The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-05-15
THE EVENING STORY
TIhc Wido,y in White.
(By Louise Merriheld.)


slender. dryad figure, with spray OF
spring boughs over the bare shoulder
and a trail of grass-green velvet from
bust to ankle, broke her pose and
turned her head.
Pasquale himself had been the first
to run, and had a front seat, so to
speak, at the middle window, with
Jules LIE Breton towering over him.
No one spoke until the moment of
suspense was passed and the white
auto had swerved around the corner
of the Boulevard des Anges. Then
low, intense breath of released sus-
pense sounded audibly through the
bare room, and the Pasquale students
stared into one another's eyes, rap
turously, gloatingly, just exactly as
they had done every day at the same
hour for six days.
She is celestial" murmured LIE
Breton, huskily, as he lifted his fall
len easel. But he did not place cray
on to paper again that afternoon. He
sat and smoked a short Amiens pipe
and stared at the spray of spring
boughs on the models bare shoulder,
and the blood bounded through his
veins, 5oyously, bubblingly like the lit
tie mountain brooks breaking through
thin April ice
LIE Breton had spring fever. Also.
in minor degree. LIE Breton was new
ly in love again.
Pasquale crossed the room as soon
as the model had resumed the pose,
and he bent affectionately forward
over LIE Breton's chair and tapped on
the plump bowl Of the Amiens pipe to
recall LIE Breton's soul from the as
phodel meadow of day dreams.
Mon ami. 1 have discovered a
small thing" he said in an undertone,
so that Compton from Delaware would
not near. Compton from Delaware was
cynlc: person utterly beyond the
gates OF spring enchantment. He had
the artistic temperament, but 1t show
ed itself in his work, not his hair. nor
MS loves, nor his words. And therein
compton from Delaware was abso-
lutely an original and UNIQUE charec-
ter among the art students at pas
quale's. Also he was absolutely de-
spised as hopeless business proposi-
ton But the eyes of the girl with
the spring boughs passed over LIE
blouse and fingered on the close
cropped head of Little Compton from
Delaware.
It was the way he had with women.
nave discovered her habitation."
ow" WIZ
a widow in white" LIE Breton,s
half-closed eyes flashed open. "Ah. but
IL is ner whim- 1t is her divinity re-
lease. She did not love him If she can
mourn in white. But the art elusive.
enchanting, mysterious to garb herself
from top to toe in svelte white suede.
to swathe her face in cream chiffon
like a houri. to challenge ones darinr
to pfque the curiosity, does it not ali
prove the woman behind the veil. the
woman celestial yet with the dash, the
mere toucn, so like the high light, of
the diaboIque in her bereaved nature
Where does she live, PasquaIe?''
Pasquale glanced sideways at Little
Compton. He was extremely busy Civ
ing touch to the clasp of gold on the
CLEAN.
At the Hotel Lombard" said Pas
1uale. have engaged the interest of
the small boy at the garage. She is a
Germaine. And she lives at the Lom-
bard. So, my Jules. 1 give you the cue
for the romance, n'est-ce-pas?"
LIE Breton rose and stretched his
arms widely until they touched the gas
Jet above his head.
L shall fling violets at her, vast clus-
ters of them, dew wet, Parma violets
straight into her arms as she passes
each day until she recognizes me-" he
said. II shall pierce the white chiffon
veil with opera glasses and see If her
eyes divine are melting blue. or elor-
Iousiy, ravishingly dark, like la Tin
CARA. I shall"
You will make the customary bloom
Ing idiot of yourself. Jules called
Compton from Delaware over his shout
der with cheerful JUNCTION. How many
children did the last divinity have af-
ter you had followed the trail OF ro-
nance of two weeks and finally landed
her In a bakery over the Seine? %
LIE Breton raised a glass of ice water
10 deposit 1t below the adjacent coat
collar. but he stayed his hand, and
frank the water automatically. Once
once long ago, he had not stayed his
1and, and the memory of the resultant
episode fingered yet. Little Compton
1ad risen swiftly, and deity, promptly |
I'm M ~ =
aughed. 1t was not a pleasant MEM |
Dry. Therefore, LIE Breton stayed his |
land and drank of the ice water.
The next day LIE Breton vanished |
precisely, but his Intentions were pub |
ic.
The windows of Pasquale's were oc-
cupied by an absorbed audience long
on the still hush. of the mid
afternoon. BY leaning from the win
lows one could catch a glimpse of q
figure standing on the corner, a pa
-ient. noble figure under the quaint
iron street lamp, the figure
Of the knight errant. in paint daubed
velvet blouse, cap rakishly, romantical-
y awry, and in the hands the most
beautiful. enormous; ianguishing
Breton could find. A beauty it was,
legal offering. with silken tassIed cord
If gold, and the stems. the tender
young stems. prisoned in tinfoil, violet
1yed.
Presently there was the sound of
he chariot celestial, the cream white
with the tiny gold mono
gram on one side. so vague, so I'M
'eadable, so divinely mysterious to the
aces that crowded one above another
1t Pasquale's windows, like cabbages
n the market stalls.
"She comes, mon Dieu, she comes"
yasped Pasquale. ecstatically. Now,
nVx-h q TN a
;ure as Eros dartv'
The white auto purred softly swift
V down the pavement LIE Breton
aised his cap, raised his hand to toss
lis offering, and, 10. he tossed not, for
beside the slender figure in the white
nIede cloak sat Little Compton. Sc .