| Show culmination 88 by FANNIE HURST CC by e newspaper p Synill cate se ANDA WHALEN we was s what W WANDA you might call a small town girl irl with a big town spirit although she had bad been born in the pretty town ot of a ehrl thriving ving enough little place situated on a river notable for or the beauty of its wi winding banks wanda had practically ne never v er lived there that Is until she c came ame home from an eastern college and found herself f tor or the first time in her eighteen years confronted with the idea of spending a winter at home up to that time there had been the two years that tile the whalend had bad spent abroad previous to the death of her father cyrus whalen president of the city bank then there had bad been wandas years at a young ladles ladies school in boston and the subsequent four years at a girls college in new york state summers had been spent either at the elaborate camps of elaborate friends the Ar edrose estate in canada or in europe all in all had seen practically nothing of wanda since her toddling years meanwhile the town had grown quite a residential district had sprung up around the end of town that was still dominated by the handsome old whalen mansion what with her parents recent death and the marriage of an only brother and his subsequent removal to salt lake city wanda was virtually the head of that mansion when in she shared it with a maternal aunt named rosa lee masters A faded rather lovely looking edition of the more robustly charming woman who had been wandas mother rosa lee ran the house with effectiveness and skill the brief periods that wanda spent at home were entirely devoid of the responsibilities of her elaborate household or of the many duties that might naturally clamor tor for the attention of a young heiress recently come into large holdings between lee and an old ill distant family relative and lawyer named jade wandas days continued to be peculiarly carefree care free and devoted almost entirely to the business of making them as enjoyable as possible to the girls of who sometimes did wanda injustice to regard her frequent comings and goings a snobbery she was nonetheless an object of perpetual fascination and mystery there was something exotic about wanda she belonged to a great outside world of doings that made her a person apart from the usual run even the girls who were in a position to travel about ft a bit themselves and who had bad enjoyed the advantages of finishing school were nonetheless a little under the spell of wanda she rode horseback like a daredevil the streets of gaped to see her striding through then in natty knickers on a cross country jaunt she had bad a swimming pool built on the extensive grounds of the whalen mansion and there were rumors of midnight swims when eastern friends came out for house parties once a motion picture star of international reputation a polish pianist and a senator from new york state had made lip the personnel of one of these visiting groups wandas name and photograph were forever in tile the paper to say nothing of 0 the eastern society and daily sheets the town a agreed reed a little reluctantly that was no place for her there was really nothing there to keep entertained and occupied a girl of the world worl d like wanda wanda although she felt an affection a for her little home city came to about the same decision that first winter she spent there there were one or two girls who were agreeable to her edna martin who rode lode horseback with her and the young daughter of the mayor of the town A pretty girl named tyron there were even one or two of tile the local boys congenial to her larry Ples Plex otto who was a lawyers apprentice and who drove his fathers theis fa car like a chizz and a rather reserved young fellow claiborne clay whose father had once been one of the influential men cl cf the state but whose family hail had gradually fallen into arrears until claiborne and his mother last survivors occupied a little gray eray frame house on the edge of the town ciambrone CIal brone was good tun fun because beca tise he be was of a quieter and more thoughtful nature than any of the boys who frequented ile he was an architect by preparation and was already eagerly working toward the day when alien he would have earned sufficient for his first trip abroad but outside of this small group of picked friends wandas interests lay jay in the world beyond new york with its theaters theat th enters cra its concerts its pastimes lured her there were old ties to be renewed with friends she had met during the years abroad wanda yearned yen rued for a year in paris Ai another lother in home Buda budapest vienna 1 tier her first quick judgment in these years year after the death of her parents was to sell the whalen house and take up permanent abode in new york sentiment forbade that beside it was fitting that while rosa lee lived the house should be kept up to for her B but u t it was decided almost without opposition indeed with the co opera tion of jade that the thing to or r wanda to do now that her business interests were sufficiently concentrated c cent en tr rated was to practically transfer her residence to the metro metropolis polls in a subtle way in a fashion not to bring the rebuke of down upon her pretty head because after all it was wag in sled med rose that the whalend had accumulated their fortune had been kind to her family deep in her heart however much as the sleepy little town might have bored her wanda felt this and was grateful crateful so on the bright spring morning that wanda set out from for new york few except her intimates knew that there was anything unusual u s ual about this particular departure to all external intents and purposes wanda was simply oil off on another of her frequent jaunts here her there and everywhere the society column reported it the society w weekly ek commented upon it and there was wag an end of it IL but what the town at large did not know was that wanda was practically as she stood chic and gayly dressed at the station that day shaking the dust of on off her pretty feet edna martin and tyron and larry and claiborne were at the station to bid her adieu there was a more solemn note than usual lying underneath it all wanda was practically leaving tor for good tyron in spite of the tha fact that wanda was promising to take her abroad with her the next summer but one shed frank tears as the train pulled out the boys doffed coffed hats rather sadly there was something a little too final about it alt all not to be depressed by it IL for twenty eight months wanda did not set toot foot in and contrary to her ter expectations neither did she go abroad because of a course in Inter interior lor decoration which tad bad caught her attention in new york and to which she devoted the major part or of her time tyron went to paris on funds gaily supplied by wanda but to the surprise of those who aho knew her the young heiress went through with the work that was interesting her at home at its conclusion however she did go abroad on a twelve months tour of italy and france dero devoting ting her time to a study of the galleries and old interiors of the larger european cities they were pleasant moo months filled with interest in her work and an honest and sustained desire to get on I 1 in it again her friends marvelled marvel led wanda was by nature as gay gar and as temperamentally pera mentally many colored as an a humming bird wanda liked to flirt wan wall da liked to drive fast cars dance danca the shimmering shimmying dances of 0 the period ride gondolas to moonlight with a youth proper to the oc caslon wanda was in search of she admitted it to herself it was part of the wanderlust somewhere on the face of the globe that she was free to wander at will there lurked what she sought it kept her feet wandering wander lag on OIL it beckoned her from city to city from country to country from mood to mood somewhere lurked romance site she found it in an old corner of a garden in florence taming a shaded watt suddenly in the boball gardens she came upon the left shoulder of a young man dab bing paint upon a canvas that was propped upon a small easel F for or ten minutes standing there regarding that left shoulder wanda the levelheaded level headed beaded wanda knew before he swung around to face her that she was in love knew it with a curious and in this athla ense case a most surefire sure fire instinct of hers that was never to fall her of course the face when it swung around was to bowl her over to paralyze her tor for the moment with surprise with a flutter of heart beat it was the face of claiborne clay it was the face that was ultimately to lead her from the four corners of the earth back to for the culmination of her romance |
