The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-06-10
ZHE EVENING STORY
Fate and the Sea Shell.
CBy Ina Wright Hanson.)

Just before the luncn nOuf tnefv
had been great excitement around
the Casino at Santa Cruz. Jeanette
Washburn had been last OF the
bathers to leave the surf, and IN her
usual reckless manner had started to
swim to the raft after she was tired
enough to leave the water. She made
the raft all right. but halfway back
she went under.
Patricia, on the pleasure pier. had
given the alarm, and two men put out
in a boat. Before they bore their
dripping burden up the pier steps,
crowd had gathered from all direc-
lions. The beach policeman had come
running to press them back, and al
low the men to hurry through with
the half-drowned girl.
Then the crowd dispersed, except
Patricia. who had given the alarm.
When one walks always with a
crutch, it is better not to walk in a
crowd. So she waited till the pier was
deserted. and she had found Jeanette
would recover. Then she went home.
Usually. Patricia's slow steps were
not wearisome to her, for, the beauty
OF the hills kept her company, the
flowers along the way were her
friends, and the voice of the ocean
she saw neither hills nor flowers. and
she heard nothing but her own hearts
cry, Ernest Wentworth loves
Jeanette!"
She had heard it yesterday. and a
glimpse Of his white face in the
crowd today confirmed the rumor,
that he was going to marry jeanette
Washburn. She had said it over and
over in the night watches, wagfng
war with her own eager heart and
telling 1t to be ashamed for giving its
love unasked.
When she saw Jeanette near to
drowning she was wild to plunge in
and swim out to her and save her;
and not for Jeanette's own sake.
Even in her impulse she recognized
but for his. She would make the
supremest sacrifice of her unrequited
love, and she would do heroic deed
because Of it. But even this was
denied her.
Everything is denied a cripple"
she thought with unwonted bitterness
as she reached her fathers gate. 'If
were like other girls he might have
chosen mel"
Late in the afternoon, in the brief
hours between dinner and the gay
life Of the evening, when she knew the
Casino would be almost deserted, she
went back to sit on the steps and look
silently seward.
Away to the horizon were fishing
boats and pleasure yacht, its white
sails cleaning silver in the sun.
Nearer the shore showed the dark
hulk Of the buoy; and, nearer still.
the seabirds diving and dipping.
All this was on the sea; on the
sand was a lone f1gure-a woman in
faded green dress, it's skirts held
walked the damp sands, gathering
sea shells.
Patricia, watching her dreariiy,
saw her pick up one, look at it care
fully, then put it in her jacket pocket.
The next she threw away, perhaps
luster.
"Dreaming?" said a voice very
pleasant to Patricia's ears. and Went
worth sat down beside her.
1t only made it the harder to have
him kind to her. Did a crumb ever
do a particle of good when one was
starving for the whole loaf? Poor |
Patricia! Still as he was there, and |
as he was not saying anything more, |
she must make talk. Any kind of |
talk was better than silence, so she
spoke of what she had been think
ing.
"Yonder is fate.'' She pointed to |
the she'll gatherer. Choosing, re-
jecting; blessing, cursing. Oh, poor
little thrown-away shells!"
She had tried to make her. words |
sound light, but the man heard the |
note of pain. He bent toward her,
and his voice was very kind.
I have known you year." he said,
but you are morbid now. You are
tired. The excitement this morning |
was too much for you
EYES," she acknowledged. st was
on the pleasure pier when Jeanette
went down. 1 had a wild desire to
plunge in and save her, and have my
picture in the paper afterward. 1 |
wanted to be the star Of the matinee.
you see. and this creation of board and
pad wouldn't let me-
She smiled whimsically down at the
crutch, and up at him. She was glad
he could not read her thoughts. She
would be very gay-if he did not stay
too long.
Perhaps Wentworth could not read
her thoughts, but he could see that
her eyes were tired, and he looked at
them. and at the sweet, sensitive
mouth, in the way that a lover looks.
Patricia. know of golden coun-
try in which lives golden lady. Not
golden-haired, for her hair is dark as
yours, but having a heart of gold. and
a spirit of tried gold. Her eyes are
Patricia
The caress in his tones made her
tremble. He meant only to be kind
if he could have known the anguish
OUT she TalSeU eyes .ODSQIcully u
his for an instant, and smiled at him.
She was a very brave Patricia, this
crippled girl.
"Just as dark and beautiful as
yours, Patricia. Well, this golden lady
would have gone out into the great
world to do lots of great things, blu.
circumstances forced her to stay in
her own domains. So, instead of be-
ing disconsolate because she could not
do what she would do she sang little
song of contentment, and one, heart-
sore and weary with much suffering
of mind and body, heard it, and sought
out the way of peace. Know the little
old bedridden woman down by the
river Patricia ~