The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-11-24
The EVENING STORY
Their Chaperoned Elope1nent.
(By Maud Grange.)

>S&<3 ho0 b0cn DIOuSAt W ny lAtC
strictest, of maiden aunts and Sally
fashioned three-volume kind, where
fore Sally's pretty head was a most
amazing tumble of conventional ideas
ana romantic aspirations. Wher Sally
dreamed of clipping in coach and
FOUR. or the forty horse-powe- mod
ern equivalent thereof. she always
saw Aunt Elvira primly chaperoning
her from the front seat. and that
when she mentally wandered in moon
lit gardens with a dark-eyed hero she
was careful to seat Aunt Elvira on
the front porch
Until she was nineteen all her ro-
nance was purely of the mental kind.
She was so distractingly pretty and
her ideas were SO unique to modern
youth that the said youth-or youths
|-swarmed round her like bees
around a honey-filled flower. but they
were not romantic and their methods
were crude and Sally would have none
of them.
Then a merry whitehaired lady
and long, lazy young man moved
into the house next door. From be-
hind the stiff, white curtains Sally and
Aunt Elvira took stock of the new
neighbors.
''The young man has the old
fashioned repose Of manner. my
dear" said Aunt Elvira, 'and though
the mother laughs more frequently
than is, I think, quite becoming in
female of her years. she is unmis-
think I shall CALI
The call was promptly returned by
both mother and son. Sally and Aunt
E1vira received their guests on the
broad. f1ower-screened vefanda. which
served as summer drawing room, and
even while she was making her pretty,
we'll bred. greetings Sally was saying
to herself, 1.-The hour Of my fate has
struck or whatever the phrase
should be. She felt that at first
tined hero. And when. after a few
minutes conversation, he asked her
to show him her flowers. she felt that
the recognition was mutual.
With fiuttering heart she led the
way to the gardens treasure of glow
ing, golden roses, and posed grace
fully against the background of
bloom. She made very pretty pic
ture. and Jack Raymond undoubtedly
appreciated pretty pictures. There
about Sally which made her seem like
one of her favorite heroines in a ro-
nance rose garden
Perhaps Sally realized this. for she
held a long-stemmed rose to her lips
while she told. him the history of the
flowers; of how the lover of Aunt
Elvira's mother had been sent to
Italy for his health and how his
sweetheart had followed him In time
to see him die and brought back the
first tiny plant of the golden rose
from the garden where he had spent
his last days.
1.-THE story is worthy Of the roses -
said Raymond when she had finished
NO" said Sally, mo. for the roses
are all beautiful and the story has an
ugly ending. She married afterward.
you know. How could she have been
so faithless?" Sally sighed.
OF course, as they sauntered back
to the house. the rose Sally held fell
Sally was hopefully expecting. That is,
he picked it up and put it into his
pocket. But a twinkle 1urked in his
eye, for he had accurately gagged
Miss Sally's mental makeup.
That twinkle appeared frequently
as time went on and at last became
permanent, for when NE was not with
Sally he was thinking of her and she
always filled with with the same
amused delight. Later the delight
more deeply in love. Sally, who had
been shyly encouraging at first,
seemed to draw back and lost in
terest.
"Shes the dearest. properest little
person that ever stepped from an out
of-date story" he despairingly con-
fided to his mother. "but I can't even
detach her from Aunt Elvira long
enough any more to tell her that 1
think So
His mother unsympathetically laugh
ed Love is making you stupid.
Your course of true love is running so
smoothly that Sally is bored int" using
Aunt Elvira as an obstacle. 1 ADORE
Sally and Aunt EIvira discreetiy
beams upon you. Where are the
romance? We must provide them to
make Sally happy Listen! ana
bubbling over with merriment. Mrs.
Raymond whispered in her sons ear;
Jack threw back his head ana
shouted. Subsequently he Rugged his
mother. Thereafter the invitations to
tea which had pleasantly punctuated
the summer for Aunt E1vira and Sally
ceased as did Mrs. Raymond's calls.
Also, Jacks visits grew infrequent.
For a time Sally waited in hurt
and puzzled silence but when three
weeks passed without any renewal Of
the interrupted intercourse, she re-
solved to question Jack. That she had
to wait another whole week before he
came so added to her eagerness that
she fairly ran to meet him. and un-
resisting let him lead her to the re-
hottest corner of the garden.
Dear" said Jack in answer to her
question, my mother has seen how
voice trailed off into silence. Some
how. despite his sense of humor. it
was not easy to fib to Sally.
Sally's golden head dropped. And
she opposes it, she murmured sor-
rowfully what shall we do?"
I'VE must be brave" he said.
promise me, dearest. that you will be
brave" And with her head nestled
cozily on his shoulder, weeping the
happy tears of fiction, Sally promised.
Then came the delicious stolen
meetings, the letters hidden in the
dividing hedge, and all the incidents
of approved romance, while Aunt
Elvira looked on in maidenly
sympathy, murmuring Indignation
against the obdurate Mrs. Raymond.
| And just when romance was be-
ginning to pail little and Sally was
wondering why it was necessary to be
brave for so long since, after all,
Jack was Independent, he made the