I am now going back to my saying that a city has all kinds of
goings-on; both sad and gay. So, as His Honor sat on his porch on a
warm spring day, a paragraph in Branton Hills' "Post" brought forth
such a vigorous "_Huh!_" that Lady Gadsby was curious, asking:--
"What is it?"
So Gadsby said:--"What do you think of _this_? It says:--'In a wild
swaying dash down Broadway last night at midnight, past-Councilman
Antor's car hit a hydrant, killing him and Madam Antor instantly.
Highway Patrolman Harry Grant, who was chasing that car in from our
suburbs, says both horribly drunk, Antor grazing four cars, Madam
shouting and singing wildly, with Grant arriving too tardily to ward
off that final crash.'"
Now Lady Gadsby was, first of all, a woman; and so got up quickly,
saying:--
"Oh!! I must go down to poor young Mary, _right off!_" and Gadsby sat
tapping his foot, saying:--
"So Antor's pantry probably still holds that stuff. Too bad. But, oh,
that darling Mary! Just got into High School! Not long ago Lucy told
us of girls snubbing that kid; but I trust that, from this horror, our
Branton Hills girls will turn from snubbing to pity. This account says
that Madam Antor also was drunk. A _woman_ drunk!! And riding with a
rum-sot man at a car's controls! _Woman!_ From History's dawn, Man's
soft, fond, loving pal! _Woman!_ For whom wars of blood and agony
cut Man down as you would mow a lawn! _Woman!_ To whom infancy and
childhood look for all that is upright and good! It's too bad; too bad!"
As in all such affairs you will always find two factions talking.
Talking about what? Just now, about _Norman_ Antor. What would this
wiping out of his folks do to him? Norman was now living with Mary
and two aunts who, coming from out of town, would try to plan for our
two orphans; try to plan for Norman; Norman, brought up in a pool of
liquor! Norman: tall, dark and manly and with a most ingratiating
disposition----if not drunk. But nobody could say. A group would claim
that "this fatality will bring him out of it;" but his antagonists
thought that "That guy will always drink."
A day or two from that crash, Nancy, coming into Gadsby's parlor, found
Lucy talking with Lady Gadsby, Lucy asking:--
"Nancy, who is with young Mary Antor now? That pair of aunts wouldn't
stay, with all that liquor around."
"I just found out," said Nancy. "Mary is living with Old Lady Flanagan"
and Lucy, though sad, had to laugh just a bit, saying:--
"Ha, ha! Old Lady Flanagan! What a _circus_ I had trying to pry a zoo
donation from that poor soul's skimpy funds! But, Nancy, Mary is in
mighty good hands. That loving old Irish lady is a trump!"