The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-05-01
TIE EVENING STORY

(By Cecily Allen.)

The world said Eleanor Carey
would never marry again. Her first
matrimonial experience had not been
strewn with roses, though money for
their purchase had not been lacking:
And the events of her widowhood had
been enough to turn any woman hard. I
cynical and unromantic.
Not that Eleanor Carey looked
either hard or embittered as she pre-
sided over Mrs. Dewitt Smiths tea
table one balmy April afternoon:
ROBBED in soft, clinging topaz-colored |
silk. with heavy incrustations OF lace
the famed Carey laces-she looked
not day older than the daughter OF |
the household who was that day MAX |
ing her social debut. And indeed In
point Of years. the fair debutante had
| little advantage over the fairer widow.
whose coming out had been followed
almost directly by her marriage with
Henry Carey, retired broker, multi
millionaire and confirmed bachelor.
| Younger men had envied the nsny-
eyed groom. Older women had en-
We'd the radiant bride who rumor said
had acQufesced smilingly in her bold
sale In the matrimonial market.
That she had paid the price of fam
i lily honor and her fathers good name
with outward calm and inward re-
vulsion was something Dame Grumpy
never guessed.
Her reward came sooner than she
/ llcQ QSTcQ co uOpc. I1e54AAy SeA ~ <AASN
within a year Of their marriages. and
then came what rumor sadd was
enough to harden any woman Ghosts
Of Carey's ugly past trouped sforth az.
ter the reading OF the will. HIS hrst
cousin, apparently well started on mas
elder relatives downward path, first
laid siege to the widows heart, and,
being repulsed, then started the con-
/ test which had made Eleanorss race
familiar to every nsw VI 1ha re desa
man In all the badness OF money
drunk eccentricities.
That any woman could believe In
any man after going through what
belief OF her own somewhat cynical
social. set.
So far cleaners attorneys had held
tout against the siege for the millions
left entirely to her. So far Eleanor
Carey had never been interviewed by
either public reporter or private
friend. She had simply resumed her
place in society after laying aside her
mourning and let the legal and So
. cial tongues wag.
,, had come to pay their respects to
Mrs. Dewitt Smith and her youngest
! daughter fingered to play court TO
|. the presiding genius at the tea table.
One of these was Dr.. Dalton
,, man who had won hds spurs In the
!. world Of medicine despite large
: family fortune and assured social
position.
The second, Jimmy Darnton, was
a newly made copper king from the
Northwest, whose family. well known
), in the eastern social whirl, had sent
! him west to be forgotten as the lam
: lily ne'er-do-weN and were now only
! | too glad to remember him ana re-
ceive him with open arms
Neither OF these men could pc ac-
cused of caring how Henry Careye
!. fortune was finally disposed OF.
The third man was Donald Greg.
Z ory. born of stern Scotch father and
: mercuria FrencT mother IN tn. the
!. where Eleanor Carey had lived in
her girlhood. In his fathers eyes.
Z the young chap had wasted what
: should have been q useful youth
. Today the stern old father uni tr :.
= tunately was not alive to witness the
: artistic triumphs Of his son. but the
: | mercuriaI little mother was waiting
4 to welcome him in tn New England
: town. He would have joined mel
" days before. but Tor haslns ~
arrival in New York from Paris.
And to each of these three mer
i / eleanor Carey had given the same
y reply. as quietly and Internationally
as she had laid the extra lump 20, o,
n sugar on the saucer pesoe '
4 1T am going to Craigmere the first o.
q the month. # It is for the best, VIII
,f send for you to come there.
q = All the world seemed a-mov1ng uhs
n morning of May 1. Worried. middle
"a class housewives wrangled with imper'
y tfnent van and storage men, ana mum
" bier families carried their pelonging'
l. or showed them from old homes TO ne"
r in borrowed pushcart.
A Eleanor Carey's town house was AZ
Il serene as if the entire establishment
i | retinue of servants, canaries. Angors
A. kittens. mistress and all were not q
r be removed that very afternoon u
d Craigmere. ~,
lowy masses OF lace awaited her morn
ing mail and her coffee. When the lat
~ ter had been served the maid re-enter
is ed the room laden with letters ans
2 parcels.
r valley from DR.. Dalton, a corsage bou
ouet large enough to hide the front o
,t Mrs Carey's travelling coat. From
m Jimmy Darnton there We're pink roses
,e long-stemmed, perfectly tinted AM
in florists rubber sprayer. There Wer'
as bulky envelopes from her lawyers am
es daffodils from girlish adnirer. Ther
rs were whines from individual mendi
II cants and carefully phrased appeal
q from charity organizations.
liz And last the maid, with a correctl.
IN blank expression on her face. handed
ne her mistress a curious floral offering
l. basket made Of soft willow twigs In
terwoven and lined with damp moss
(which overlooked with the most com
monplace flowers-violets with only
ty faint woodland odor. a few sprigs o
er late arbutus, many. many family tint
as ed hepaticas, and some dainty Quake
is ladies' Silently sne sat lingering Ia
nv fragile blossoms while her deft- finger
~ ed maid arranged the pink roses an,
as the dollhouse violets. At last, with
a. long-drawn sigh, Eleanor Carey open
~ ed the envelope tied TO the May Daske
Ill by blade or stout grass.
- my daax. Uttle Syreethaart of lon