Show TYRANNY OF HER DAUGHTER an fn LAW I 1 it if you 11 promise not to tell a soul charlotte har lotte said mrs darlington to her hostess III admit that I 1 in suffering from train an overdose of daughter in law A certain amount is a mental stimulus too much simply stultifies frances my son arthur arthurs s wife ame to visit me just at the time all well regulate housekeepers think they have lave to go through the deadening process known as housecleaning she vent went on now don t breathe it to i soul but I 1 never clean house I 1 gainly try to keep things nice and comfortable but my natural instinct Is to avoid dirt my altitude attitude Is that it if it will leave me alono I 1 wll wil leave it alone who minds a little dust under the beds and in the closets I 1 will answer rny my own conundrum by telling y you ou that frances does she Is perfectly antol arant about it she Is constantly talk ing about germs and microbes since I 1 in con confessing tessing al all I 1 my S shortcomings I 1 1 will admit that I 1 don t believe in ml int robes anyway they re far too small frances does though oh dear aes es she does she simply can cant t sit down and read happily unless the house has been thoroughly swept and garnished I 1 can do it without a tremor I 1 can leave dishes unwashed until every dish in the house has been used and not feel a qualm frances has the dishes round eu ed up and washed so quickly after they hae hane been used that she leaves you with a defrauded feeling as though you had been done out of part of your meal the morning after she came I 1 saw her eying the living room curtains I 1 must confess were not im maculate don t look at those curtains frances I 1 said in my merry light hearted way I 1 know they re not very clean but I 1 in going to have the laundress wash and iron them mon day frances half opened her mouth then shut it again I 1 wondered at the time why she t eay say whatever it was she had on her mind but later in the day I 1 found out mother she said tactfully francis is very tactful that afternoon when hen we e were sitting in the living room having haning what I 1 considered a cozy little chat I 1 ive ve been wondering it if it be nicer if e should get some curtain stretchers and stretch the curtains on them instead of hav ing the laundress wash and iron them to make a long short she dragged me downtown that very after noon and we bought curtain stretch es e s the next morning with her oan own hands she washed those curtains cur taina oh there is 1 no doubt that she Is bonder nonder tul ful I 1 stand in the greatest awe ol 01 any one who can wash things clean I 1 never could they re always much worse when hen I 1 finish with them than when I 1 began after the curtains were arranged to suit her I 1 happened to mention that I 1 had some material which I 1 intended to make into comforters when the spirit moved me again speaking metaphorically she fell upon that ma aerial tooth and nail then for or days ehe she and I 1 struggled and perspired amid bil billows lovis of cotton when one morning she accidental ly opened the door of the chamber of horrors I 1 thought she was going to faint the chamber of horrors by the way is the room into which it la Is the time honored custom of th the family to pitch everything that the family wishes to rid itself of personally I 1 bet get along very nicely by simply shut ting my eyes opening the door slight ly and shying in the article then after the door Is shut I 1 have no fur ther qualms but frances got quite white when she looked in she made me feel she gho did it tactfully that no decent self respecting woman could exist in a house with a chamber of horrors so together we pulled and hauled and worked and suffered and threw things away and had a perfect ly horrible time generally but we finely emerged in that pathetic and despicable condition called as neat as a pin I 1 it took us days to do it and we were both nearly dead when we got through but the very next morning after we finished it if you can believe me I 1 found her with her head out of the window and the air of a hound that is just getting the scent she was listening to a vacuum cleaner that was chugging across the street oh mother she said I 1 in m going out to see if those men can t come to morrow I 1 frances I 1 I 1 said ou will do noth ing of the kind I 1 positively refuse to be any cleaner than I 1 am from now to the end of your visit I 1 intend to have my kind of a good time een enen if there tan t a foor swept or a dish washed I 1 did it said mrs darlington gloatingly I 1 kept frances whirling in a perfect vortex of matinees and luncheons and afternoon teas and I 1 had a beautiful time but I 1 relented the day before she went away and let her clean up the house for me frances Is a dear girl mrs dar lington declared finally but ehe she gainly has a weird idea of having a good time chicago daily news |