The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-07-17
BUT SHE PAINTED.

trus1Ye mosquito.
''And it seems like two weeks only
said Fairlie, the tall blond.
''To you, perhaps. Old fellow. you are
fairly ensnared.'
$50 on" he said calmly. "I shall deny
nothing"
''And can't say blame you either
said Thorpe, with a sudden accession OF
candor, ''for Inez Rivers is certainly the
prettiest creature 1 ever saw"
''And the truest and most genuineP'
added Fairlie enthusiastically ''Thess
women that we meet in New York-false,
deceptive playing continual part-I tell
you, man, I would as soon marry the doll
in milliner's window"
"You are too f1nical,'' said Thorpe,
Struggling his shoulders "If a girls
makeup is pretty, as a whole, who shall
venture to criticise the modus operandi OF
her dressing room. IT,
But Fairlie interrupted him with q
gesture of disgust.
Thorpe, you are talking like the icon.
oclast that you are. Let it suffice that we
have found one pure, perfect woman"
''Poor fellowl' interjected Thorpe.
"And, ," went on Fairlie, ignoring the
interruption, whose heart is what nature
meant womans heart to be-
Suppose you try it in verse. Poetry
don't want to make myself disagreeable,
but wiser individuals than yourself have
been taken in by wonankind before now. }"
Fairlie made no answer, but he rose and
left the porch. Thorpe looked after him
with a comical contraction of the brows.
Now, as luck would have it, Mrs. Dea-
con Parti1nan sat in the hall, talking to
the farmers wife, as Mr.. Fairlie passed
through. He bowed courteously, for was
not the Partiman house the casket which
temporarily contained the peerless jewel
of the world, Inez Rivers?
But as he sat down where the fading
light shone softly through the moving veil
of fine leaves, like the magical glow OF
some transformation scene" a well
known name struck upon his ear, pro
nounced in the somewhat nasal accents OF
| Mrs. Partiman.
''Miss Rivers!" said Mrs Partiman.
"You don't tell me sop said Mrs. Wal
lace, the farmers wife ''Weu, would
! not ha believed it,
''Nor 1 nuther if I hadn't a-seen it with
my own eyes, y went on Mrs. Partiman,
! "but the deacon he first got a notion ont,
! and SO I kind o made an errand, you
know, to her room, when she want there,
and there the table was all a-covered with
paints!''
"Well,'' said Mrs. Wallace, lugubrious-
~, Miss Rivers is u dretful likely girl to
look at, but arter what you've told me
shant never think just the same of her as
did before. -
And Fairlie! It was as if a glittering
veil had fallen from his vision.
Inez Rivers was in no degree superior to
the rest of her sex, after all. She, too, was
dependent on cosmetics for that radiant
complexion which had so challenged his
admiration. She, too, was false.
Miss Rivers was sitting in a dainty COS
tune of blue and lace, under the biggest
maple tree in front of Deacon Partiman' s
house, the next afternoon, when the dea-
cons wife came out, with her knitting in
! her hand.
''Well, " said Mrs Partiman, GIVE heard
piece o. news Miss Wallace's boarders
have gonep'
leone? Do you mean gone hunting9''
asked Inez, with a slight deepening of the
bloom upon her cheek.
mo; 1 mean clean, cleared out. Paid
their bill and gone back to New York this
morning
Inez was pale enough now. Gone back
without word of FAREWELL What did it
all mean? And she had brought herself al.
most-almost to regard Fairlie as a friend
whose friendship should be ineffably dear
to her.
Deacon Partiman was at the depot when
the two young men, who, having sent
their baggage on, had walked over the
breezy uplands to the little railroad sta
ton, arrived there.
'Nice day." said the deacon socially.
Every, " responded Thorpe.
eth be god day for Miss Rivers, u
said the deacon, with a broad smile upon
his kindly, much wrinkled face. "She' Il
be hard at it. I'll go bail"
Hard at what?' asked Thorpe, while
Fairlie turned away.
"Didn't you know?" said the squire
"Paintin. Me and my wife we was up il
her room the other day to fix the shade tC
the left hand winder, which had somehow
got littly cranky about rollin up anC
down, and there was the biggest show yoI
ever seed of paints and brushes and things
and the cutest little picter of our old we'll
with the broken curb, and the apple
boughs a-hangin over It'll If she'd only
awaited, now, till I'd got the new curl
done, wouldn't a-felt SO cheap
Inez Rivers still sat with her book IL
her lap-not reading, though, for the long
dark eyelashes were moist, and the pag,
was turned, when a footstep sounded OF
the messy ground beside her.
"Miss Rivers
''Mr. Fairliei thought you wer,
gone"
81 did start to go, but returned again
Inez. I shall not leave Hillsdale unit
you have answered me one question
"Only one?' she asked. 1t was wonder
full how quickly she was recovering he
self possession.
"Only one--whether you will be m!
wife?'
And when Mrs Partiman came out, tw,
hours later, to announce tea, and to asl
Mr.. Fairlie to "stay and take bite will
them" she had not the least idea ho7
painfully near her loquacious tongue hat
/ come to parting two young hearts which
; were to be one henceforth and forever
Exchange.
One Drink Drove Him Crazy.
Tho Of ho1arar-o <5;=+;11o,I e-o1,