The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-12-23
The EVENING STORY
The Nfetamorphosis.
(By Stacy e. Bakery

>-S< ~AAA6S1sAiS 4|OOOlLS, SpluStcIt
would have been resigned to a placid
life existence in Hubbletown-cork-
screw curls. sallow complexion, silly
slipper and all-had not fortune
tipped her trimming horn and given
unto the maiden lady both money and
thrifty little half-frightened wish to
De revenged upon a certain person.
Miss Angelina was 80 years of age
when crusty Reuben Doderfield uncle
on the maternal side, passed on, leav-
ing to. his sole relative an accumula-
tion OF long sOmnolent dollars.
The obseQuies over. the heiress
placed good man on the farm and
went back to her home town to wres-
tie with girlish ideas of vengeance she
mad long thought hidden away in the
crypt of forgotten things.
And so 1t was that the natives of
HuDDletown awoke one clustering
morning in March to find the angular
MISS Dobbins memory of yesterday.
NOR mad the departed left one clew
pehlnd to tell of her whereabouts
Hubbletown sat up and took notice.
1t was nine days wonder, a star
tlng epoch in the staid history of the
town For a brief period there was
talk or abduction, elopement-here
nance in the woman's life-and
observation-disclosures stretched its arms.
yawned and forgot
AS for Miss Angelina, she was safe
IN New York. Also. a wonderful meta
| morphosis had begun. Miss Angelina,
inconsistent, changeling. was emerg-
ing from the chrysalis of time-meI-
lowed convention to-girlhood!
me necromancers along Broadway
the ha1r dressers, the massage art
ISIS, the Northumberland the dress
makers and the wonderful department
stores were accomplishing miracles
from corkscrew curls and a severe
! rope or hair capped with a shell
|
were transformed to modish waves,
and the sallowness was steamed from
! the Well-Shaped forehead and face
me lady's blue eyes took on a viva
| cious sparkle under the stimulus of
| the change, and she walked with the
elastic step and springy stride of the
woman of purpose.
Know. then. that Miss Angelina had
| a purpose.
Years ago, when the heiress was a
her life, wonderful man, Angelina had
| though in the innocence of her youth
| ful heart. and she had listened to his
words of love.
Bogart was a summer sojourner, a
youth from the city sent by his father
to Hubbletown to be kept there until he
| could forget an affection for woman
| mat did not appeal to the elder Bogart.
IL mad been an easy matter to forget,
and the susceptible heart of Tommy
|
of this new love.
| All OF Which proves the limitations of
| the Sfncere-for-the-m moment youth who
asked Miss Angelina to marry him. and
went confidently home to arrange mat
tiers with the pater.
| You will wait for me. dearest p,
| asked L. Bogart gently, preliminary to
starting for the home bound train.
| Forever, if necessary the girl had
answered, and with chaste kiss on her
orow the nckie Thomas hi hied AVA
and out of the life of the maiden.
| But if Bogart was inconstant Miss
Angelina was not. Letterless months
| made IT appear that she was to remain
| true for all time to her promise.
After ten years of silent constancv ii
came to Miss Angelina, through some
| warrant channels, that the faithless one
, had again succumbed, upon his return
10 his fathers home, to the charms OF
| his first love.
Her old maid manners had been
times gift to her during the years that
followed, and at forty-two she was a
| fine specimen of spinster
| Miss Angelina's latent bloom. awak-
ened BY the beauty culture clan in lit
tie old New York, was a revelation even
to themselves.
| Why, Miss Dobbins,'' enthused that
| lady's n1asseuse, you look positively
-g1rIish. Your complexion is as pini,
| and white as year-old babes, and
you nave better expression, amber
| control of language than when Won
| first arrived"
| Three months before this Miss An
| gelina would have answered with an
| inane shipper. Now she spoke calmly
| am giving the subject of beauty
| culture conscientious study-for a pur-
! pose You see I hav. been an old
maid so long that it has palled on me. -
BY August the lady from Hubbletown
could have passed through the streets
| of her native village incognito Her
! cheeks were as pale and pink tinted as
a young girls. The angular lines had
become graceful curves. Miss Angelina
was now the pretty Miss Dobbins.
Forty years do not sit heavily on the
head of the knowing woman. 1t oc-
CURED to I e sojourner from Hubble
town as she gazed into her mirror that
| she must have suddenly found the Sc
cret of perpetual youth.
| Now, ruminated Miss Dobbins, as
! she critically summed up her alluring
likeness, Il believe-I actually believe
that 1 am equipped for the fray. -
| And thereafter New York knew her
| not.
1t was a dainty little woman in
| weeds whom Mrs. Albert Harding in
| troduced to the best society of the
| thriving city of Albantown Suscepti-
| BILE youth and gay widowers fell VIC
tins to her charms. In this group the
popular newcomer noticed apprecia-
1
reaved, and rather pudgy and ridicu-
| louS.
There were others. Mr.. Bogart's fat
| little characterless face had good rea-
| son to turrow in deep lines of worri-
nlent. The dapper Albert Kahn, some
| years younger. and financial magnate
| of Albantown, was a. rival.
But, in spite of this. the gods seemed
| kind. Mrs. Case seemed to favor his
! suit, and this was WE'LL because it was
| r1Irnored that the Sprfphtly widow H. d
| money.
On an evening during which Bogart
| had been unusually favored and allowed
to escort the widow home from the
opera, his ardor suddenly got the better
of him.
| Mrs. Case he began, when they
4 had arrived at the home of the widows
| friend, II have something serious to say