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Show u N O. SERVICE S CHAPTER X Continued 12 "You'd think Del was some sort of a heathen," said Aunt Olympia the day after they arrived at Shires. "And I'm not sure but in some ways he is," she added thoughtfully. "Seems to me even a heathen would have the nerve to speak to that worm about his conduct." "My dear," remonstrated the Senator, Sen-ator, "that is one thing that can't be done in any sort of political circles." "What can't be done?" "Speaking to your opponent about his conduct." "Who's talking about your opponent? oppo-nent? I'm talking about Cece Dodd. I want you to tell him to keep away from here. I've got trouble enough." "My dear, he was supposed to stay with us. That's what you hired him for, wasn't it?" "Well, I, didn't hire him to go call-eyed over Limpy. You tell him to quit looking at Limpy. Every time I glance up I see him looking at Limpy. It's getting on my nerves. You tell him to stop it." "My dear," he said in a pained voice, "I can't do that. He isn't a boy, you know. He's doing a good job. You can't tell a man what he's to look at, even if he's working for you. They'd have me up before Wages and Hours in no time." "Do you see any sense paying a man wages to spend his hours looking look-ing at at an infant? Is that what the N. L. R. B. stands for?" "My dear, you're making too much of this. Limpy is only a child. And a nice child. I like to look at her myself. She's a mere child." "You silly dunce! Don't you know children aren't what they used to be? Thus frustrated on every hand, Olympia conceived the notion of dropping a few delicate hints herself. her-self. She couldn't come right out in the open about it, because she realized that even if Limpy herself felt no personal interest in Cecil, she did enjoy being admired, and open opposition would arouse her and her sisters with her to her own defense. So Olympia decided to be diplomatic. "Well, Cece," she began pleasantly, pleasant-ly, when she finally cornered him alone, "what do you think of our girls?" "I think they're lovely," he said, with a warm smile; maudlin, Olympia Olym-pia called it. "Just lovely, in fact. When I think of poor Len stuck with those brats, I think I struck it pretty lucky." Olympia ground her teeth, but silently. si-lently. "Isn't Adele beautiful?" she asked, leading him on. "They all are," he said generously. generous-ly. "Every one of them." "Adele's the most beautiful and you can't deny it," she persisted, doggedly. "I don't agree with you." He light-Ed light-Ed a cigarette, looking worldly and sophisticated. "Beauty, you know, Is entirely a matter of taste." "It is not!" she said rudely. "It's matter of complexion and features and hair. And it may interest you lo know that all real authorities on beauty artists and sculptors and real authorities say Adele is far and away the most beautiful." "Oh, perhaps, from their point of view," he conceded. "Personally, I don't agree with them." "Well, what's wrong with her looks, you silly dunce?" she demanded de-manded irritably. "Nothing. Nothing's wrong with them. Her looks are lovely. But In my opinion, her kind of beauty Is well, it's not natural. It's not spontaneous. It looks artificial, almost al-most theatrical." Aunt Olympia could hardly believe her ears. She was speechless. "Now, you take beauty well, like Limpy's for instance," he said, warming to his subject "Now Limpy's Lim-py's beauty is honest and clean-cut and straightforward. There's nothing noth-ing stagy about it. It's just plain, unvarnished, straight-to-the-heart beauty." "Adele's not varnished, either," she said feebly. "I've seen her come straight from her bath. I've watched her make up. I know what I'm talking about." "Oh, probably not," he said indifferently. in-differently. "But the effect is the same. It looks made-up. Limpy's different." "Do you realize," began Olympia, half-choking, "that Limpy is is a perfect infant? A mere child?" "To a man of my age and genera) gen-era) experience," he said gently, "there is nothing in the world so beautiful as a brave, glowing little bud just blossoming out." Aunt Olympia got up and walked straight out of the room. She had to. She was afraid if she remained she would choke him with her bare hands and that would end the campaign cam-paign in a hurry. "It'll probably end up by my do ing it anyhow," she told the Senator savagely. "But I'm making every effort to wait till after the election." "You can't really blame him, my dear, for liking the child's