The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-10-05
Ills FRIEND WALLER.
LFrom the TatIer.J

Ter, anu Q1lie Will US anu stay LIE
night, for we are going to do a theater.
and we will take no excuses. Mumsie
can spare you, and you have got a
frock. The little white silk which you
wore at my wedding will do perfectly
well, and I can lend you a cloak and
anything else that you want And we
are not going to dine at home, because
Mr.. Chisholm is coming, and cook is i'll.
but at the Cecil, which will be great
fun, so just buck up and get ready"
THE Cecil queried Dollie, medita-
lively That's hotel, isn't 1t, Mum
sic? How heavenly to dine at a hotel!
Dollie sat at breakfast with her
mother while she read this letter aloud
and the French window stood wide
open upon the garden, and just at the
end of the garden was the sea; this
morning a serene sea of a greeny blue,
with wonderful violet streaks. A tur-
quoise blue sky above it paled gradual
ly it approached the sea line until
it melted into the exquisite colorless
color of pearl.
Il have never dined at a hotel said
Dollie's mother, except at railway
hotel when travelling with your father
but it seems to be the fashion in these
days 1t seems to be the exception
when Kitty and Hugh dine at home.
but then poor Kitty's cook is al
ways ill., said Dollie, burying her nice
little nose in the great bunch of lilac
which raised pinkish, scented. green
leaved clusters in the center of the
breakfast table. "She is always i'll or
else her aunt is dying of harmonious
at 'Berrysin Tedmunds, or her sister
has met with .hacciden in Ollerway.
Poor Kitty is very unlucky. Oh. Num-
sic, do you think my white frock will
really do, and to what theater do you
suppose Hugh will take us?''
Il wonder who this Mr. Chisholm is
said Dollie's mother. Kitty writes as
though we knew all about him.
But Dollie, absorbed in anticipations
and preparations, could not pretend to
take any interest in a strange man.
Some friend of Hugh's, 1 suppose"
she conjectured vaguely, and thought
no more on the subject
Sure you don't mind my going.
Mumsie?" she asked anxiously next
day as she and her mother walked to
the station together. Her box, with the
white silk dress carefully packed in it,
had gone by the omnibus, which was
now rumbling round the little town
luggage. 1t was far pleasanter to walk,
taking the short cut across the fields
now May-deep with buttercups and
daisies. Because I'll stay even now If
you mind the tiniest, weeniest bit, and
We'll just wire to Kitty from the sta
ton to say So"
You're a conceited monkey" an
swered Dollie's mother. do you real
~ lIldS1uc lI1dl GILL GAlSL AOuI anu
twenty hours without you? Besides
you've got to notice everything you see
and remember all you hear to amuSe
me with when you come back"
''I'll just keep my eyes and ears open
the whole tine" cried Dollie, and then
she and her mother kissed each other
with rapture. although with some diff
Guilty, on account of the wide brimS of
their pretty ha is. However, there was
no one in the field to see them except
inc 81 y1n
er raised their heads, and the already
not so very young nor very playful
lambs, for lambs attain their majority
before babies are out of long clothes.
Notice what the savory is like, cried
Dolie's mother, as the train moved out
of the station, for 1 want some new
recipes
And oh, heavensl" Dollie called back
to her, Il forgot to give Dick fresh wa
ter. Do see to it. like a dear. the mo-
ment you get ini''
There were some other ladies in the
carriage who looked up with thin dis
approval at so unconventional a rail-
way parting. Where were the Now
you'n be sure to write,'' and Don't for
get to give my love to Ernily?"
But Dollie had no idea that she had
done anything amiss, and she returned
the gaze of her fellow treavelers with
the utn ost friendlinesS and interest.
Everything was intensely interesting
to her because she was only Is, and haa
not taken more than dozen short rail-
way Journeys in her life before.
Each of the three other ladies in the
carriage became, though they little sus-
pected it, a parsonage of absorbing in
terest to Dollie, who covertly studying
each in turn from under long lashes
could have given a perfectly accurate
description of the appearance, could
have enumerated every detail in the
dress of each at the journeys end. She
likewise fitted each of the ladies with a
purely imaginary and highly sensa ton
al history, which amused her for long
time.
Then she turned her eyes to the win
dow, and delighted in the green spring
landscape reeling past. She noticed a
most enchanting copse of young ASH
trees, with as yet never a leaf upon
their bare branches, but lifting their
slender trunks out of q carpet of blue,
a carpet composed of wild hyacinths
growing so closely together to make
the earth look blue the or the
sky. And she made her choice of the
snug little farnlstead tucked away be-
tween trees. where she and Mumsie
would go, when they should have let
their house for July and August, to pass
the lovely summer days.
And now, after a run of two hours,
the clean, sweet, green country began
to be SCARED with lines of mean little
brick houses, and finally nothing was
left of it but a stray laburnum bush
or so in a back yard, or a ragged, dis
consulate looking field which had lost
it's way among acres of ugly brick
Then even these dying mementoes of
beauty fed, and the streets and houses
stood so close that not a blade of grass
could grow between them, and the back
gardens only produced ash heaps and
empty meat tins.
Dollies fellow travellers began to as
sure themselves of the whereabouts of
their tickets, to gather together their
possessions, and to make ready for ar
rival at Charing Cross; while Dollie,
with her head out of window, waved
her handkerchief ecStatically to Hugh
Somers, her brother law who was
waiting for her on the platform.
Impossible TO come to meet you,"
my child" said Kitty. when Dollie. ar