The Topeka state journal., 1906-05-04
THE EVENING STORY



Sarah life by far the widest eddies
were Paola's love affairs. Miss Sarah
nad. never had lover herself7she
mad always been too busy taking care
OF Paoia who was the younger sister,
q sum, pale creature, with vivid eyes
ana head that habitually dropped
little as though weighted by its
own gold hair and sense of slanguor-
Gus melancholy.
Beside Miss Sarah's old-time cour-
tesles, Paola was as an orchid to a
pansy, but underneath the melan-
cnoly was a certain irresponsible dew
lIIry, certain intangible witchery
tnat brought the most eligible youths
OF the neighborhood in suppliance to
hef feet and filed Miss Sarah with
unceasing wonder and amazement.
Whenever a new victim appeared
upon the scene, Miss Sarah thrilled
with apprehension. AS he was friend.
", she approved of him; as he was
more eonspicuously attentive. she
watched for him; thGh in gentle per-
plexity that never vanished with
ADDED experience, she saw him hover,
ADVANCE, retreat-hover again, and
plunge When the little comedy was
played out she took up her knitting
with a sigh of relief, opened her vol
uTne of Felicia Hemans at the purple
bookmark and prepared to rest before
another siege
Paola herself slipped from one emo
tlonal catacylsm to another as the
slender moon from cloud to cloud.
They yeiled her vivid calm for a mo-
ment, but she always emerged un-
Iettered, on the other side.
ohe mad been wearing Francis Lock-
WOOD roses for a month, when Miss
sarah one night, after three gentle
calls unanswered. stepped through the
long French window onto the moonlit
Veranda, with a crimson scarf in her
hand- The June night called for no
such guard against its close, sweet
warmth, but on the subject of damp
ana dew Miss Sarah was infiexible.
Paola, she said anxiousIy-then,
since there was no Paola in all the
stladow-d -dappled length of the veranda
raised her voice a little and called
again, "Paola, deari"
a mocking bird in the cedar by the
gate gurgled a liquid impertinence
that ended in low call to his mate.
but the rest was silence.
Miss Sarah looked across the lawn
then down at her feet.
Paola must have this scarf she
said to herself Sterniy, 'and I suppose
she IS sitting on the bench ythe Black
Prince-the most imprudent chiidi"
That the Black Prince was a beloved
rosebush saved Miss Sarah's remarks
from their apparent impropriety; and
mindful of her steps She hurried into
the path that led to the Black Princes
domains across the lawn.
The moon burned white above her
in a cloudless sky, and Miss Sarah re-
sponded delicately to the influences of
the hour. A faint, fragrant dream,
with boyish ewes called to her as she
went slowly down the path, and young
faces swan mistily in her memory as if
they had drifted there with the smell of
the box in the hedge.
She thought of the night her mother
died-another June; of a flowered gown
she had worn the day she was sixteen;
of a poems something about daffodils-
or was it roses?
The love that came with the daffo-
dis and went away with the roses
that was it," said Miss Sarah with a
little sigh of satisfaction, "only the daf-
fodils come back with the spring ard
every summer there are roses. so I zeal
" don't see the sense of that; those
love songs are nearly always rather
silly She stopped to thrust back the
daring sweetness of a yellow Banksia.
The garden is very sweet tonight
said Miss Sarah to herself, "and God
walked in the cool of the garden.
wonder was it ike this?' She paused
on the edge of the Black Prince king
dom where it lay half in shadow, and
lifted her eyes to the moon.
"Oh dearrfLsaid Miss Sarah, almost
aloud, What a beautiful night it is"
which was Miss Sarah's way of saying
that the world was very good. and she
was happy Then she lifted her skirts
a little higher, not, however, to the
verge of indelicacy, and sped softly into
the heart Of the rose garden.
Paola was sitting on the bench by
the Black. Priuce-Miss Sarah saw
that at once-and beside her was young
Lockwood, as Miss Sarah had also fore
seen, and Paola's head was thrown
back. and one of Paolas slim white
arms lay like a simmer of moonlight
along the back OF the bench. Positive
ly inviting rheumatism murmured
Miss Sarah miserably.
She was within a few feet Of them
and a call trembled on her lips, when
Paola's own voice stopped her.
Go on" said Paola, in a soft, hur-
ried whisper and Miss Sarah by some
queer instinct drew back into the shade
of the great oak behind the bench, fear
full lest an incautious movement would
betray her, fearful almost of her own
breathing, for Miss Sarah was learned
in the ways of Paolas suitors, and it
was one of her best-learned lessons
never to interrupt them. So she drew
back and waited, innocent of any de-
sire to eaves-drop.
Go on said Paola again. and young
Lockwoods voice came out Of the deep
er. shadow, low and vibrant and rhyth-
mic. Miss Sarah leaned closer instinc-
lively to hear the words; they escaped
her at first, then echoed clearer:
:" Remember how. when first we met,
we stood,
Stung with immortal recollections.
o fact, immured beside a fiery sea,
That leaned down at dead midnight to
be kissed
o beauty. folded up in forests old!
Thou vast the lovely quest Of Arthur's
knights
Thy armor glimmered in a. gloom Of
green.
Did I not sing to thee in Babylon?
or did we set a sail in Carthage Bay?
Were thine eyes strange? Did I not
know thy voice?
All ghostly grew the sun, unreal the air
Then when we kissed"
The last word quivered sentiment on
the air. and Miss Sarah tremb1ed with
a strange fear Of It. Her fingers found
the rough bark of the tree and clung;
she waited, hungered, for the rest but
young Lockwood's voice broke from
the beat Of verse into uneven words:
..Paola. my beautiful, it IS our