looks," he argued mildly. "Everybody likes her looks. You know, Ollie, to tell the truth," he continued hesitantly, "I like her looks better than Adele's myself." Olympia groaned. That was the gall and wormwood of it. She did, too. Her distress was so great that the Senator decided to speak to Cecil himself, without telling her anything about it; for the Senator was devoted de-voted to Olympia and would humiliate humili-ate himself to almost any depth to spare her distress. He had Cecil sent up to his library and closed the door. "See here, Cecil," he began, mat-ter-of-factly; "I want you to stop flirting with Limpy." "Cecil rose right up out of his chair to answer that. "Flirting with Limpy, sir! I'm not flirting with Limpy!" "You're not! You're not flirting with Limpy? . . . Well, what do you call it?" "I don't call it anything, sir. But I know it isn't flirting. I'm crazy cra-zy about Limpy." "Well, stop it! Her aunt and I will positively not permit anybody to be crazy about Limpy until after the election." "Iwouldn't dream of flirting with Limpy," said Cecil, aggrievedly. "Any time. The election has nothing noth-ing to do with it" "Well, you've got her aunt all upset up-set about it and we can't worry about Limpy and win an election at the same time." "But what have I done, Senator? I've been very careful ... I only gave her that pin and everybody wears Sloppy pins ... And Mrs. Slopshire asked me to be nice to the girls." "To the girls, yes. Not to Limpy. Just to Helen and Adele. They're as good as married anyhow. Not Limpy." "You know, Senator," Cecil confessed con-fessed shyly, "I could get married myself if she was old enough. With my political experience in this campaign cam-paign I'm sure to land a good job somewhere. And I've got money enough to take care of a wi a woman. I could do a lot better for a girl than Len Hardesty." "You've got to stop looking at her," said the Senator firmly. "But Senator, you must realize there's no place else to look when Limpy's there," remonstrated Cecil desperately. "I'm sorry, Cece, but you've got to stop it Pay attention to your work. And when you are discussing discuss-ing the campaign with us, you needn't address your remarks to Limpy. She's not running for office and I am." "I'll try, Senator," he said unhappily. un-happily. , "I don't want to upset Mrs. Slopshire and I do want the campaign to go through all right. But Senator, you must see how impossible im-possible it is to look at anybody else when Limpy's in the room." "I'll keep her out of the room as much as I can," promised the Senator, Sen-ator, kindly. "You keep your eyes glued to Mrs. Slopshire. Discretion is the best policy at your age. When you get to be my age, a glance or two at Limpy won't hurt you. It'll even set you up a little. But for the time being, you stick to Mrs. Slopshire." CHAPTER XI During the first week of October, the trailer entourage established Baystown as headquarters and were giving parking facilities in the Community Com-munity Center. From this base, the campaigners went off daily on flying fly-ing junkets by automobile with a noisy escort of police. It had been a hard week, for this was the beginning begin-ning of the Senator's state-wide sweep for votes. On Saturday, Aunt Olympia exhibited ex-hibited a degree of nervous energy for which not even the hard week could be held entirely accountable. She spent the morning relaxing in bed and studying manuscript. She spent the afternoon having a facial, a wave, a mud pack and a hot bath. The Senator had gone off with Dave and Cecil to attend a picnic of the Young Democrats at Hard-castle, Hard-castle, planning to return to Bays-town Bays-town in time to address the big rally in the Auditorium at eight o'clock. He had wanted to take the girls along, but Aunt Olympia had put her foot down on that. "No, I want them to get rested up so they'll be pretty and fresh tonight," she said. "And if Limpy were off with you and Cece I wouldn't be able to concentrate. You go, and keep your eye on Cece. If he gets back here ahead of you, I'll have him arrested." Aunt Olympia made the girls take a brisk walk. She had tea and sandwiches sand-wiches ready for their refreshment on their return. "I want you to wear your prettiest pretti-est frocks tonight and look your sweetest." "Our wind-up costumes?" asked Limpy eagerly, for those fetching gowns had been kept under lock and key all summer. "No; not those. The next-to-prettiest." "Is this a special meeting, Auntie?" Aunt-ie?" asked Adele. "Well, it's