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CONFESSIONS OF A WIFE PAULA DESCRIBES FLOSSIE SMITH " 'Shall I beein today, Mr. Smith?' was the question I put to Congress man Smith as I walked into his of fice the next morning about 9 o'clock," said Paula to me, continu ing her story. "Congressman Smith looked up quickly and said: 'Begin whenever you like.' He said it with a kind of quizzical smile that told me he was as much in the air as I was. " 'What shall I do?' " 'I'm sure I don't know.' "Then we both laughed, for we knew nothing about tlje work in hand. " 'I'll tell you what you do. Go up to the Shoreham and see Flossie. She has a lot of ideas about Washington, and at the present moment I haven't in idea about anything, and my con stituents are bombarding me with commands, adjudications, compli ments and damnings to beat the band.' "Looking at young Congressman Smith, Margie, I could see that while he was a man of splendid mind and presumably fine ideate, yet just now he was so consumed with the excite ment and self-satisfaction over his job that he could think of nothing olsfi. "I'll confess that I did not want to go to work very badly that day, for Alma had hadv word from Tom Perry that morning that Jeff Perry green was in town and had brought his car with him. "Some class to Jeffy, isn't it?' said Alma. "There were five days before con gress opened and Mr. Smith's prede cessor had not taken all his para phernalia out of his office yet I got holu of his secretary and he told me to come around the next day and he would tell me something about my duties. "I -departed with a light heart for the Shoreham, "I wonder if I have told you, Mar gie, that Washington is the city of castes. In this regard its hotels' are a good illustration. The Shoreham, a small hotel only about three blocks from the white house, is the hotel of the administration. Here can be seen almost every day at luncheon tjhe members of the cabinet, the secre tary to the president and other men connected with the administration who are known to be particularly his friends. It was here that Congressman Smith had domiciled his frivolous lit tle wife, Florence, who was always called Flossievby her intimates. "The name was perfectly expres sive of the woman, and Alma told me a story before I met Mrs. Smith which illustrated her point. It con cerned the assistant librarian at the Congressional library. "The assistant was a, bachelor and has on this account greatly worried one of his sisters, who thought every man should make at least one good woman 'unhappy' by marrying her. "A girl named Flossie seemea mucn impressed by the librarian, and his sister said to him: 'Why don't you marry that little girl who seems to be so much in love witn you, Drain er mine?' " 'You surely don't want me to marry that girl, sister? She is Flos sie by name and very Flossie by na ture!' " 'Flossie! Flossie! What on earth do you mean by flossie by nature!' " 'Why, my dear sister, a girl who is Flossie by nature is one who would not wear a porous plaster without threading baby ribbon through the holes.' "I've told you this foolish little ctnrv Mareie." said Paula, "for I want you to get just the right idea of Flossie Smith. She will have much to do with the story I'm going to tell you and with my job as secretary to .A