The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-03-22
THE EVENING STOR Y
HaIdane,s Girl.

HaIdane WhtStled merr1ly as ne loSseu
the onyx paper weight aside, slammed
books and paper into drawers regard
less, and closed his desk with such q
brisk snap that the man in the next
office looked up in surprise. Surey
something was "in the wind Haldane
had never before been SO buoyant, so
triumphant.
Just ten minutes earlier the office boy
had laid fragment, cream-colored en-
yelope at his elbow, containing a Few
hasty lines which read as follows:
Dear Dick
Cannot you run down this afternoon
and help us out with. some tableaux!
There's to be a woodworking, too
Chinese, and we have picked you out
for the bridegroom.
IF you can come. come; if not, phone.
Hastily yours, THEODORE.
Haldane jerked out his watch impa-
tiently, fumed at the whole hour. that
must elapse before he could get a sun.
ny Villa car, and set to work JammlnS
things into a hand-satchel; his kodak.
the latest magazine, an extra PAIR OF
gloves, and a box of bonbons-ror Ineo.
dora. Then he telephoned to his man
about his suit case, and, as lelsurely
closed and locked his Office door and
sauntered across the hall to Fellow
colleagues Office.
The door stood ajar and the room was
quite desired, but Haldane, with the
ease of a long intimacy, sat down IN
Trescott's revolving chair and began u
finger the latter's pencils.
After j time, he glanced up with
smiIe-directly into the Swallowed brown
eyes of a girl whose face was startling
ly familiar-his girl! He looked IRON
the picture to the door, then back agalu
to the picture. His cheeks whlteneo;
his face indexed a variety of painful
emotions. Even a casual observer
might have detected that he had been
struck hard. He reached up tremonns
hand and drew the photograph towaro
1t I1d hack H..
in Theolora's unnistakable backward
characters, We're the words
ITO my beloved Bert, from his own
T. H. L."
was no way out-ef it.-These were the
initials he had had engraved in their
betrothal ring. What a fool he had
been and Trcscott-tIne pe per thinS
wretchl OF the girl, he care not lnlnA
not now. -.
After a miserable minute that seemed
more like an hour, he laid the picture
down on the desk and with DUMP oe-
spair in his heart sat regarding the
cardboard stupidity.
suddenly Prescott interrupted his
daze, swinging breezily into the room
and tossing his hat on table In the
ssHello.' he cried, what's the trou-
BILE? You look green"
HaIdane stared gloomily at the oppo-.
site wall and did his level pest 70
Il.
color seemed squeezed out OF them.
Prescott came up to him and ia1d an
affectionate hand on his shoulder:
Anything gone wrong, old man II
asked, concerned genulnely al lie I'LL
ers silence.
touch, his eyes flashing. Lord, he
thought, "if I can just get out of this
without smashing his facet!
He lifted his eyes savagely.
i've had some unexpected trouble,
and I'd prefer not to discuss it at pres
ent.''
Prescott contemplated him a moment
in bewilderfnent. Then he1 smiled
shrugged and turned away. He recog-
nized the symptoms plainly enough
now and knew just how to deal with
There was a constrained tsress of ST..
lence. Trescott had gone to an open
window, but he came back ana stoCd
looking down at. Haldane's sphynx-1ke
form with sympathetic mien. He
glanced down at the desk wnere the
other had laid the girls photograph
After a pause he bent and took 1t up
restoring it to its conspicuous stTong-
hold on the top of his desk. Haldane
watched him in orninous silence, ms
fingers tingling purnaciously as Tres
colt paused to cast Iatuous sillle
into thu. girl's-his girfs-pictured face:
"Pretty girl, that, don't you think? 2
he asked, carelessly.
"ouite pretty" acquiesced Haldane::
glowering through the window. 5000
friend of yours?" He helo pack the
sneer by an effort.
"Oh, the very best. Theo's the dearest
little girl ever. We simply ADORE eacn
other
Haldane shot UP electrically and start
ed toward the door, pulling out his
watch with a prodigious assumption Oh
by Georgep' he exclaimed; 1--WE al
most missed an important appoint
ment."
His Quick steps sounded down the
nolished corridor and Prescott sat down
in the vacated chair before his oesk,
shaking his head and smiling 1nduigent-
1v at the recollection of the others ex-
plosiveness. He gave him, mentally,
about ten days to recuperate
1t was more than month De1ore
HaIdane encountered Bert Trescott
again. The latter came into his ofrice
late in the afternoon with the lum1n-
ous announcement of his approaching
II am to be married on the 23d of
June" he said. Congratulate me-"
And despite the fact that Haldane
had fancied himself done with the
who1a blamed business" he was acute
lv conscious of his vanishing color as he
answered:
are lust the sort of fellow girls go crazy
over. and as Tor IneOOOTd--
",Tbeodora! Don't talk drivel, man.
What on earth are you driving at?''
'Why about the girl, of course. The
girl you are going to marry"
Prescott frowned.
&c Miss Elsie Hartman. Why, I've new
err even had up a Irritation with any one
by the name of The
Notwithstanding that, month ago
you were adoring each other, SAID Hal
dane with an irnperceptible lift of his
eyebrows.
Trescott,s mouth opened with aston