The Topeka state journal., 1909-03-29
The EVENING STORY
A Conspiracy.

10, out L should think you nate 10
be always tagging" Berta said with a
small, insolent laugh. Berta was a
beauty and belle. Linda, her sister,
older by two years, was neither.
| According to the countryside Linda
was even ugly.
| People who were all for roses and
dimples and sunshiny smiles saw no
/ beauty in Linda's olive complexion,
her severely classic profile and the
slim figure which they called thin.
| She did not smile much, and she
laughed so rarely in public that gos-
J sip said she did not know how Be
! fore she was sixteen she had been set
down as predestined spinster.
1t was far otherwise with Berta,
who was a damask rose embodied in
adorable flesh and blood. Linda at
twenty-one had never had a beau.
| Berta's conquests could not be reck-
| oned upon all her fingers.
At first Berta liked to have Linda go
out with her. finding in her dark pal
lor fine foil for her own charms.
But after a while she grew in a
strange, unaccountable way resentful
of Linda. 1t seemed reflection on
the family that its elder daughter was
so early a social cipher. At least
that was what Berta told herself Ev-
erybody feels the sovereign need for a
good excuse to justify an unkind ac-
ton.
Not for worlds would she have ad-
mitted to herself her feeling really
had its origin in certain praises of
Linda spoken by man whom she
herself had resolved to marry
Aston Wade was the man. He was
the catch of the county. He lived
twenty miles away and had not known
the Lee girls until six months before.
Then they had met at the county fair,
and after that they had not been able
there. Not that they objected. Wade
was the kind of man to whom no one
could object-not even young wo-
man predestined to spinsterhood.
Linda danced but rarely. Therefore
Berta had well-nigh monopolized AL
ston's attention. He had made op-
portunities. for all that, to talk with
Linda, and had even been unwise
enough to tell Linda,s. sister that she
rested and cheered him as might a
fresh and fragrant breeze.
Berta had cooed that Linda was,
truly, the dearest old thing. When
they were home again, and for weeks
thereafter, she did not spare the dear
est old thing one possible pin prick.
You won't be 'onesome. All the old
maids in town arc sure to be at the An
s!eys," she ran o. as they stepped into
the carriage. She had been hoping Linda
was the first of the season. Nobody
but Peggy. Ansley would have risked
such thing thus early, even though
May had some in summer-warm.
"It would be better If you'd put on a
black frock-a short one-and a white
apron. Then you could help serve
she went on.
Linda smiled gravely. ''And you could
with faint twinkle. "I know it's al
most as becoming to you as you are to-
it. But I'm getting to be selfish as I
grow Older
The hat don't matter. If people see
n iVIC n
the scenery, like some people,
Linda flushed and made a motion
toward the carriage door, almost as If
she would leave it. In a moment, how
ing evenly: well, after all, the scenery
has its uses. ANYWAY, I'm going to have
the best time 1 can. As you say, 1
shan't be lonesome. Peggy says she's
asked everybody in town over six
months Old"
Yes; I know it'll be the same as a
Sunday school picnic. I fully expect to
see you marching about looking like the
head of an orphan asylum" Bertha
spitefully. Linda only smiled
slowly: "At least I'll escape tagging
that way. And you mustn't be spiteful
4 for once I have more followers than
you."
Soon they rolled through the Ansley
gates in sight Of green lawns, flower
1ecked and soft as velvet. Knots of peo-
pie flecked the turf, the women brave
n light spring garments and even the
men showing hints of the seasons en-
ivening in their more sober attire.
Children ran around picking flowers
or flung them down to roll
on the grass. Berta lost
her scowl at the sight. She was a wo-
man. for all her hard ambitions
Linda longed TO gather the toddlers !
n her arms and carry them off to fairy |
and She controlled herself and walk |
I'd decorously among them, only stop |
ping now and then patting a touseled |
curly head.
She had on a rose-pink frock, with |
5mothers of fine lace at throat and |
wrists. Somehow, in spite of Berta's |
.aunts, her spirits had risen until her |
mood matched her appearance.
More than one person looked after /
her, half startled, as she passed along. |
Young men for the most part made /
rush for Berta, and hung about her as
she moved. but more than one drop
ping out. said inwardly: "Linda's |
nearly as pretty this afternoon
All unconscious of looks and un-
spoken thought, Linda went on to the
farther edge. where the older people |
were established in garden chairs or
upon settles. They were talking and |
laughing among themselves.
There were less than a dozen of
them, all lifelong friends or enemies A
little apart from them sat a white
happily, but quite aloof. Evidently she /
was a stranger. Instinctively Linda /
sat down beside her, saying with a |
smile: IF you would rather not talk.
I'll be as still as a mouse"
But I want to talk-very much"
the white-haired lady replied IT'S !
hard enough to be only a looker-on /
when you know everybody and can |
see under the surface. / know nobody |
here except the man who brought me. /
me was a whim of his, and |
never cross his whims.
He knows Mrs Ansley-in fact, she |
Is a sort of family connection. And |
he is coming back to me after awhile.