and talk. L Through her fatigue came a I pleasant anticipation. Candy would I be 'there. The apartment would be 1 ahmlng, clean. There would be none "of ibe confusion she snd Doug had left that morning, disordered break-I break-I fast dishes, tumbled beds, the scattered scat-tered papera of the night before , on' the living room floor. Candy, fwith her fine sense of .order, would have everything straightened out, A the beds made, the breakfast things l!i laid on the table, because she was rfXnot cooking dinner for the Par-: Par-: i rishe tonight; th blind in th 6 living room would be cool snd fra-V fra-V grant; even Mimi' dreaa pressed yand ready for tonight. 4 Candy, with her black face ahin-ting, ahin-ting, her ready drawling laugh on ll-er lips. Candy, who came every lfC0rnoon except Sunday, but at (what time Mimi never knew, let "Jifelf in with her own key, took up the money Mlml had left on the kitchen aink which wa to buy the dinner and necessary supplies. Whether she ahopped first or put th apartment to rights first, Mimi never knew either, and never asked It. It was enough that when she anil Doug returned from work the rooms were clean and Candy was in the kitchen, a big white apron over her black uniform, calling out a welcome as only ahe could call it and dinner was served 19 minutes min-utes later. Where Candy went after the dishes were washd and th breakfast break-fast things set on In the little dining din-ing room, Mimi didn't know. It Candy Jones wss her name. Doug thought Candy waa for Candida and sometime in a facetious mood called her that although Candy aaid aha knew nothing about being christened Candida. Sharp Stab The pleasant anticipation vanished van-ished when she stepped into her living room, collapsed as If It had bean a balloon suddenly sUbbed by a aharp pin. The pia thla afternoon waa her aiiter-in-law, nodding to her from the couch. Even tho presence pres-ence of Candy hurrying to take her bundles and give her a welcoming greeting didn't have the effect of rasing Mimi's spirits onw that she waa home. "Though rd come by and aee bow you were. We haven't aeen you for a long time;" Ella Cray aaid, reproachfully. "We've been so busy," Mlmit murmured, mur-mured, her standard excuse to Ella's demands that she and Doug visit them often. There followed a atab of conscience when ahe remembered re-membered that It had been more than aix week since they had called at her brother's house. But it wasn't as if she never saw Cliff. Sh did every day, sometimes several sev-eral times, for he worked for the am company ah did, down the hall In th accounting department, not far from her deik in the sales office. At least once a day ahe asked Cliff about Ella and the children. If the Grays hsd a phone ahe would have called Ella several times a week, but they didn't a phone was one of the . luxuries Ella wouldn't allow herself snd If Mlml and Doug made the trip out to West Fifty-ninth street after dinner, they were aura to find the children aaleep. Of course, there were Sundaya, Sun-daya, Ella would say, but Sundays belonged to her and to Doug to do as they chose. Most Sundays they didn't choose to go out to the Grays. They preferred the rollicking carefree care-free company of the Thorntons and the companionship they had with the Anthonys. Different At the Grays, well, there was Cliff, of course, and Mimi adored him. He was older than she, 32 to her 23, her only brother, but aometlmes when she was with him now she felt the older, the more children, Gordon, who was B, a small edition of his father even to his red hair; Dennis, who was T and blone like his mother, and Alice Ann, the baby, who was 4 and resembled re-sembled both of her parents. And there was Ella . . . Mlml remembered aa If It were yesterday the day 10 years ago when Cliff had brought Ella home to Newton on their honeymoon. She waa only 12 then, and Ella aeemed to her the loveliest girl she had ever aeen. She couldn't get enough of looking at her blue eyea. Th longer ah looked, the bluer and deeper they seemed; and her skin waa the blush ot a pal rose, and her hail all glinting and pure gold, and the aertou puzzled way she hsd ot lifting her thin dark browa, th worship In her eyes when she turned to Cliff. It was worship, wasn't It? Mlml had often naked harielf that queatlon quea-tlon since. Or was It watchful patience? pa-tience? However, at 12 the girl had called It worahip and it aeemed wonderful that Cliff was going to be happy, that Ella waa so lovely and .that they were married young enough for Cliff to have his happiness happi-ness and Ella's beauty all at the same time. She dreamed at night of Ella and Cliff, and In bar dreams Ella was clothed like a prlncaaa and moved about with the stately grace aha imagined that a princess would have. She knew Cliff too well to endow him aa a prino even In her dreams, so he stayed a human being, be-ing, a man, but a man above others. She's Practical "She' practical too." their mother moth-er said. Shs made the remark to her mother, also a widow, who lived with them. 