The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-04-28
THE EVENING STORY.



Mrs. Jefferson was not more than
tnrty-1lVe years OF age, and she had
spent fourteen years of married life in
INDIA She had seen three of her chill
ofen buried in an unhealthy station
ana had been to England once, seven
years before, to take two little girls
home to be educated. 1t was on her re-
turn voyage from visiting her children
that met her.
she was so much less aggressive than
most of the women on board. and de-
Inanded so much less attention, tnar it
was restfu1 to lazy man like myself
Just 10 sit quietly by her deck chair,
snare my books and newspapers with
hef' ana enjoy my evening cigar by her
sac. Mrs Jefferson did not object to
smoking; she seemed indeed so differ
ent so humble and unexacting that I
round myself wondering what the man
must be like who was her husband, and
hopinS IhaC he was not q selfish brute
who sat upon the little woman. She
was not communicative, and I found
out very little about her during our
long chats. Perhaps I am egotistical
and talk a good deal about myself when
I get a patient listener Be that as it
may, I Cleaned nothing of Mrs. Jeffer-
SON own history from her, and at last
l determined to ask the captain of the
ship if he knew anything about her.
1t IS odd that you should ask me
that, said Captain Hargreaves, for it
was only today that began to recall
Mrs. Jefferson to my recollection. She
told me her maiden name this morning,
and said that she had Travelled out with
me once before. and recolIected the
circumstances Immediately.
She was going out to India to be
married to this man Jefferson, and a
very pretty girl she was in those days,
though one would hardly guess it now
to look at her-one gets accustomed
TO that sort of thing on board these P.
and o. VeSSelS-One year a pretty girl
with pink cheeks and her lovers
photograph on her cabin table going
ever afterward, and a few years later,
the same girl with all the roses washed
out Of her cheeks. bringing home a
little boy or girl to say gOodby to
them in England, and to go back to
some plantation in the hills, where
perhaps her husbands is the only
white face she sees for most days in
the year"
yet they'll continue to go while
the world lasts said I. It hope JEFF
ferson was the right sort of MANI"
$50 far as can hear" said Cap
tain HargreaveS, 'he is very much the
reverse! He got into some trouble over
a business affair, and lost q good billet
down in Calcutta; then he came into
a little money, and bought tea plan
tation somewhere in the back of be-
yOnd. But he was always something
of a bounder, I fancy, and his mis-
fortune, as men of Jefferson's type al
ways call their misdoings, soured him.
He took to drink, I believe. and this
little woman doesn't have the best of
times with him. She has got children
at home and has lost several others
out in India
Naturally one avoided the subject
Of Mr.. Jefferson ever afterward when
talking to his wife and I heard moth
ing about him till the very last day
of the voyage
It was horribly hot weather-quite
exhausting for ladies. Mrs. Jefferson
had been confined to her cabin for some
days with a bad attack of fever and
headache She looked pathetically small
and weak when she came on deck again
and curled herself up in my big deck
chair which I had prepared with cush-
ions for her, giving me at the same time
a look so full of gratitude that it was
enough to make any decent man feel
ashamed of himself.
The rest of the passengers began to
go below, card tables were put away,
the principal electric lights were put
out. but still Mrs. Jefferson sat in the
deck chair, looking small and weak
among the pillows, and / took 1t into
my head suddenly that she wanted to
say something to me, but that speech
was difficult to her, and in fash I
knew intuitively that she had learned
the silence which so many women have
to learn.
It want to thank you" she said at
last, TIOr all your 6OOQAiESS 70 1Al- WI
this voyage Her voice was so low
and gentle that had to lean forward
to catch exactly what she said, and as
I did so she laid her hand in mine
Perhaps you don't know, she said
slowly, quite what your friendship has
I stumbled and said something bald
and stupid in response, and Mrs. JEFF
ferson went on:
20. seven years I have lived for
4I,f n ENGLAND
When anything in my life was little
disappointing, 7 always said to myself,
I have the children to go back 20 Ana
every week I had their precious, foolish
little letters, which told me so little and
kept me hungering to see them"
1T must have been awful to leave
them again. I said, and in the dark I
took again the little hand which had
lain in mine
Mrs. Jefferson. still in the same halt
ing fashion. like one who speaks an
unfamiliar language. Il mean When
they were little things I do not think
cutie tinv children could ever have
been more fond of their mother. And.
she hesftated for a moment, and
said. with so much difficulty that it
seemed almost like cruelty to allow
her to proceed always hought
they would remember me- although
thew were so little" She paused again,
and went on. you mustn't think that
I was silly about them, or that I ex-
pected too much. L always
thought at first they might be a little
didn't even know me, and they were
certainly disappointed in me-
one of them was five years old when
I said goodby to her. Now she IS
school girl of thirteen. def
oTII- nhotograph of me was taken long
ago, SO it is no wonder that she didn't
I did not fill in the pause by any
banal remark.
tsThey have been brought up IN q
gentle voice, 'in which love. fear, is
not a thing that is reckoned with or
encouraged. They rather disDised me
Ia en-