The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-08-22

ways of wearing a thing so as to
hide its blemishes. Betty hung 1t away
in the back of her closet and the sum-
mer was almost over before she put it
en-.
This same spring the young lieu
tenant fell i'll over in the Philippines
with slow fever and his mother went
over after him. took him home on sick
leave and his harum-scarum Vir-
ginia cousin who was only a second or
third cousin and was now eighteen and
had blossomed out surprisingly the
way girls do at that age, came home
from a Washington boarding school to
help take care of him. There were sew
eral long gaps between letters during
this period and it was very trying for
Betty but she knew he wasn't able to
write and didn't like to ask his mother
to do it for him because they weren't
regularly engaged" She wondered
little about that cousin of his and tried
to remember whether she was a second
or third cOuSin-thoSe southerners
have so many couSinS-but his letters
scarcely mentioned her. They were
very brief because he was so wretchedly
i'll, but he told her that as soon as he
picked up bit at home he would be
out to sec his Undine. This reminded
Betty of the last summers gown and
she got it out but saw at once it would
MT do. 1t was somewhat faded and be-
draggled and the fiounces instead of
floating sea-weed like, her brother who
caught her studying it's possibilities
told her. looked as though they
had been chewed. She decided to make
another, exactly like it. but there was
no hurry because the second letter with
q Virginia postmark informed her that
the family doctor had said the young
lieutenant wouldn't be able to travel
before August. Betty was terribly dis
appointed. She had wanted their re
neWaP' to be in June as their beginning
had been. She hated to have him here
in August. Kansas is so hot in Au-
gust.
But he came in July. This was partly
because he grew strong and well rapid
ly and partly because he wanted to
have his uncertainty over. His uncer-
tainty? Yes. You see the truth is
that although the young lieutenant was
very fascinating and very courtly and
very chivalrous as all southerners are
supposed to be he was just as tickle as
though he lived in Quincy, Illinois. or
Topeka, Kansas, or any other place in
the cold, calculating northland. His
tom-boy Virginia cousin was a dear,
and it was long time since he had
seen Betty and he remembered that
thought how graceful and neat and
clever and pretty she was and what
saucy unexpected things she said he
wavered. And in order to decide be-
tween them he thought the best thing
was to hurry his preparations and go
out to see Betty again.
It ended in his mother and the TOM
boy cousin-I call her so because that
is the way 1 started, but that was last
summer; she is very tall and stately
and dignified now-going with him be-
cause Mrs. Brinckerhoff urged them.
And although the Y. L. rather hated to
take the cousin to the scenes sacred to
Undine-he was so far faithful-he also
rather hated to part with the cousin
who had become very necessary to his
happiness. 1t was really in the blood,
1 suppose. His father and mother were
second cousins. and all his kin had in
termarried until he was related to every
prominent family in the south.
He wrote to Betty, telling her of their
plans, and the letter was forwarded to
Colorado where she was visiting the
arrived the day after she left for home
and followed her back to Kansas. The
evening that she reached home, tired
and hot and Understandable train
was ten hours late-she went upstairs
and pulled the last summers gown
YEARLY out of her closet. She put II
on carelessly, with no heed to the
wrinkling yoke, and twisted her hair
up without studying the effect, and
brushed it plainly back from her fore
head because the night was hot, and
went down to dinner in anything but
her usual form" She meant to go to
bed early and didn't expect to see any
one but the family.
Now Betty Brown is a pretty girl, and
l defy anyone to deny it. But you know
yourself that when one gets home from
long, hot railway journey, especially
! if it is from Colorado to Kansas in July,
and hasn't had time for a bath and
puts on a last summers gown and does
ones hair for comfort rather than
looks. and is sitting out on the piazza
cooling off and not posed for company.
one IS not so easy to look at (small
brother again as under more favorable
4 circumstances.
You really can't blame the young
lieutenant. but it was too bad for
Betty.
She rose blushing and trembling and
| frightfully embarrassed when he came
up the piazza steps. 1t was too late to
| fly, she thought, and send word that
she was i'll, and yet it wouldn't have
been if she had only known, because
the truth is that until she spoke the
Y. l. didn't recognize Betty. l will not
say that he mistook her for the maid.
but I do know that he didn't remember
the last summers gown. He cOuldn
even see that it was green; it looked a
| kind of dirty white to him, and Und1ne
looked faded and ordinary and shabby.
And with her prettiness temporarily
gone Betty's aplomb also deserted her.
She was embarrassed, awkward, dis
trait. She apologized for her appear
ance and then regretted it, knowing
that she only emphasized it, and she
grew painfully silent There was moth