The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-04-04
TIE EVENING STORY
With Caaudia's Assistance.

BY Ina Wright Hanson
From the doorway, Fitzgerald
looked modify at me; from in front
OF the dresser, looked moodily at
Fitzgerald.
She refused me-" he said.
tve got to go to Mrs. Writings
dinner" I answered.
F1tz nodded and threw himself
heavily into a chair.
wouldn't go. you know. after
Mrs Writings niece refused me, so she
had to rustic up you
I glared at him. then jerled open
the top drawer.
Seems to me. in the interest of
humanity, you might have STAYED off
your old proposal till after the dinner.
I've got to take Miss whiting in
What shall I say to her? I'm no So
ciety man.
You might talk about me. It's
darned strange she refuses me-" Fitz
responded modestly. "Of course I'm
fat but what of that? Look at my
money!"
turned from my hair brushing
and regarded Fitz with surprise.
She's different from other girls,
he went on mournfully. You never
know what she is going to do or say
next She said If she ever found the
man she wanted to marry and he
didn't ask her she would propose to
him. You say a word for me, old
man, and maybe she. will change her
mind about it."
the internal dinner. If I had been
left in peace I could have translated
a few more pages Of that Latin work
1 was on.
Why I should have (hguratively of
course) fallen on my face and wor-
shipped Claudia Whiting the moment
saw her I don't know. That any
man could help adoring her after he
came to know her, is Incredible; but
l think I began before ever she said
a word to me- It couldn't be because
her eyes were the bluest ever saw,
or her hair crinkled sunshine sup
pose a poet would describe 1t better
or her lips red as the roses she wore
in her belt. One day since that din
ner, she told me something about
afflnities. It may be be that mystic
rious word holds the reason.
What we talked of is vaguely re-
membered. I know that 1 walked
homeward carrying with me vision
of sweetest seriousness, for that de-
scribes Claudia as she appeared that
day. When I turned the corner, be-
yond which were my lodgings, I saw
Fitzgerald at my gate, his broad back
toward me. I remembered my for
gotten promise, and fled incontinently.
couldn't face him Later I stole into
my room like a thief in the night.
Next day went to call on her, and
to make my peace with FItz. who had
me that morning. She
was in the garden, and 1 stated the OBJ
ject of my call at once.
IF you knew him better, you would |
appreciate him more" 1 said. and
launched forth at some length into his
peculiar graces and virtues. Claudia
listened, and when I had finished she
leaned toward me, smiling roguishly.
And didn't you care about coming !
to see me? If 1t had not been for Mr. |
you would have come any
way, wouldn't your"
To think that she should have
looked straight into my heart, and dis |
covered my perfdyi 1 almost let go Of |
my secret. I almost answered. Il came |
because I love you And this on the |
second meeting.
Then because must talk, and there |
were some things I must not say, be- I
gan talking of nyself-rny college life, |
my falling health, forcing me to live /
for years in the pine forests; then |
when my health was restored, how the |
tudes, so that I was unhappy and Ill at |
ease in society.
IT have quite a pretentious cabin /
there" I said. In it are my books
and my violin. Back of it flows clear
stream with trout waiting for me to I
catch them for my breakfast. Nothing /
Is wanting there to make me entirely /
comfortable
My face grew hot, for all at once I
realized there was a want-a void to
be filed. That If I went back to my |
cabin now, it would be as lacking as
the body whose soul is not within.
j was born and bred in the woods!"
exclaimed Claudia THE stars look /
closer and bigger than they do in the
cities of the lowlands. Up there in the
are ferny hooks, and man
zanita. there is watercress which
makes me hungry this minute oh, I
know about the woods." Her blue
eyes were shining like the stars of
which she spoke.
Then she asked me about my books;
and I told her of my published ones,
and those in ontemplatiOn-dry old /
tomes--why should I have supposed
like her?
But I rambled on, lost in her sweet
till the sun suddenly /
dropped out of sight, and I saw her /
shtver in the breeze that stirred the /
poplars. Then I remembered F'itz.
Do give him another chance" /
said perfunctorily. as I rose to go. She /
looked at me seriously, but made no l
answer.
For the greater part of a month Fitz +
was away from town, and I saw Clau- |
dia nearly every day. Before going he I
asked my promise to say a word in his /
favor every time I saw her. There are
limits to the duties of friendship, but I I
promised because felt that he would
make her good husband. He was
an honorable man, and had more mon
ey than he knew what to do with.
She was such beWildering little
creature. was Claudia. At the first
meeting she was so sweetly serious
she had told me since that she was
frightened to death of me, because
knew so much. Fancy it, The day
she told me. though, she was bubbling
over with laughter. and I suspect she
was poking fun at me in her irrepres-
sible way. Then there was the morn
ING when we walked together to
church, and she talked SO quietly of
holy things; and there was that last
afternoon in the garden before F'itz
eame home.
That day it was the hardest of all to
forget myself and remember Fitz.
som etirnes when the tenderness of my
heart would creep Into my words. little