The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-09-13
THE EVENING STORY
How GRACE Ionked.

How Grace Looked.
| sGrace's particular grudge against
/ lie was that. ever since she could re-
member she had been called a sweet
| little thing" This was because she
had a small nose. inclined to the re-
| trousse. a pair of ingenious eyes. an
insignificant little mouth and piQuant
chin with a dent in the middle and an
hair.
| Now, as a matter of reality. Grace
was strenuous, worldly wise and un-1
romantic young person. who discussed
politics, despised housekeeping. hated
| babies, read Tolstoy and Nietzsche, and
| sometimes, upon serious provecation,
| said Darn! Moreover, she had dis
tinct ideas of what she wanted ana was
| in the habit of taking positive steps to
attain her desires. So she resented be-
| ing modified by weak adjectives. When
| strangers said of Marcella, her best
friend, What a handsome young wo-
man-an exceptionally strong facet"
| Grace had her ungenerous moments of
vexation and envy.
| One time Cousin Jack came home
from Paris. where he had been paint
Ing pictures Grace was tremendously
| glad to see him and exceedingly anx-
ious to get his foreign experiences. She
had never been abroad. He called on
! the family at once and was as welcome
as if he hadn't been a relation But
| just as he reached the point of inter-
| est IN a LaJln quarter tale ne was mar
rating in his most delightful conversa-
| tional style he hesitated and looked
| remorseful. Had / better tell it be-
fore Oracle, Uncle John. eh?' he
| asked.
Grace rose in threatening silence
and swept out of the room. At the
door Jack caught her by the arm and
said: Now don't get sore. little
cousin. Don't you know, it's out OF
drawing. telling these yarns before that
little blossom face of yours.
Older men treated Grace with the
careful Difference due to young and
very unsophisticated women and stud
led to protect her illusions. Nobody
whose opinion she really respected was
ever honest with her. Nobody con-
coded her the right to be, primarily.
an Individual. So one day Grace CON
sidered that she had reached the
psychological moment for action.
She purchased plain tailor suit and
some shirt waists. a round hat with a
stiff bow and pair of heavy shoes
with common-sense heels and began to
cultivate a cynical expression. Every
morning she wet her hair and brushed
it straight back from her forehead and
we'll behind her ears and coiled 1T in a
knot on her neck, with a black velvet
bow on top.
When she went across the lake to
Marcellas summer place Marcella'
brother Dick said. Hello, Miss Higher
Educationi" and then wondered the
rest of the day what made Grace SO
polite to him all the time.
She made great hit with the old
ladies at the inn, who confided to
Marcella that her friend was "spien-
did young girl Marcella told Grace
who began to appreciate her own re-
sourcefulness. But that night, when
they went to a hop at the Beach. Grace
sat out two dances. The young doctor
who was spending the summer at the
inn singled out Grace from the array
of languishing summer maidens as a
"girl of actual intelligence" Grace
heard his comment to Dick and then
she watched him go over to beg dances
of the dream in pink at the other side
of the hall.
After she got home again she was
asked to join the Woman's Reading
/ notice that the blue-eyed, frivolous
person with the tously hair, who lived
| across the street. had never had so
many callers before, while she herself
had none worth mentioning. She
didn't distressingly miss the decress-
ing supply of popular novels, but she
found herself unaccountably snort IN
bonbons. The aesthetic young man
lstopped sending her water lilies and
narcissus.
But the climax came when Marcella
said suddenly just after her return to
town: "Grace, what is the matter
You are getting pos'uVeiS oio-
That afternoon Grace interviewed
her dressmaker to the following effect:
l'T want you to get me up something
white and fiuffy-chiffOn, I suppose
with lots of lace and tucks and n
broad ribbon girdle, sleeves to the
elbow and one of those delicious baby
necks."
In an exclusive shop she saw love
of broad hat made of melty-looking
cream stuff, with a wreath of crushed
pink roses. She bought 1T and carried
ii home herself. Then she dug out
her Iocket on the long gold chain
with the pearls in it and poilshed II
for half an hour. The day the gown
came home she went to the hair-
dresser's and ordered her couture done
in a wave, with round pompadour
and a fringe of curls all around the
forehead and ears
That week she had five invitations
To the same dance. She told every
man in the room that his fraternity
was simply the grandest thing she
ever heard of. But, seriously, 1t
RANKED first in national standing,
Il didn't it9 Yes, she had always under
stood so. They all believed her:
Everybody believed her. She looked
/ so incapable of mendacity. one OF
them said to Jack: do you know,
old man, that's mighty sweet little
cousin of yours 2"
And she made a desperate and
| wicked resolve that her baby face,
with its turned-up nose and its inno-
cent ewes. should, after all, be made to
serve it's purpose.-Chicago News.
r2eIio;ous Federation