The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-11-02
Elva blushed furiously.


when people make themselves con-
spicuous," she said, frostily their do
ings are bound to form the subject
of comment. Mollfe Richards always
persists in wearing maize with her
particular shade of red-auburn hair.
and-I could see her from all over the
garden"
almost without looking?" I sug-
geSted careIeSsly.
Elva passed over this remark with
contempt, but 1 couldn't help MOTTO
ing that the flush deepened.
We'll, as it's not Mollie,' she OBJ
served, with dignity, 'and as you've
called on purpose, perhaps you'll be
obliging enough to tell me who it is,
SO that may congratulate or cendone
with you as the case may be-
You'll condone," said I. with con-
'swhy. please?"
Because she-this girl, who isn't
Molife Richards you know, doesn't
care straw for me-in that way, and
the whole thing is hopeless
Elva softened instantly.
How can you tell if you've never
asked her? she demanded. "She may
be simply pining away for your sake,
II you only knew"-her gaze wandered
bed of brilliant besonias in the front
garden-"girls don't always wear their
hearts on their sleeves. even in these
mStter-of-fact days. Monty
busily engaged in tracing the pattern
of the carpet.
DO you think it's likely asked,
that any girl would really fall in love
with man twice her age, if
ooh, she's young" interrupted Elva,
hastily. DO you know, I'm rather
glad of that
7 held up a deprecating hand.
please let me finish" 1 impIored
''Twice her age, when she's tyrannized
over him, leased him and looked upon
him as an old fogey for the greater
part of her natural life ?''
Elva eyed me sharply. The color
came and went in her cheeks in a way
that I had never seen it come and go
before. 1 put my eyeglass in order to
better admire the effect.
You said you'd only seen her once
or twice" she resumed, severely; but
the culver in her voice robbed the
severity of any sting.
I waved my hand.
Lovers IicenSei" 1 said, airily 81
couldn't divulge everything at once
.'If you've known her so long, how
comes it that you nly-well-discov-
cred the state of your feelings yester-
day?''
'''There is a tide in the affairs of
men," I quoted. Likewise, there is
a psychological moment when a man
suddenly realizes fact that may have
been staring him in the face for
years.
"And that psychological moment oc-
CURED at Lady Follet's?"
Occurred at Lady Follet's,"
echoed. And then there was long
silence.
I let my eyes wander slowly round
the room. They fingered vaguely on
the ridiculous blue cats with which
Elva adorns her mantleshelf, and
skinned the photographs of her nu-
merous admirers-some of them
thrust carelessly into the overmantel,
and some, the more fortunate, smirk-
ing at me from elaborate frames.
l think E1va'S eyes must have been
wandering, too, for they came to anchor
at the same moment mine, and then,
without any rhyme OF reason, they filed
quite suddenly with tears.
Now, 1 can never see a woman cry
without feeling that something-some-
thing drastic must be done at once.
/ started up, and then the rest seemed
to follow natural and easy conse-
quence.
In less time than it takes to chronicle,
EsIva was crying quietly on my shoulder
and the blue cats were grinninS diaboI-
ically from their several coigns OF van
tage
..And when" I asked, after we had be-
come more or less normal, and returned
to earth once again, when was your
psychological moment, Elva?''
E1va fingered a gardenia in my but
tonhole-took it out-smelt it, and re-