The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-01-26
THE EVENING STORY
Tho Dethronement of Douglas.
(By Jane Ingraham.)

Harriet Winthrop belonged to the class
of girls who bow to physical strength
in the opposite sex. Frail, almost now
er-like in her beauty, the sort of girl
who had been protected and served all
her life, she yet decorated her tiny
morning room with etchings and small
statuettes of classic heroes, famed for
their physical proves, and she could
sit through a verftable blizzard TO
watch a football match and shout her-
self hoarse for Ted.s college team
Ted was her brother and he said that
somewhere in Harriets makeup was a
strain from the blood of an ancestral
belle who had cheered on her hero m
the old tournament days. For the WIN
throps could trace their lineage to the
tournament days-and further, and even
though Mr.. Winthrop had lost a large
slice of the old family fortune through
| ill-advised investment, they maintained
their social standing, lived in rather
severe but elegant fashion and heio
fast to every tradition, including the
street car or other public conveyance
She may walk abroad Tor exercise only,
but when calling or shopping, the plain,
rather old-fashioned brougham OF the
depleted Winthrop stables was brought
into service.
That was why, when many other
girls with more money to spend on
Shopping. tripped merrily up and down
the great retail thoroughfare. Harriet
winthrop chafed in the Winthrop
brougham. caught in a blockade Of
Snarling mOtOrmen; snarp-Idceo cHa1A
feurs and obstinate cabbies. The
brougham swung to one side, the
wheels grating the curb, and Harriet
leaned forward to see how close thSy
found a certain piece of s1lVery,piue
gauze marked down to post-hoIloay
prices. Then with q gasp and smut
der, she leaned back In the carriage
the silvery gauze, the shop, the jam Of
vehicles-everyIhing save the tau,
square shouldered figure of man.
whose entire attention seemed TO pc
centered on the tint of pancakes ne
was turning in the window OF a Wh1te-
front restaurant.
The brougham moved FORWARD
few inches. then several feet. Very
soon it would be out of range, SO
Harriet took one more glimpse at the
window, to make sure that her eyes
had not deceived her. Not was ne
and this time he was actually handlns
the 'white-aproned waitress "a plate
piled high with goldeuSbroWns.c ak es- -
What was Jerry Douglas doing IN
that window, and how could ne pestoW
upon the white aproned girl precisely
which he had greeted Harriet at that
last dance, after Teddy's team had
won through Douglas. clever coacn-
ing? She bought half a. yard more
eauze than she needed and went home
firmly convinced that Jerry Douglas
had been cooking cakes to pay
wager. That night she went to
dance where many mutual rrlenGS
eathered-but no one seemed to nave
heard of the escapade and she was too
proud to make inquiries. The next
day she went back to the shop so close
to the restaurant. A bit of pale blue
velvet ribbon would set on tnat sllVer
gauze-but she decided that after all
she did not care whether the silver
eauze was developed into creation or
not. Nothing mattered save that her
idol had crumbled at her very feet or
more properly speaking within few
feet of the wheels of her brougham-
for there again was Jerry Douglas.
turning what she thought must be
very fat and indigestible fried bis
cults.
So 1t was not an election wager or
ANYTHING of that sort. All, she knew!
He had gone in for sociology. He was
STUDYING the condition of the working
classes. Next thing he would be liv-
ing in one of those dreadful settle
ment houses, holding club meetings
for ragamuffins and poor factory girls
and writing silly things for magazines
this man whom she had watched
with bated breath on on the football
field, whom she had pictured as sally
ing forth to pit his magnlncent
strength, physical and mental, against
the magnates of the commercial and
financial world.
Cooking cakes in restaurant WIN
dow!
Harriet Winthrop walked with firm,
deliberate step to her desk and took
down from the wall above 1t. a picture
showing a group of lusty young men In
football attire and also certain in
dividual picture of a young man with
a finely formed head and broad square
shoulders. She thrust the two behind
some boxes in the top shelf OF her
clothes press-and then sat down for
a good cry.
OF course, she might have found out
what it all meant if Teddy had been
home but Teddy, after leaving col
lege, had gone to Paris to follow up
his studies in naval architecture. Any
how. 1t did not matter. OF course, 1t
had been only girlish fancy-and
then Jerry Douglas has acted rather
strangely since he went back to his Viz
GINA home-a few casual notes, no
references to his future career in Wh1ch
she had betrayeu an interest which she
now felt was presumption and unmaid-
enly-and so she cried some more
And lust after she had worked her
self into a fine nervous state, from
which would issue forth pallid and for
lorn, a messenger brought her a most
amazing note. It was from jerry
Douglas and 1t calmly invited Miss
Winthrop to attend little supper he
was giving at the Empire restaurant
in honor of his promotion. 1t would be
served on the upper floor of the res
taurant at Thursday midnight, after
the rush was over, and would she please
come because Mrs. Ned Landers had
agreed to act as chaperon and every
one knew that Mrs. Ned was host IN
herself
Here was a perfectly legitimate ave-
nue. of inquiry which even the Win
throp pride might not hesitate to follow
so she bathed her eyes, summoned
the Winthrop brougham and drove to
Mrs. Ned Lander's smart studio apart
ment OF course she could not accept
the Invitation and she would not de-