apt to be," admitted Aunt Olympia nervously. "And it's my policy to be prepared for anything. any-thing. You see very possibly this may be the night the Senator will be late and they'll call on me for my extemporaneous speech. That's why I ordered these little corsages for all of us. Rosebuds. I prefer orchids but they look too expensive for a campaigner." "But why do we have to wear corsages and look nicer than usual? They won't call on us, will they?" "Oh, no, dears, of course not. But you will have to sit on the platform plat-form and look nice and take a bow or two." "But we always do that!" "Yes, but when I make my extemporaneous ex-temporaneous speech we always have extra photographers on hand . . . "Ladies and gentlemen,' " she murmured, working on her chin and smiling urbanely. At six o'clock, groups began streaming into the park. Microphones Micro-phones had been set up all over the grounds, so that those unable to crowd into the auditorium might hear. At seven, floodlights were turned on, and the band struck up. "We'd better dress now," said Aunt Olympia. "It's very crowded for four to dress in here," objected Adele. "Can't we take our bags and dash over to the hotel?" "No. It's more effective for them to summon us from the trailer; in case they call on us, of course. "Adele's not varnished either," she said feebly. You'd better take the full-length mirror, Adele. It doesn't make so much difference about the rest of us." Aunt Olympia's words were prophetic. pro-phetic. At eight o'clock, after preliminary pre-liminary speeches and introductions, introduc-tions, Jim Allen, the state chairman, chair-man, shouted into the microphone: "Attention, attention, attention! Ladies and gentlemen! We have just received word that our good friend, Senator Slopshire, has been unavoidably unavoid-ably detained at Hardcastle. He will not waste a moment getting here, but in the meantime, out here in the trailer just finishing their quiet supper, we have that grand old trouper, Olympia Slopshire, the Senator's wife, and her young nieces. Shall I try to induce Olympia Olym-pia to make a few remarks until the Senator gets here?" A roar of applause went up. "Jim's probably mentioned trying to induce me," said Olympia, blandly, bland-ly, dusting her face with powder and tucking back a nervous, curl. Jim Allen banged on the trailer door. Olympia opened it. "Mrs. Slopshire, the Senator is unavoidably detained a few minutes. Won't you come over and just say howdy to the folks? Just pass away the time till the Senator gets here?" "Now, Jim, you know I don't know a thing about politics! I leave all that to the Senator!" protested Aunt Olympia. "Well, they want to see you anyhow. any-how. Just hear them cheering over there! You don't have to make a speech just give them a smile! Come on, Mrs. Slopshire! Come on, girls." "Don't forget any of those extemporaneous ex-temporaneous wise-cracks you've been thinking up all summer," whispered whis-pered Limpy. "If I do, you can prompt me," said Aunt Olympia, in high good humor. The auditorium was packed to the door; packed a hundred feet beyond the doors, in fact, there was a rear entrance giving easy access to the platform, but Jim Allen forced a way through the crowd to lead his smiling contingent right through the voting public. "There she is!" "There they are!" "Good evening, Mrs. Slopshire!" "Rah, rah, rah, the ladies!" "The ladies. Ood bless them." Half a dozen hands reached down from the platform to assist them to mount, Olympia, Helen, Adele and Limpy. The applause continued for ten minutes, while the ladies, looking look-ing very pretty, stood bowing, smiling, smil-ing, waving their hands. Limpy, remembering the brats, threw kisses. Then Jim Allen roared for silence. "Ladies ladies and gentlemen! This lady needs no introduction to you! She's your lady! This is our old friend, Olympia Slopshire! She won't make a speech, she just wants to say howdy! Your lady, ladies and gentleman, Olympia Slopshire!" Olympia advanced, smiling, to the rostrum and put her handbag and gloves on it. Then she turned and shook a playful finger at Jim. "Now, Jim Allen, you only asked me to come and take a bow! You didn't say a word to me about making mak-ing a speech," she protested gaily. "I can't make a speech; I don't even know how to begin. Especially Especial-ly on politics. I always say one politician in a family is enough. Sometimes I think it is more than enough! Now if you wanted a speech on keeping the house, on running the family budget, on