The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-09-23
A Plain Woman.

| James Taunton. After casting their Zorro
| scopes. people were rampant in prediction.
and went about. like Itcntns seers. proph-
eIicaliy heart-fuIl Rurhlessly they traced
| The coupled dest.nies-through gin 20 pit
| fali-from altar rail 10 hearse.
When young bachelor uarries IN old
wife. what Ks he 10 expect?" observed
Lady Wyngran TO her daughters. You
! know. dears. my creed IN these matrmo-
| utaI matters. Girls should never marry
| an old man-unless ne IS rich. and man
| should certainly not marry an Old wo-
man-uniess she is handsome"
But Mrs. Taunton's side OF the medal
| no one cared TO see. She could scarcely
tell In herself how she had fallen in love
in so nnseemly and irrational manner.
Colonel Tounton, c. B.. of the Indian
staff corps, was. In his regiment, hero
| and a gentleman. He preserved his quips
and kind moods for his mess. and dangled
The other and The knotted side OF the
string at home. Only TO her bed pillow.
at night. she turned her face and told
her misery in sobs.
Luck. nevertheless. dubbed for her when
at AZ he completed a promising career
burnt TO death by curry and French
brandy.
Living now In the flame Of West Lon
don. with windows watching on the Green
Park. she held open doors to most who.
cared TO enter. She asked nothing from
me women but clean bills, and from the
men deft manners and the faculty to
;aik.
A man in a scrape. or wanting to be
something. or to get somewhere. was sure
OF help from her Her ear and influence
was ever open to such. Her friends said
that sympathy with her was frailty. But
in general she judged fifty. Certainly she
lifted BERTHE Wyngram 10 his secretary
ship to Mr. Whstworth. NJ. P, wherein
he prospered. And in the ripening time ne
wheeled into the colonial office at easy
breathing. escaping the elbows of COM
petition
BERTHE and she closed in and were ex-
ceedngly friendly. In such relations, one
or other of the meeting parties is sure
to move. sometimes few, sometimes ma
ny, degrees nearer to the other.
In the beginning she had stihed her
misgivings in the mantle of Plato. Now,
as he steered she drifted. He had found
her wealthy. kind and unremittingly use
full. He cultivated her with diplomatic
suavity, without heat, or hope. or unman-
nered fancy. But he sometimes thought
as he looked and listened what a pity
indeed she was so unspeakably plain.
One day. at this time. Berthe tiffined
with her at two.
Holland next week" he said, sudden
ly Session done; charwomen in the
house; chief sucking sulphur at Bath.
Holidays to the weary. lady Isn't 1t
worth firing to rest? New food, loose
clothes, primeval comforts-as in the be-
ginning"
You're very glad to go?" she asked
81 could fling my cap to the stars. Shut
the world is brave with smiling flowers:
and spin my top in the sun-1ust for the
spinning sake"
He was thirty something, and creased
in the face. He was ftfully youthful-in
his visiting hours-so his friends called
him THE Boy
She babe him the cheeriest of good-bys,
smiling till the door closed. Then she fell
back on the sofa, and cried as a child
might-from the heart.
You see, although she married, she had
never husband.
On the morrow, then. Wyngram, in ul-
ster and soft shirt. gathered papers at
Victoria bookstall to while the tedium of
the $40 to Queenboro.' there TO join the
"ram-you, damn-you'' German boat to
Flushing.
Wyngram tossed his pouch and papers
on his cushions and settled himself in his
cap. A hand touched his shoulder from
the door.
Il couldn't let you go quite away with
out saying good-by again." she said in
a voice all too broken by humility.
She stood at the door as he sat within,
one hand ungloved and some stones burn
ing at her throat. She had spent night
she only knew how.
He asked her 20 come in and sit-there
were still two minutes. He was some
what graveled for lack of talking matter
but he was as hospital as a tented Arab
even on a railway platform. Then a long
whistle, a slammed door, a snort from the
engine.
''Oh, must go now" she said.
Come and see the Dutchr" he said
with a light laugh. She looked at him
for moment, not understanding. Then:
"Oh. my dear, my dear. I'll go with you
nywhere-anywhere," she cried. And the
guard lurched into the van.
But three hours in an only moderately
heated railway carriage and reason is
sure TO work down the barometer Mrs
Taunton returned to town in the next
train, and BERTHE went TO Holland. There
he concluded that perhaps, after ALL
rich wife is the surest of political sails.
And from Amsterdam. with a clean u"
pen and a legal frame of mind, he start
ed the first of the letters that ended in
the aforesaid lifting out of feminine eye
brows and 'whooing" through feminine
lips.
There is a man In a double brass-but-
toned frock coat-a costume between that
of a French gendarme and a secret agent
at ST. Electromagnetic opens cab and
carriage doors a a variety theater in
London square. He is a great man in ma
ny ways. But as a judge OF feminine
beauty he is an epicure. His name is
Bob.
When, two months later. Mrs. Tauntons
Iece Margery came to stay with her from
one Of those duh. something over-saud
parsonages in oYrkshire. the two went 10
this theater together. 1t was a pinch OF
clandestine pleasure. Bob offered Mrs.
Taunton two fingers. TO Margery a whole /
hand. Beafning. the girl passed the vesti-
bule. All was delight-spinning. pro-
scribed. poignantly fresh. The shoulders
of women. the offering eyes Of men. dane
ig lights and fumes OF music-the deirium
OF lfe's wheel Ashes. mayhsp. 10 the /
one: but dancing hopes and hidden dreams /
TO the other.
When. then. they settled in their box.
Margery watched over the house with her /
glasses.
How the people stare. Poppy" she said /
10 her aunt "One man is bowling To me
What am TO do2 Do you think he is
mistaken"
Think. perhaps. he is mistaken. child" /
she said.
Later there was A knock at the door. /
Mrs. Taunton leaned 20 meet the waiter. /
on a tray lay a card and full glass. ]