The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-09-17
HEARTS DESIRES.

able to marry, and in ten years shall be
quite old. You see," continued the girl
sagely, 81 am old enough to be married
now, and that is where the difference
comes in. And / am going to be present
ed and go to parties and wear lovely frocks
u do hate those shabby old things-and
then shall marry somebody rich and great
and live in the world. I'm so tired of this
little poky place, with nothing but les
sons and Sunday school children and rheu-
matte old women when suddenly look
ing down at the golden haired lad stretch
ed ON the turf at her feet-s'o only, OF course,
shall miss you, Herbert. F."
"That is all very we'll for you, but what
is to become of meY want to marry for
love, and how can If you go and marry
somebody else?n said the boy plaintively.
SIT is quite easy" answered the girl as
she plueked stem of towering grass, then
gravely counted c. This year, next year,
some time, never this year; think of
that You must, of course, fall in love
with somebody who isn't married. You
can't really he in love with me, think,
because you are SO young and am not
in love with you. am almost the only
girl you know, and you are used to me.
We are like brother and sister, but that
isn't love-
chow do you know3" asked the boy
jealousy. fare you in lover Old Tomp
kins is the only man about here"
Don't be cross. Old Tompkinsl A
bald head, spectacles and perpetual snil
fle. No. Herbert, I'm not in love with
man at all. I'm in love with life and
wealth and power. If you'd always worn
hideous old frocks that didn't fit and had
been kept at home all your life with stupid
governesses, because it is no good spend
ing money on girl until it will pay from
the marrying point of view, you would
know what I feel like. But you have
your ambitions too. You want to be a
great poet; you want all the world to see
the rocks and woods and the everchanging
sea as you see them, and to hear the sky
lark and the nightingale as you hear them.
Isn't that enough for your"
''No, want all that and more too. Oh,
Meg, can't you see that you have been the
inspiration of all my poetry, that it is for
you I've written the songs the birds sing
to me and painted the pictures our eyes
have seen together? This beautiful place
will be all empty and drear when you are
gone. Must you go? Stay here as we
have been until get some money. If you
go cannot come after you, and what am
to do here?''
The girls face grew troubled and her
eyes wandered far out to sea, where a
white sail had just appeared above the
horizon.
"Who does she say she is?''
"She's the widow of Lord HaFdworth.
He was fahulously rich and held some
position in the last cabinet, but he was
an awful szintiint and not exactly what
he should have been in other respects.
He's been dead about two years. Splendid
woman, isn't she? But she looks as though
she had not found life all beer and skit.
ties"
81 believe I know something of her then.
Wasn't she Sir John Haughtons only
laughter
Eyes, and an unconn1only pretty Sin.
Directly she came out she carried OF IL
prize of the seasonal least so my motEc.
said, and she was pretty sure to know tie
quality of the goods upon the market, be
cause my second sister came out that same
spring.
tLook, she's speaking to that curious
looking little man with the red hair who
turned up at table d'hote yesterday. lie
looks like musician or an artist. Dear
me, how she has frightened upl What
will you. bet he isn't an old lover. She
doesn't look more than 20, with that pref
ty blush and the smile, and to think Of
their being thrown away on that withered
specimen of humanity. They are strolling
into the pine wood If that isn't the last
L
ture to eat my has. 1 must find out who
the fellow is. -
"You need not trouble, my dear chap.
You're ridiculously behindhand, or you d
know that that is our only poet, Herbert
Blaxtone.'
'That Herbert BIaxtonel Well, I'd
never have thought it. I always did say
that geniuse3 and poets in particular
should conceal their personality. It's SO
fei1
sonnet was written by a searecrow. But
there's no accounting for the tastes OF
women, and L dare say the fair widow
thinks him an Adonis. A bachelor, isn't
hep
IA widowcr fancy. Anyway his wife
has been dead for years. He's nothing like
the guy you would make out. You are
Jealous, old man, because the fair widow,
as you call her. has steadily refused to
smile on your magnificent proportions
All the same, he's a morose sort of fellow
and nobody knows much about him. He
was frightfully poor at one time, I believe,
and had more than the usual difficulty in
convincing the critics that his verses
weren't twaddle. But he's tremendous
swell now"
"And of course my lady is beginning to
look out for No. 2 Kismet, it is fatel''
"And you went into the world and found
| your heart desire?" said the man.
Eyes; married and got it in fashion, -
! answered the woman.
"And it wasn't quite all your fancy
| painted it?'' asked the man.
"Things never turn out exactly as one
imsgines. There is usually something one
does not calculate upon"
"What was it in your caseP' persisted
the man.
The woman's palo face flushed.
'My heart is dead-it died of starvation
And your Did the girl Gomez
''She did,
"And you married for lOve?''
! He nodded
'sAnd what them"
He turned so that she could scarcely
II hns,r. b d