cheap recipes for canning fruit and making preserves, pre-serves, I could talk till election. "Why, I am not even enough of a politician to call you constituents!" she cried, keeping well in range of the microphone. "You're not constituents con-stituents to me! You're just friends, old friends and neighbors. That's all I know about politics. "Now because you are only my friends and neighbors, I want you to meet these three dear little children chil-dren of mine who have made me so happy and kept my heart and hands so full this year . . . Girls, come on, stand up! I want them to see what you look like." The girls tripped up and stood, smiling, grouped about her. "Now those of you who have families," fam-ilies," she went on, "understand that between providing nourishing meals, doing the mending and darning, darn-ing, superintending the laundry, safeguarding the health of my husband hus-band and these three children, I wouldn't have time to meddle in politics if I wanted to. But the girls mean more to me than politics. poli-tics. That's why I want you to be their friend and neighbor, as you are mine . . . This is Helen! . . . This is Adele! . . . And this is my little Limpy! . . . Stand up on a chair, Limpy! So they can see you!" Limpy was boosted, blushing, upon a chair, but she rose to it gallantly gal-lantly and threw more kisses. "You can sit down now, girls. "But I would not give you the wrong impression about my attitude," atti-tude," continued Aunt Olympia with sudden earnestness. "I am interested inter-ested just as you are in every detail, every movement, every law, every national policy, that affects our state and our country. Women are concerned with politics, because all problems that touch the home, the family, the school, the church, the health, are women's problems! What is there that concerns our nation na-tion that does not eventually lead straight to our homes, your home and mine? Labor, relief, flood control, con-trol, wages and hours, taxation, even ev-en war itself, rearmament, a naval policy, the affairs of commerce and agriculture all these are powerful electrical currents by which our homes are made safe and sweet, or are destroyed! "And since by our American system sys-tem of government the most glorious glori-ous system ever devised! May it never grow less! since by our system, sys-tem, all these delicate problems of government, of justice, of fair play, and of protection, must be worked out through politics, then, yes, I am interested in politics! What woman, worthy the name of wife, of mother, could remain uninterested and indifferent indif-ferent to the system by which food, clothing and shelter are provided for her children, which gives them education, edu-cation, which safeguards them from the ravages of war, which insures the security of their future, and endows en-dows them forever with the sacred right of freedom? "So yes, to that extent, I am interested in-terested in politics. Well, now, in this campaign, you may be surprised sur-prised to know," she said with a light laugh, "that these girls and I are for Senator Slopshire! . . . Aren't we, girls? Aren't we for the Senator!" The girls applauded prettily. pret-tily. "And why are we for the Senator? Sen-ator? Because we know him; we know he can be trusted; we know he understands our needs, our problems, prob-lems, and will work day and night, and give his lifeblood if necessary, for our well-being and the well-being of our friends and neighbors . . . Now if I thought someone else say some dentist or some grocery gro-cery clerk or even, say, Brother Wilkie! " She was silenced by a roar of boos "Yes, say even Brother Broth-er Wilkie! If I thought Brother Wilkie Wil-kie had better understanding in the ways of statesmanship, or more experience ex-perience in the affairs of government, govern-ment, and could do more for us for you and me, my friends, and for our children why, then I'd come right out and vote for Brother Wilkie. Wil-kie. I know Brother Wilkie makes a good preacher and I'd be glad to have him in our pulpit as my pastor. pas-tor. But I also know that Senator Slopshire is a great statesman and a cracking good senator and here's one vote he can count on!" Olympia sat down in a storm of applause and was obliged to rise and take a dozen or more bows. The girls had to rise and bow, too, and the committee had thoughtfully, almost al-most prophetically, provided great bouquets of flowers for every one of them, which were presented with more applause. (to be cotixi ed |