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

couldn't remember exactly who Undine
was but il certainly sounded good"
/ Ito quote the small brother again) and
so she blushed and looked more ador-
able than ever.
He had intended to stay in town only
few days bat he spent the rest of
his furlough here, which, as has been
said, was three weeks, and regretted
that he had fooled away so much time
down home where there was no one
but a tOm-bOy cousin who, although
she had a piquant charm of her own
and was undeniably amusing, was not
to be compared with this prairie I'm
dine. He persisted in calling Betty this
and in order to live up to it she wore
pale green more than usual that sum-
mer, but he always preferred the cling
ing gown with the floating sea-weed
flounces which she had worn when he
had first seen her. So the last night
before he left for San Francisco to join
his regiment and sail for the Philip
pines she put on the gown and
tucked a white rose in her hair, be-
tween her Janice Meredith curl and her
white throat 1t was a June night of
mysterious beauty and Betty was more
than ever like Undine in the misty
moonlight. the susceptible young lieu
tenant said. They were both at once
very happy and very sad. You know
how that is. when you are very young
and have known but few partings.
But all that was long ago-way last
summer. And now the green gown
with the floating flounces is last sum-
mer'S gOWn-a neglected thing enjoying
long period of innocuous desuetude
in the romotest corner of Betty's fra
grant clothes press.
She could not make up her mind to
discard it entirely because the young
lieutenant liked it so well. He fire.
nuently mentioned it in his letters and
told her how it hoated before him in
his campfire reveries and to prove 1t
he sent her a copy of Howard Chandler
/ Christy's 1T Is Not Only the Bullets
/ That Wound" from Frisco Later he
did a fanciful little sketch in water
color for her-one of those vague, fan
1 tistic. impressionistic things. You
couldn't tell quite what it was. In
! some lights it looked like nothing but
| il a little and gaze at it dreamily
/ through your eye lashes and it became
/ a beautiful mermaid or sea nymph or
something revealing herself indiStinct
ly with the pale sea weed wrapping
her in clinging drapery of green and
/ dash of sea foam curiOuSly suggesting
a white rose in the shadow of her hair.
| They were not engaged" Betty told
the girls, but she Rugged a happy Sc
cret to her heart and dreamed of the
| summer two years off when he would be
home again. His letters were frequent
and devoted and Betty would not have
exchanged the poetic lieutenant for
dozen lovers who were nearer. Two
years might seem a long time to some
/ girls, especially If they were very popu-
lar debutantes, with a lover on the
| other side of the world and only a
vague understanding to unite them,
/ but Betty saw no one to make her
waver in her devotion. She pitied the
other girls who had fallen in love with
mere mortals. instead of her young god.
+ She continued to go to the parties
and she wore the green gown occasion
ally the rest of the summer and some
times during the winter although by
! time oh a
for Betty. The girls referred to it, now,
as that old green thing" but the boys
always said something pretty about it.
Betty had ingenious devices of her own
for freshening it up each time. but by
the next spring it simply wouldn't do
for parties. She darned the tears in the
flounces and made new net yoke for
it and thought she could wear It at
home evenings, occasionally. The new
yoke wasn't altogether a success-new
yokes for decollette gowns never are, as
almost any girl could tell you-It
wrinkled and drew" but there are