The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-01-24
s'HOW!''
IFrom the Argonant.l

There are number of ways in which
you can test a woman's beauty and
prove that it is vain. You can see her
after she has danced until dawn and
drives home in the cold, blue light. You
can drop in upon her when her neglige
is such in reality, and not a matter of
ruffies and lace. You can see her rise
dripping from the surf, no daughter of
foam and fire, but creature Of dank
locks and purple lips. Or you can look
at her after she has gone twice round
the links in the blazing sun and the
dust fraught wind. All these are likely
to- convince you of the deceitfulness of
beauty. But some women are so fair
as to bear each and all of these tests.
Yet if you were to put them in a smoky,
close sleeping car, anywhere between,
say. Tucson and Yuma, at the middle
of an August day, they might then be-
come, as every one else, so ugly that it
would increase your ugliness and bad
temper to be forced to look at them.
When a woman under these last con-
ditions is still pleasant to contemplate
you may set it down that her charms
are real and enduring.
Harrington did so in the case of the
girl in Section 2. He was in Section s
himself, and her back was turned to
him; but she faced the bevelled mirror,
so considerably built in the end of the
car, and he sat so that he could watch
her reflected in it. Besides which he
could see her back hair, which was
brown and looked soft, and which es-
capped in wisps that curled up tighter
and tighter as the day grew hotter and
hotter. Harrington thought about a
French novel he had once read, whose
heroine had ''boucles folles qui frs
salient autour de sa nuque." He had al
ways liked that idea, but had never
seen it realized until now.
There were only four people in the
Pullman-a man and a woman who
were not interesting Harrington and
the girl. Harrington entered the train
at Ell Paso. The girl was there already.
The only mark on her traps was a sill
yer tag strapped to her satchel, and
Harrington had not been able to get
within reading distance of it. He had
tried hard enough. Neither had he
been able to screw up his courage to the
point of questioning the conductor. He
did not believe in discussing women
with the first conner. So he put his feet
up on the opposite seat and leaned back
and watched the boucles folles, and
noted how prettily her skin flushed,
and what nice shadow her lashes
made on her cheeks. Life would have
been far pleasanter thing if he could
| have talked to her.
The prospect beyond the cinder guard
was SO monotonous. That, of course, is
putting it very much more mildly than
Harrington did. Ben Bolt began to
run in his head; which is bad enough
| in itself, but when it times itself to the
| te-rumpety-rump, te-rumpety- trump te-
ruTnpety-rump of the wheels, is enough
| to drive a sober man to drink. The only
reason Harrington did not drink now
was because he had already had one
| bottle Of beer, and he was afraid of the
| opinion of the girl. Besides, it flushed
| his face. And trembled with :. tears
at your .-...-.- frOwn'-the
| wheels were turning more slowly There
was that ugly hush of uncertainty, of
! interruption in the natural sequence of
| things that falls when a train slows
! down in the midst of the prairie. The
sensation of dying must be rather like
| it. The train stopped and the airbrake
! Kissed Then all was a silence that let
| you hear the blood running in your
veins, until there was the crunch of
| footsteps on the cinders beside the
| track
Harrington put up his window and
| looked out. A group of men stopping
about a wheel of the forward car, and
| the ringing taps of a hammer upon iron
told the story. 1t was hot box Har-
| rington said Damn it!' and drew in
his head. Pretty soon he got up and
! put on his hat and loitered out. When
| he had Joined the group he glanced
along at his car. The girl was leaning
| out of her window. He felt that in
time of emergency one should not han
! die a situation a la SomerS or Peter
| Gray. He put his hands in his pockets
| which is always the way you show that
you are just being casual and offhand
and making no particulars point of it,
and sauntered back along the cinder
bed until he stood beneath her window
Then he raised his hat and told her it
was a hot box. She said, Thank you
very much,' and hoped it would not de-
lay them, and was very sweet and civil
about it, but 1t was borne in upon him,
for all that, that it would not be ex-
pected of him to continue the conversa-
ton. And Peter takes the north
again; and Somers takes the SOUTH "
he murmured as he continued on down
to ask the conductor how long they
would have to stop, and lighted ci
garette. The conductor did not know.
| Harrington had not supposed that he
would. But he went back into the
train thoroughly disguised with every
thing.
He flung himself into Section 6 with
a sigh that could be heard in Section
2. and looked out disconsolately over the
prairie, so dull and dreary to those who
see it with dull and dreary eyes. The
air went in heat waves so that the dis
| lance seemed to CULVER, and the whole
prospect was vile. He sat up and press
ed the electric button. The bell fairly
| pealed in the silence, reverberated to
the horizon. The girl started and look
! ed away from the window. Harrington
told the porter to bring him some iced
! beer. The girl was watching him in
| the mirror 1t was the first time she
had paid the smallest attention to him.
He caught her eye-and, perhaps she
did not smile, but 1t was not quite a
| stony stare either. He felt encouraged.
| And that to the extent of ordering an
! other glass, filing it, and taking it to
| Section 2. Might he Offer. She look
! ed startled, but also uncertain.
ITS awfully cold and nice"
| She reached out a hesitating hand
and flushed more pinkly at the reckless
| brazenness of it. She raised her glass
and Harrington raised his hat and said
| Howl
Then both stopped with the cups at
their very lips, and there was an inter
val of sound which her eyes filed with
| beautiful light
why didn't you tell me?" she cried.
Are you''-he began.
Eyes. OF course. My fathers Major
| Hill. I might known you were, too, if
I had seen your academy button"
you never took the trouble to look
-