The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-07-04

then it was time for ladies and clergy
men TO Withdraw to respectful dis
ance-yea, and for all but the most sea-
soned laymen to stop their ears.
Under these circumstances what a
blank sickening game croquet was.
How Tartarically i'll weighted were the
balls! How Plutonically bumpy was the
lawn-like a dashed stubble by Blank
And as for this Mephistophelised maller,
blank me if I'll ever touch the blank
thing again. It's fit for nothing but to
drive in dashed tent pegs with, by dashI
When that stage was reached, actum
erat Gas the Latin exercise book is so
fond of saypg) with the generals GRO
quet. His irritation distorted everything
his eye included. Even the colors of
the balls became confused to him. and
it was odds you would have him playing
with red when it was -yellow's turn, or
with blue when it was blacks And
then II you pointed out to him that he
mad made an error ergo had lost his
turn, ergo had let you in for, say, an
eight hoop break-hut over this l draw
a veil There are words in the English
language which a respectable author,
writing in a reputable journal, may not
as much as hint at Suffice it to say
that I was acquainted with General
Horncastles irritable temperament and
that / relied on that. taken in conjunc-
ton with my own skill, to win me the
county championship.
One circumstance. however, felt it
at the time-was rather against me.
had lately done a very foolish thing
the most foolish, perhaps, of which a.
croquet player is capable. I had fallen
in love And the object of nv affections
was Gentian Horncastle, the generals
only daughter.
Gentiar, the name. is pretty. is it not?
And Gentian, the girl, was even prettier
1 must try to describe her. She was tall
upright, shapely, 1.-THE, and lissom with
al, and full of grace in every move
ment; much like what Aphrodite must
have been when she was nineteen. Her
complexion was the clearest olive Her
features were cast in a mold which,
think, nature had used that once, and
then broken, not wishing so perfect a
work to become vulgarized by repeti-
ton.
And her eyes! Ye deities of Mount
| Olympus, her eyesl They demand a
paragraph to themselves. Not quite
brown not quite hazel; not quite gray;
they had in them something of the hue
| of all three, yet something also above
and beyond those colors, for which there
| is no word in any. spoken language.
And their expression-wel, in the or
binary way, I'm a matter-of-fact sort
| of chap. / can survey the view from
Richmond Hill, or the Fairy Glen at
| Bettws, or a sunset in the TrosSachs,
or a sunrise among the Alps, or moon
rise upon the Bay of Naples, or any
other beautiful sight of nature, anima tie
or inanimate, without, so to speak,
turning a hair. But when it came to
/ looking into Gentian'S eyes, all kinds of
/ strange sensations were aroused in me.
I felt rather as you feel at the den
lists when the gas is just beginning to
| take effect; a sort of delicious giddi-
ness and intoxicating faintness, while
the fairest ideas, the most ethereal fan
cies stole OK er me. I thought of heaven
and the angels and the pearly gates and
| the crystal sea; I thought of distant
church bells upon summers eve; ]
| thought of laying down ones life for
ones friend I thought of the song of
the nightingale, of the fragrance of the
lilies of the valley, of the red and
golden tints of autumn leaves.
Then, for the nonce, balls and NAL
let's. wires. clips. pegs, and boundaries
all-round breaks, and the corner game
were to me as though they had never
BENNY etherealized senses knew them
not. They were, as spiritualists would
say, upon lower plane-too gross, toe
material. for recognition
| But when I was out of the range o.
Gentian's magnetic eyes again; when
awoke from my dream of heavenly fan
cies to the stern facts of earth; wher
things resumed their true perspective
and when balls, wires, clips. pegs, boun
! daries. all-rOund breaks, and the corner
game occupied once more, for me, theil
! proper place in the scheme of life, thel
4 said to myself, This will never do.
! Thoughts of heaven and the angels, o
the pearly gates and the crystal sea. o
distant church bells of suicide to oblig'
a friend of warbling nightingales, o.
fragrant lilies, of autumn's auburn
tints-these are well enough in theii
way: but when they interfere with thai
concentration of the energies, by which
alone success in a crOquet champion
ship may be attained why then com
mon sense and reason demand their i'm
mediate suppression.
Yet to look into Gentian's eyes an