The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-05-10
TIE EVENING STOR Y
'sVirgina OF washington. .
by Eleanor Austin Harris.1


Hasn't he nice blue eyes?" said Miss
Dressed
Horrors. chidi Don't say such things
out loud! What If he should under
stand English?"
Impossible, Aunt Ellen German
blondness, reading a German paper.
travelling in a German train with bag
gage marked "A. Won s., Bremen.
Virginia. What does possess you?
never heard you talk So"
Miss Dressed laughed a hearty
American laugh. Il am so glad to shake
can't keep 1t in. I'm so glad were
headed for Hamburg, the Kaiser VIII
helm der Crosse, America and Wash
ington that-that-weIl honestly 1
should like to kick the epaulets OF the
guards gorgeous blue and gold uniform.
Don't faint, Aunt Ellen. I'll stop and
not say another word for an hour
For one hour and five minutes Miss
Dressed sat silent, Ostensibly watching
the valleys, the German gables, the
green Of meadows and forests as they
swept by. For one hour and five min
utes their young German fellow travel
er read his German paper, and for one
hour and five minutes Miss Ellen Van
strum enjoyed perfect peace of mind.
Then Miss Dressed coughed, and Miss
Vanstrum inWardly caught her breath
Aunt Ellen" said Miss Dressed. lazi-
as II she were discussing it. Aunt
Ellen, do you know that young man
has a dreadfully nice face, even If he
is a German oh, don't look shocked
Just gaze out the window as if I were
talking about the scenery, and he VIII
never know the difference. I've been
looking at him off and on for the last
hour. Just see what nice firm mouth
he has. He's SO well groOmed, too. Just
look at his finger nails. Oh, Aunt Ellen,
rrf-T, r7r,5 &c
looks better than any foreigner I have
seen in the five years we have spent in
Europe. Really, 1 shouldn't mind being
married If I could get such handsome,
well groomed man as he is"
Virginia, oh, Virginia!' groaned
Miss Vanstrum. "Tt's=it's indecent to
talk about man like that when he
can't understand.
Don't Jiggle your pompadour
crooked, Aunt Ellen" said Miss Dres-
sci calmly. Don't worry. If he IN
derstood English he would have be-
trayed himself long ago. He might
be a chunk of pink and white and
yellow taffy for all he understands
of the English language. Thank
goodness, Aunt Ellen. here we are
almost at Hamburg. Here, let me tie
your veil You are getting it on
crooked. No. let me carry the suit
case. It's a young house. Now for
my last fee-almost=on foreign soil"
The train had hardly come to long
screeching stop in the great station at
Hamburg, when the door of the car
rage was jerked violently open and q
young man pulled the German out
with hearty grip, exclaiming in Eng
fish:
Were in IuckI There was a state
room unengaged on the Kaiser VIII
helm and we can sail four days earlier
than we expected. Good Lord, mani
Why don't you say something, instead
of looking at me like a dazed idiot 2"
The German pulled himself together
with noticeable effort and began to
stammer out something in German
when the other interrupted him i'm
patiently.
law. cut that out! You know per-
fectly well I can't understand a word
of German. Never mind, come aIongt''
The young German flushed red and
with one appealing look straight into
the eyes of the astonished Miss Ores
sci he picked up his suit case and
was soon lost to view in the hurrying
throng.
Miss Dressed silently picked up her
luggage. carefully avoiding her aunt's
eye, and for a minute after leaving the
carriage she looked helplessIy about her
Then the label Berlin on a carriage
caught her eye and without word to
her puzzled relative she took her by
the arm, raced her across the station
anu RuSnOQ UcI Summing IN 0eTSGif.
just as the guard put his hand on the
door to close it.
y-what-where- said Miss
Vanstrum.
Il don't know" said her niece des-
perately. 'But-most anywhere out Of
But our steamer gasped Miss
Vanstrum
What's losing a steamer. Aunt FL
len compared with my peace Of mind !?
I'd no more sail on the Kaiser Wilhelm
now than I'd fly. Aunt Ellen, you're
even to look it,
You haven't given me time laugh
ed Miss Vanstrum, but I must saw I
certainly think 1t. There, I'm glad
we're off at last. I don't think myself
care to come face to face with that
young fellow again.
It was the evening of the last mu-
sicale Of the season at the White
House. and an unwonted air of antfci-
patton pervaded the brilliant throng rs
1t gathered in the great East Room
They say she has one of the finest
voices ever heard of the stage" said
the wife Of a South American 7iplo-
mat But the family Is one of the kind
they call here f. F. W and will not
let her accept any Of the offers she has
had for grand opera. This is her only
appearance in public since she returned
from Europe There's Anton Won
Stosch. Did you ever see any one so
eager to go everywhere as that man is?
He's simply crazy about meeting Amer
leans"
American women strangers, you
should say laughed a man wearing
the cross Of the Legion of Honor. You
can get Tony Won Stosch to go any
where just by limiting that some new
girls viii be there"
They say at the German legation
that by actual count Tony Won Stosch
has met eight hundred new girls
since the season opened. And he's still
going"
AS the ripple Of merriment greeting
this expression of the well known foible
Of the popular Anton Won Stosch died
away. some one said 'tHushi the pro-
gramme begins"
For snrne time Anton Won Sfnsnh