The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-02-07
TIE EVENING STORY
Cupid and ca Hale.

The pretty gray-haired lady sighed.
/ Il never really had a fair chance at
partridge before she said, Indicating
her well-filled plate with a pathetic
smile
7 have fellow-feeling," she eontin-
ued, for that old gentleman who said
that the wing of the chicken was doubt
less the very incest portion of ALL but
that he had never tasted it. When he
was young the old people were supposed
to monopolize it, and now that he had
grown old. he said. it had to be reserved
for the young. My dear he lamented.
1 have never tasted the wing of the
/ chickeni' Tragic, wasn't ft?"
1t was dastardly!" The fne-looking
! Kvnite-mustached gentleman on her
right hand stihed a snort Of indignation.
Nothing gets away from the young
sters OF today" he growled. I'm only
a bare hfty-nine, as you know
1es-l remember you were always
I just five years ahead the sWeet-faced
little lady smiled sympathetically.
'F1fty-nine years, Mrs. Merrydew!
| and to judge from the attitude of the
young hedgelings in this hotel, one
would say 1 was a relic of the stone age
i belonged somewhere, unclassified, with
the pyramids and Rameses Ibis
/ genial face took on sudden mulberry
4 hue; "dastardly, I repeati You can
plead the most trivial sensation Of indi-
gestion nowadays, even just a plain, or
/ binary headache, but it's put down to
! incipient selility-I meet it on all sides,
can tell you!"
7 know know!" responded his fair
/ listener, appreciatively. And that
rosy-cheeked girl from the academy
: prefaces every other remark to me with
In your day It does come hard,
certainly, when one is still in fair state
of preservation, and can yet maintain
/ ordinary conversation
Conversation, humphi merely the
i last expiring efforts of a once powerful
/ intellect, my dear madam quoted the
| elderly gentleman, savagely.
The pretty little widow giggled out
| right at this=she could look very
charming when d smile dispelled her
/ naturally pensive expression. Really,
/ it's comfort to meet you again, after
SO many years. she cOnfded, lets go
/ over to that window seat, where we
/ can sympathize. feel quite as young
as I did twenty-five years back-and
! younger; but there is always such an
unreasoning prejudice regarding gray
hair-it's public opinion concerning it
that harrows up your SOUL
Gray hair is most becoming over a
/ youthful face, put in the gentleman,
with a gallant bow, while they both
withdrew to friendly alcove. "Oh,
hank you for not saying still youth
.uli That still is such a paralyzIng
wOrd.'' the little lady shuddered.
1n64 might dS Wen say MIS-. M
/ still retains her intelligent expression
It is all very unnerving.
He chuckled, and moved his chair a
trifie closer.
Il say, this judging of age by years
! is the most outrageous procedure
| ever, isn't it now? I maintain that it
| is primitive and unworthy of our So
4 called civilization. One might as well
1 judge by rheumatism, Of which babes
I in arms are our most prominent expo
n in a
/ cub out yOnder at tennis is barely d
/ self-cOnfessed twenty-four, and yet his
mamma (the stout, be-diamonded per
son, with three chins) is sore put to
it to extricate him from his consider
/ able and fourishing crop of wild oats
( Irregular horse-chestnuts they are too,
I believeD My dear young friend, you
and I might be styled mere babes IN
! the wood by comparison with this
World-Weary youth And yet'-the
I white mustache went upward with a
! twist of fierce Xasperation-''h he want
ed to know what colleges they had in
my day, and were telephones and
I horse cars invented
The lady laughed so heartily that the
irate speaker Joined in perforce after
a while.
I'm so glad you came, she remarked
/ prettily; I am getting demoralized
/ here alone by myself. OF course my
daughter comes at times, but then am
more than ever gultily conscious of my
shortcomings. If I as much as mention
wearing my brooch or tortoise-shell
comb down to dinner I feel that it is
almost a personal insult to her. and
I sometimes L just long to take up the
baby and soothe and pet him when he
( is hungry or fretful but / am promptly
/ informed that the best grandmothers
do not do it, Of course it is all for my
/ best good, for she says it all in love,
and it hurts her more than it does me
/ Cor she thinks it does). AS for an ear
drop, an eardrop is an anachronismt /
don't mind any of these things so much
but in my little parlor at home there
are my pretty colOred Wreaths, and
that quaint shell work father made. and
the tides I worked long ago when
mother was alive-all unhygienic, sup
I pose
.'Unhygienic!' calculated her listener
holly. and I've an old red silk dressing
gown, reeking with germs, no doubt,
that's been the chief prop and stay of
my declining years; it's got to go, of
course. as soon as my folks strike the
placei"
And the notices my little Emma
worked when she was i'll, before the
/ lasti'-the sweet voice trembled a little
II can't let them 90. even if for their
own sakes: No Cross, No Crown
cling to them all, even if they are old
fashioned" Her voice ended in a little
sob
The elderly man cleared his throat
with a mighty noise and patted the
plump little hand in wordless sympathy.
Anyway, when it comes to the old
drama were all right" ne ventured at
/ last. Think of those good old names.
and the old standard shows they gave,
Plays that hurt nobody, and gave our
/ ina inations some small chance for ex-
ercise.' "a tacit but vigorous opinion
of the modern stage was conveyed in
the repressed growl with which he con-
! cluded.) The pretty color deepEned
little in the lady's face; she looked up,
smiling brightly.
II have a certain tassel from the old
museum she said softly; ''I had to
have something"
And I have a gilt cherub from one
of the upper boxes he chuclxIed.
'.Jovei" he went on. his voice sinking
to a confidential whisper, its good to