| Show youth will be served s by MARIE MARSH mcclure syndicate service G OSH said mrs gleason pushing her small feet painfully into smaller dancing slippers excy excuse se me tom for saying gosh but id rather scrub floors than to go to that dance tom gleason looked sympathetically from his post before the chiffonier where he was struggling with the studs of his evening shirt 1 I j suppose weve got to go oh I 1 suppose so said the young wife now carefully brushing the collar of toms evening coat as it lay on the bed housework and the twins are nothing to compare with what I 1 have to undergo for that younger set I 1 promised to chaperon them grace hayes will meet us at the clubhouse and add will be back tor for the night your brother I 1 suppose will be there and hell want the other spare room I 1 thought once wed pull off a match with them them echoed tom sneeringly just like the rest of the younger set crazy for excitement never settle down and have real happiness the way we did young people are different nowadays tom was all of five years older than his brother james an hour later jim gleason tried the front door of the gleason suburban homed home found it locked and made an unceremonious entrance through a partly open front window he found a pair of slippers and a smoking jacket of his brothers in a downstairs hall closet A foraging expedition in the kitchen resulted in in s some ome crullers crul lers of his sister in laws baking and some apples he filled his pipe with his brothers tobacco poked the embers threw on a fresh log and sat eat down to enjoy all the comforts of a home not his own at 1030 he heard a knock on the front d door 0 or and opened it to see grace hayes in day clothes and with an overnight bag in her handl hand 1 I thought be at the dance she said no drawled james 1 I cant stand the pace I 1 said I 1 might come but it was only for an excuse to spend the night here how these married people want to gad about as they do I 1 cant see with a home like this have a cruller and an apple he interrupted pointing to the outlay on the table able gee if I 1 had a little house like this and a wife believe me id stay at home but then were different grace looked wistfully into the fire 1 I know she said girls are different now naw they are more serious there was a long and rather painful pause then james gleason bent toward grace who was sitting up straight in her chair grace wont you marry me no grace said still very wistful 1 I think I 1 would marry you if I 1 married any one jimmy but im afraid of marriage it seems to change people so im afraid that once I 1 was married id be like your sister in law and you might change about and be as mad about dancing and excitement as tom then one or two of the twins walled wailed out from the floor above and grace with james in her wake fled to the nursery they were busy executing requests for drinks of water when tom and mabel let themselves in the front door below well were back again to home sweet home said tom james and grace went noiselessly down to the landing where they could see them then tom leaned toward mabel alabel and took her hand in his theres nothing like it is there little wife he said more than ever I 1 cant understand this point of view of the younger set theres my brother jim could marry any day he wanted to and theres grace continued mabel ashes independent herself she have to wait for a man to support her 1 I guess they are different they dont know the meaning of home here we went over to that dance on purpose to get them together and they even come I 1 suppose something more exciting kept them both there would have been more of this sort of thing between the glea sons if grace had not missed a step on the stairway she gave a very little scream and clung to jim the gleasons gleasona Glea sons hurried to the hall and snapped on the electric light that showed grace being upheld with unnecessary tenacity by jim we mean to overhear you said grace we heard all we needed jim laughed we heard enough to know that you and tom are home folks after all somehow I 1 think that what we heard is going to make a big difference in our lives perhaps they whispered something or perhaps they said it aloud or perhaps they understood each other just by an exchange of glances no one of the quartet just remembered how it happened later but there on the landing grace told mabel and jim told his brother tom and there were general congratulations and a few tears and tom and jim shook hands and mabel kissed grace and then kissed her husband and kissed jim and it was not until later that they remembered that ten minutes earlier Grace had quite definitely told jim that she had no intention of marrying anyone |
