The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-01-30
THE EVENING ST0R
For Rent.

! outside" abjured Grace.
"And remember it must be in nice
neighborhood," added Molly.
Rowena sighed. I'll try" she SAID
resignedly, and tucking her umpreiia
under her arm, started down 'no
stairs. 1t was a cool day, with a gray
sky and a promise of rain In the ar,
The streets and boulevards hao lie
faded dusty look that late summer az
ways wears before the nrse Us
arrives to sharpen and brighten tnlnss;;
Vans, laden with furniture, Passed
with a frequency which proclaimed
that moving time had come
II must remember that all placess
look less cheerful on a dull day., salo
Rowena to herself, taking a list out o.
her pocketbook and running over IL
with a Illuminating eye.
Bright, attractive apartment, SIX
rooms and bath 1 think III try tnat
one, though they all advertise them as
attractive, and the reality is a lol oI
stuffy little rooms overlooking an al
shaft on one side and somebody's pacK-
yard on the other. But I'm starting
awfully early in the seasan and that
ought to give me a better choice.
For week Rowena had been nat
hunting, climbing endless flights OF
stairs and interviewing a seemingly
endless line of real estate agents and
janitors Each morning she set out
blithely and each evening she came
back fatigued and disheartened Ihe
price we want to pay and the KIND
seem to fit together" she walled, re-
counting her adventures to Molly and
Grace at nightfall. And this particu-
lar day proved no exception to the
rule. BY II o'clock in the morning she
had tramped miles and found nothing
suitable.
"Is this the Edgemere?" she YEARLY
inquired of an elevator boy in an
apartment building whose marble en-
trance and artistic green walls were
like ray OF hope to her detected
spirits.
"Yes'm," said he of the trim suit
and brass buttons.
'I'd like to look at one on the third
floor" said Rowena, smiling on him.
Rowena's smile was one of her chief
charms. 1t lighted UP her piquant
face and showed a dimple lurking in
her cheek. 1t would captivate anyone,
from king to an elevator boyl
The third floor of the Edgemore
proved desirable from every point of
view. Rowena was delighted. "And
all for $50 month"; she breathed.
lars" he scoffed. why, these here
apartments rents for one hundred and
fifty!'
"One hundred and fifty. You're GER
tainly mistaken. The paper said
She opened her pocketbook, found the
shook his head.
"Misprint, lady" he answered. "They
amt no such price,
Sure, that's just what I've been
looking scrubwoman, suddenly appear
ing in the doorway. Behind her
lowered fair-haired young fellow,
broad of shoulder and firm of chin. He
stared at Rowena for an instant.
why, Miss Holden" he cried with
n bOViSh laugh of nl0a Sl1re vOI1
on the trail, too?"
II should think you'd know it at
first glance" said Rowena, tragically.
MY sisters tell me that my face has
York fiat hunter-a look of grim
despair that is unmistakable.''
Dwight Curtis laughed again.
81 wonder If your trials are as great
as mine! I'm clubbing together with
two other fellows and trying to fill the
wants of each, and all is turning me
gray. Moreover. 1 feel I'm getting the
ricketts,. from sprinting up SO many
flights of stairs
THE building were in now is going
to be torn down, so we have to move,
and it's my turn to search" explained
Rowena. And, oh, Mr.. Curtis, have
you seen any reasonable apartments
with light, airy rooms in a pleasant
neighborhood not too far from the car
line?"
81 have not" Dwight answered
g-a"tly. though / repeat those
phrases even in my sleep! L tell you
what-why oan't we hunt together? 1t
will be lot more sociabIe and two
heads are better Than one, you know
Besides, down at the beach this sum-
mer that Hawkins man monopolized
so much of your time that it's only fair
for me to have my innings now. Shall
we go to Seventy sixth street next?''
DO you realize said Rowena a
week later, as theysat on a bench on
Riverside Drive. that time is flying.
and we've found nothing-absolutel
nothing, SO far?"
But we've had a lot of fun"
Dwight replied, smiling reminiscently
as he thought of sundry strolls they
had taken in the park, sundry lunch
cons tete-a-tete in the little casino.
sundry car rides to perfectly irrelevant
places and all with the ostensible ex-
cuse of fiat hunting.
This is good enough for me- he
went on, with a look first at Rowena
and then at the river where myriads
of water craft piled up and down
Steam launches pulled portentiously
sailboats cleaned in the sunlight and
an excursion steamer churned past all
flags flying and a band playing Justify
on deck. The rows of stone houses fac
ing the drive were closed and silent, |
the lower windows boarded up, while
the half-shut blinds of the upper ones
gave them a semblance of supercilious
dropping eyelids.
Rowena toyed with her parasol. She |
was looking dangerously demure in |
pale blue. A tip tilted coquettish hat
set lightly on 1lr well-poised head.
"I feel like a perfect culprit when
return at night" she confessed 1.-The |
girls fuss over me and say what a |
hard day I must have been through
at know" echoed Dwight grfnnine
THE fellows tell me |
that I'm a brick and that they're no |
end grateful, while as it is. I'm having |
the time of my lifei Must we really |
go ?" he pleaded, as Rowena abruptly |
gathered I'D her gloves and narasoI