'That'll be good for Cliff. He needs that." "You can be too practical," Anne Felton remarked dryly. "It doeant d oa man much good when you're too practical" Mlml, who wasn't supposed to hear the conversation, forgot it until later years later. When she was 12 practicality seemed a great virtue in Ella regardless ot what her grandmother thought about it as great a virtue as her beauty and her ability to make Cliff happy. Now whenever ahe aaw Ella ahe thought of her grandmother's terse ststement Three year ago when he had come from Newhon'a only business college to Cliffs great city to take a Job with his company, ahe lived with them and paid Ella monthly for her room and board. For a year ahe had been one of the household In the little place until un-til she married Doug. Three years ago the change In Ella had shocked her. She worried about it at night, remembering the dreams of that year when Cliff brought Ella home to ahow to his mother, grandmother and hi sister. sis-ter. Ella was no longer the lovely princess. Mlml found herself searching In her face for some semblanc of that princess. Some- . : l. u t. to making Cliff 1200 a month salary sal-ary atretch to all the uses she hsd for It and sho had many, the Immediate Im-mediate uaaa and the distant future fu-ture onea which ahe say even more clearly than ahe saw the present. AfUr that came her children and their need of her. After ber children came her home, and then Cliff. There was no room in her energy for heraelf, and no need to think of heraelf. The aoft beauty of her feature waa going, and a sharpness waa didn't matter what Candy hoard-she hoard-she bad to deal with the front door in the afternoons, and ah knew that th ParrUhaa had some creditors. ' The blue of ber eyes had paled. At times they were almost colorless. color-less. Her golden hair, too, was darker, and the natural curl of It was brushed smoothly swsy from Ella's forehead she didn't have time to fuss with It, sh ssld. Although there were still curve on Ella's body, the curves to Mlml seemed to be sharp rather than rounded. It hurt 1he girl that Ella did not care that her beauty had changed so for it had not entirely disap-appeared disap-appeared that Cliff did not see it leaving, for he didn't Mimi was sure of that To him, Ella waa the aame girl he married. He humored her, he obeyed ber, he let her do hla future planning for him, take his money which was so hard earned and do what ahe wanted with It Rcbela Sometimes Now and then he rebelled In a quiet way, and Ella waa wise enough to agree with him and wait. In the end ahe would get her way. So Cliff was still smoking bis half package of clgareU a day, although Ella thought the extravagance too great and having his cup of coffee in the mornings and at night at home, although ah had convinced herself that coffee waa not good for any mortal's nerves. Cliff as the provider for the family fam-ily had little to say about hla household, house-hold, nothing really. The few little lit-tle liberties he had had been dearly won. A fine woman." he aaid to Mimi often about Ella. And when he was In a very confidential mood as he had been yesterday when he met hia sister for lunch. "Do you know that ahe had 1 1700 in the sev-ng sev-ng bank? That'a more than a lot of fellows have who orn twice my salary and haven't a child in the world" "New, Isn't it?" Ella asked, pointing point-ing to the lamp on the table at the end of the couch. Mimi nodded wearily. She knew what was coming. com-ing. It came. "How much did It cost?" that was Ella. Sh couldn't rest until he had found out what everything every-thing cost When Mimi and Doug furnished their apartment soon after af-ter their marriage, Ella gave them constant advice on prices. For al ine aoor, openea ii a craca. ai ( Ella hadn't been there, ahe would j have . opened