November 1932
B u s i n e s s
K i n g ’ s
T h e
478
READERS . . . B y F lorence N ye W hitwell
Q L a r l iM L a r l r c l ih Q u r Y O U N G
that your grandmother is right. You ought to listen to her. Mona Lisa gasped. She was accustomed to being called a beautiful soul, and an “ old soul.” But this she col lected herself and smiled condescendingly. “ I wish you to do something. Go today to Grand mother’s church'guild with her, and see just what she wishes to drag me into. I call it ‘the jungle’ ! Let any woman’s head be lifted up in any way above the rest, or let her be out of the common run, and the gossips and scandal mongers are upon her like savage beasts. At first I hated them. Now I realize that they are sufferers from applied dogma and false civilization. And Professor Bland, Pro fessor Bland was the bearded seer of fairies, ^ Professor Bland says the natural man is complete in himself. We must observe nature and follow the route which she traces for us.” “ God Word says that the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned.” Mona Lisa’s mouth grew scornful. “ I am, perhaps, unwise in allowing you to argue with me,” she began. “ I permit it because I recognize that you have been driven, like many another, to do work that you feel is far beneath you—” “ No work ought to be beneath me,” Sonia interrupted. “ The servant is not greater than his Lord— ” But there Sonia was in her turn interrupted by the vivid entrance of a platinum-haired, slender young woman, whose face was one o f Hollywood’s star-fires! Mona Lisa longed to be one of that galaxy whose beauty shimmered nightly across the silver screen, but her father, who lived at a distance, forbade it. “ My dear, your Thanksgiving dinner is arranged,” the fair Serpentina drawled. She looked haggard and disillu sioned. “ Not really!” “Mais oui! They are coming, the dear Maria—she is the duchess—and her sister and nephew— ” Sonia slipped away. What was she doing in that household ? Why had she ever gone there, no matter how great her need ? Why not let Eleanor Gorham take her in and help her, and tell the Thin Red Line that she had come West? She had forbidden Eleanor to do so in their one meeting. All of this was coursing through Sonia’s mind as she drove Grandmother to the guild. * * * * * The basement of the church was filled with women. A stout chairman, with very brown eyes, rapped on the table. “ If there is no further discussion, I will declare the min utes accepted as read. Oh, some one must make the mo tion.” The meeting was in full swing. Sonia looked around her. A jungle? That was what Mona Lisa had called it. Well, Paul wrote something about fighting with wild beasts at Ephesus. Old gray-haired women making a quilt, younger ones discussing beauty parlors, nothing very ter rible so fa r ! “ The speaker of the afternoon!”
Such Things as Dreams and Shadows "Let no man beguile you o f your reward in . . . worshipping o f angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind” (Col. 2:18). "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against prin cipalities, . . . against spiritual wickedness in high places. . . . Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth (Eph. 6:12,14). onia was waiting on table! She was not in a restaurant, nor was she in a hotel. She was in a “ dream house” that belonged to Mona Lisa. Sonia loved the dark, gleaming floors and the white shim mer of various rugs upon their ebon surfaces. She enjoyed the black, exquisitely carved furniture that was set against the wall in an odd, foreign fashion. She relished the European flavor of Jan, the butler, in semi-Balkan outfit. She enjoyed immensely the French cook who adored her and kept many delicacies for her private delectation. Mona Lisa herself had smooth, dark hair. Her broad brow and the subtle placidity of her smile had caused her friends to give her the picture name of Leonardo da Vinci s famous lady of the mysterious mouth. Sonia awed and subdued and interested Mona Lisa. “ Her reserves are as vast and as unknowable as. the steppes of her native Russia,” she would say of this quiet, dignified girl. Sonia was aware that Mona Lisa was enchanted with the mysterious. Indeed, she had discovered to her horror that her young employer felt that she was the real Mona Lisa, living again in another body and resembling herself. “ And her friends encourage her!” exclaimed Grand mother, who lived with this motherless and misguided mis tress of Dream House. “ This reincarnation talk is too much for an old-fashioned body like me,” Grandma con tinued. “ Oh, these ideas about dead people coming back! Only yesterday I heard her say, T felt Francesco would like my house as Italian as possible!’ As if a dead and gone Florentine who used to be married to Mona Lisa were go ing to look in here and wander around these Hollywood Hills!” “ I forgive you, Grandmother,” said Mona Lisa, patron izingly patient. “ I know you do, and I expect you to,” Grandma re torted. “ And furthermore, if that bearded man that sees fairies hiding under the cover o f his muffin dish comes to luncheon today, I’m going to be out.” And the old lady. sailed away from the breakfast table to her own quarters, which her granddaughter pronounced hideously comfort able, her lace cap fairly vibrating with indignation. “ You see, Sonia, what I have to bear,” Mona Lisa mur mured, “ and how necessary it is for me to have superior people like yourself about me, whom I can trust. Grand mother is a very young soul—aeons younger than I ! But for some sin in some past life of mine, I must bear with her.” . Sonia set down the muffin plate, took her courage in both hands, and began to speak. She knew that she would endanger her position in that home by doing so, and that the money she so badly needed might by cut off, but Sonia was an honest soul, and the truth must out with such a one. “ I should not be sincere with you if I did not tell you
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