The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-01-04
THE BEST OF ALL.


down the back stairway and into the
kitchen. There was no parlor maid busy
with broom and dustoloth; no chamber
maid with pitchers of hot water and piles
Of towels going about her morning duties;
no sound of singing or jargon of merry
voices greeted her ear as she laid her hand
on the knob of the door that led into the
basement kitchen; no appetizing odor of
breakfast cakes, beefsteak and hot coffee
saIuted her nostrils as she swung the door
open and entered. She put her hand to
her heart with gesture as if it panied
her, as she murmured, half aloud, ''It
might DO Tennyson's Sleeping Palace for
all the signs of life there are here" Then
she stopped, just across the threshold and
made movement indicative of surprise.
In the range she had expected to find cold
and black and colnfortless rudy fire
was burning. The bright copper kettle
was kissing and singing, emitting a trail
of steam, and its cover was bobbing up and
down.
At this unexpected sight half smile
came to her lips, and again she solilo-
quized, 1.-THE pixie workmen have surely
been here before me- Then she looked
at her hands--the well preserved, delicate
hands of a middle aged woman to whom
fortune had been kind-hands that had
like the lilies they resembled in whiteness,
toiled not, neither had they spun. 81 am
glad,' thought she, ''that the pixies
came. should hardly know how to make
fire-or wish to do it,
Mr. and Mrs. Bertram Wayne had mar
ried for love, when they were young and
poor, and had been happy. But the young
husband had talent Tor money making,
given the opportunity, and as is not al
ways the case the opportunity presented
itself. 1t does not at all matter whether
it was in oil or gas, or what other branch
of profitable Investment his little capital
was turned over and over and swelled and
grew, and the income increased and null
tiplied itself again and again.
It is only to the purpose here to state
that by strictly legitimate methods of bust
ness Mr.. Bertram Wayne had inside of Is
or 60 years, grown to be rich man-not
a multimillionaire by any means, but
wealthy enough to move out of the pretty
cottage in which he and his wife had be-
gun their married life into a spacious
dwelling in a more fashionable part of
/ town and set up an expensive establish
mont, with complicated system of house,
hold service. And, as is usual under such
circumstances, Mr. Wayne became toe
busy in adding to his principal and null
tiplying his interest to give much atten-
tion to home affairs. He furnished the
money and looked to his vito to spend it
in lubricating the wheels of the ponderous
domestic machinery.
Mrs. Wayne gave her time, as was neces-
sary, to her servants society and the oner-
Gus task of entertaining, for when goods
increase they are increased that eat them"
Both she and her husband were members
of their several clubs, and the wife was a
directress in half q dozen Institutions
missions for the promotion of various
laudable Objeots-au of which demanded
time and attention. Sometimes in the
rush and whirI of it all she could not help
wondering if she had had children of her
own what would have become of them.
In the course of time it came about
quite naturally, in order to avoid clashing
with each others hours of rest and retire
ment, each being busy in divers ways, that
they occupied separate suits of apartments,
seldom meeting save at table or perhaps
for little time in the early evening.
And now, by no fault of his own and
with nothing to reproach himself for, but
owing to the uncertain condition of the
times tho fortune had collapsed, the home
was gone and the varied occupations OF
husband and wife Iaad disappeared. In q
few days the COSTS furniture would be
auctioned off, the house sold, and, empty
handed, they would begin life over again
When Mr.. Wayne came in with bit OF
beefsteak he. had just bought, he found
his wife standing at the table stirring
something with an iron spoon in q yellow
bowl She locked up and smiled at him.
81 am making drop biscuit, T" she said.
'Do you remember how fond of them you
used to be when we first kept house?"
Some half forgotten memory stirred in the
husbands heart, and be put his arm about
her neck and kissed her forehead. Her
| heart thrilled beneath that touch and kiss
as it had not thrilled for years. No dia-
mond necklace Or other precious material
gift could have brought SO pretty flush,
SO full of pleasure, to her cheek.
When breakfast was ready and they sat
down together alone to serve themselves,
she confessed that she had been doubtful
about quantities used in her drop biscuit,
it had been SO long since she had made
any. But although they were rather yell
low, as if from too much soda, the hus-
band, coming more and more under the
happy spell of the olden time, honestly de-
clared that they We're delicious.
He sighed when her fair hands plunged
into tho dishwater pan, but he, no longer
the wealthy capitalist, took up the tea
| towel with certain sort of pleasure, to
| dry the breakfast china. ''Don't you re-
member?" and "Have you forgotten?"
formed the staple of their conversation,
not, it is true, unmixed with the involun-
tary sigh or surreptitious tear, for the
| grim specter of poverty, by whatever
sweetened, is something of which human
creatures are sore afraid. AS Dante truly
| says, it is
hated worse than death by just accord,
| And with the loathing of all hearts abhorred.
! Still there is poverty and poverty, one
form of which differs essentially from the
other. And when the tea towel had been
I hung on the rack behind the range Ber-
tram Wayne sat down in one Of the kitoh-
en- chairs at hand and took his wife upon
his knee. 1t did not occur TO him that she
was heavier than she used to be. He
only thought how soft her cheek felt as it
lay against his own and wondered how
it was that it had been so long since last
he felt it there. Then he told her, in
reassuring way, he bad found there would