it wide, because it didn't' matter what Candy heard t ahe had to deal with the front door , In Uie afternoons, and ahe knew j that' the Parrishes had some creditors. credi-tors. ( Ella Doesn't Know , Ella didn't know, however, and I Mlml didn't Intend that ahe should, i It was ths man about tho radio. Mimi knew him, sho had talked to ' him many times before, so she I let herself out into ths hail and I closed the door of Sis after her. i What she said to th man who waa a collector from the radio company and what the man said to her was not for Ella's eara, be-caue be-caue Ella made a great point of . having no creditors. The conversation didn't last long, because she promised faithfully that there would be a check in the company com-pany office the first thing Monday Mon-day morning, not only for one Instalment In-stalment which waa five dollars, but for the two that were due. Simply neglect on their part and ahe was very, very sorry. The man went away half satis-fled satis-fled and not ao content but feeling feel-ing he had done his best and Mimi returned to the living room and glanced at the radio, which technically tech-nically belonged to the company until the five paymenU due were completed. From the radio ahe glanced at the couch from which Ella waa rising, the table at each arm, at the rug, the prim secretary, through the open door to the bedroom with Its neat maple furniture and marine blue candlewick spreads on the beds. Every stick of furniture seemed to be her own, she had used every piece of It for two years, and yet it wasn't hers. The man from the radio company had made that qulta clear In the hall Nothing was yours until you had completed paymenU on it. "A salesman," sh murmured to Ella, her eyes catching; ths deep burn on th table under the new lamp which Doug's clgaret had left there. Both h and Candy wer glad when Ella left. Candy cam out from th kitchen, her black ys twinkling, heaving a great audible sigh of relief, and Mlml sat back in her chair and closed her eyes. Looks at Ml trees Th black woman moved quietly to the couch and plumped up the pillow against which Ella Uray'e bark had rested. From there ahe moved to the windows snd pulled over the drapes a little. Just enough so that the room would be dim and Miaa Mimi could rest if she wanted to. She looked at her mistress mis-tress when the shades were fixed to her satisfaction. She Uked to look at Mra. Parrish. Friend in her own particular neighborhood had heard a good deal about Mrs. Parriah, and they knew every detail of her beauty. They had heard about her auburn hair, not. red. mind you, but darker Ella was tired snd relaxed, but her sister-in-law didn't relax very much. Bhe woudln't let herself, taking IU place. Her noae aharp, ber chin, poinUd, her full lip tlghUr and mors and mor often held together in an uncompromising uncompromis-ing lin. Thtr were linen oa her forehead which bad been so smooth when sh waa a bride. Doug called them her "price wf butter" Unas. He aaid every time the coat of butter but-ter went up a htw furrow cam in her brow. To Busy Ther wss too much for her to do, too much to worry shout to relax. re-lax. All th magnificent energy of hr body, aad her mind waa given moot everything they had she said they hsd paid too much. Now when Mlml todl the price of a lamp, she siad it was outrageous. Cant Underatand It "Going out tonight I so." which meant that before Mlml came home ho must hav looked In the bedroom bed-room and seen the dress Candy had pressed and spread on th bed for her m litres, snd the dinner Jacket ahe had brushed and hung en a chair for her master. , ' Mimi aaid they, were going out to dinner and to dance. They often did on Saturday nights. "Seems a shame to hav a maid to cook your dinners aad then go i out and aat at a restaurant" Ellen than red, and darker than polished copper. Csndy was constantly trying try-ing to explain to them Just what she meant and always falling. Short hair that Miss Mlml combed so carelessly and yet when her comb was put aside it lay In aoft natural waves about her face. They knew about Miss Mlml's greet eyes that were a solf brown with reddish glint in them, and thick long lsshes above them, and about her akin which wu pal and which in th summer freckled over her nose. They knew the kind of lipstick sho used, and the sun tan polish she had put on har nails at th beauty shop, and th brand of powder pow-der that want oa her soft skin, |
