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Ill MISTRESS OF THE REVELS IN more ways than one Mrs. Bud- long kept Carthage on the writhe. Christmas was merely the climax of a ceaseless activity. All the year round she was at work like a yeast alert in a soggy dough. She was forever getting up things. She was one of those terrible women who return calls on time or a little ahead. That made it necessary for you to return hers earlier. If you didn't, she called you up on the telephone and asked you why you hadn't. You had to promise to come over atonce or she'd talk to you till your ear was welded to the telephone. Then if you broke your promise she called you up about that. She got in from fifty-two to a hundred and four calls a year, where one or two would have amply sufficed for all she had to say. It was due to her that Carthage had such a lively social existence for its size. Once, when she fell ill, the people felt suddenly as passengers feel when a street car is suddenly braked back on its haunches. All Carthage found itself wavering and poised on tiptoe and clinging to straps; and then it sogged back on its heels and waited till the car should resume progress. Mrs. Budlong was the town's motormanor "mo- torneer," as they say in Carthage.Before she was out of bed, she had invitations abroad for a convalescent tea, and everybody said, "Here we go again!" If strangers visited Carthage, Mrs. Budlong counted them her clients the moment they arrived. Of course, the merely commercial visitors she left to the hackmen at the station, but friends or relatives of prominent people could not escape Mrs. Bud- long's well-meant attentions. It was sometimes embarrassing when relatives appearedfor everybody has Concealed Relatives thathe is perfectly willing to leave in concealment. Mrs. Alex, (pronounced Ellick) Stub...
