Margaret Busbee Shipp

“ From the half-open library door, Steven could see Mrs. Battersby saying good-by to her husband a moment or so later. It must be very heart-warming and flattering to have a woman put her soft cheek against yours, and cuddle up to you as if she could never let you go, when you have been mar- ried five years, and are withdrawing your presence for only an hour.
“Please don’t look at Maisie with pat- ronizing approval when she is making a goose of herself over Frank!” commanded Polly. ”

“ You know how it is in our country— when one politician abuses another, he says the man’s grandfather stole sheep and he himself takes bribes and is the tool of trusts and should be sent to the penitentiary, if he doesn’t get hanged as he really deserves. ”

“ A man never knew where to find her, or whether he was going to find her at all. She had her moods of withdrawal.
Steven recalled uneasily a confidence of Battersby’s:
“I tell you, Steve, the longer a man is married to one of these South Carolina women, the less he knows about her, and the more in love he is!”
As they rose from the luncheon-table, Maisie said:
“Don’t take too long to explain reci- procity to Polly, please. I think you’re quite brave to undertake it, Steve. We’re going to the exhibition later, you know, but Frank has to go to the bank for a short while.” ”

“ Compton was non-talkative, as he usually was when angry, while Miss Trenholm chatted in the courteous, degage manner she would use to a stranger.
“Polly is furious with Steve about some- thing,” murmured Maisie to her husband. “Whenever the child talks with a coo in her voice, I know she’s mad. They prob- ably fussed over politics. Do say some- thing to them ! ”
Frank called out obediently:
“Where shall we go first, Steve?”
“Would you care for the dog-show, Miss Trenholm?” asked Steven.
“If mongrels are permitted to go among pedigreed Canadian dogs,” she assented sweetly. ”

“ Only a Polly could have applied this impersonal sentence to an attractive English girl whose name had oc- casionally been connected with Steven’s. “We don’t want to get too near Uncle Sam. He makes an excellent neighbor, with the fence between, but we don’t want to take him into partnership. It would weaken the natural tie with England, and we should gain a Yankee tradesman in the place of Britannia. There is an influx of all na- tions into the States, and the mixture of races makes a mongrel breed.” ”