The Topeka state journal., 1909-02-26
THE EVENING STORY
violets and science.
(By Lucy M. Delaney

and apparently as Serious-minded as
Mabel was frivolous-all their mutual
| friends and acquaintances held up
| shocked hands f1guratiyely speaking,
at the seemingly ill-assorted match.
How had it ever come about?'' one
of the many dear friends asked. and
| ''How long will they live together?"
asked the more frankly cynical
One month passed by. oh. We'll! or
| course - the honeymoon doubters
| laughed, and then another, and yet an
| other month passed apparently serene
| 1y, and another, and yet another, until
| out any drifting apart" as Herberts
| literary colleagues had predicted, or
| any Indication on Mabeps part that she
| had wearied of her staid, scholarly nus
| band.
The marriage had taken place in the
fall-in the first week in November
\ and now had come April with it's days
of sunshine and shadow, its frst-
| blooming crocuseS and bluebells, It's
quick-coming rains and as quickly dis
pe1ling sunshine.
Then gossips began to say that mat
| ters were turning out just as was to
| have been expected. Herbert Ward
| passed most of his time in his class
room or study and Mabel seemed ab-
| and all kinds of amusements, making
polite excuses for her husbands alb
| sence from functions she attended, say
ing: Mr.. Ward is so busy he could not
| accompany me-"
| She always seemed quite cheerful and
contented-just the same merry, pleas
ure-loving creature she had always
been: but on one delicious. sprngnke
\ day in April, Mabel left early a lunch
con she had been attending, pleading
| another engagement.
One of her friends attempted to rally
her on leaving the party SO early; say say
Mabel, we shall soon find you giving
us up entirely, and you will be taking
up some abstruse study or Will become
SO domestic that we shall lose you COM
| pletely."
IAN married?'' Mabel retorted with
| half-laughing question, and then added
hastily: "Well. so am, but it does not
seem to make SO very much dinerence'
| after all Do you think it does?''
Not waiting to hear the replies this
query provoked, Mabel hastily pick
ing up her gloves and the light feather
boa she wore with her dainty spring
costume and started off briSkly.
Out OF sight of her friends house
her footsteps Jagged. and serious
look came into her large, soft brown
eyes AS she walked slowly, pens1ve-
ly along, her face would have betray-
ed to any one who might have CHANGED
to see her that some serious matters
engrossed her thoughts.
A river flowed through winding,
tree-lined banks about the little. city,
and Mabel crossed the bridge and
soon found herself gathering handfuls
or earlV V1OleIS. "A group VI WAIIIO
birch trees that grew closely together
attracted her gaze, and toward them
she made her way.
AS she approached the spot she saw
lying stretched out upon tne grass q
mans figure, his arms beneath his
head and his face apparently lifted |
toward the blue of the tender sky.
Some sound of her approach must |
had evidently, like herself, sought
quiet spot for meditation. Turning |
his gaze toward her he rose and ex-
claimed:
And before she had time to reply
Herbert Ward-for it was he whom
Mabel had reused from his revery, |
said, half wistfully, half smilingly:
me-you were just taking a walk this |
lovely spring day and the violets on |
this rivers bank attracted you"
But Mabel gazed silently at her
husband. Seeing him so unexpected |
ly she had looked at him at first as a |
stranger might have done, and in her |
first surprized gaze she had noticed |
how tired he was looking-so weary,
or respondent, or disappointed, she |
thought to herself.
Without answering his query Mabel |
lifted to his face her serious eyes, and
looking at him questioningly, she said:
Herbert, you are not well. Is
anything the matter?'
s'Not welli Nonsensei' he replied.
hastily. "I am perfectly we'll What
put that idea in your head?"
ST don't know she answered; "but
seeing you just now so unexpectedly
and lying on the ground as if you were
resting made me think perhaps you
were not WE'LL
"No. Mabel" he answered, looking at
his wife as she stood before him with
her hands filled with the flowers she
had gathered. mo. Mabel, am just
growing old, I suppose. That must be
what you feel, what you notice about
me. Poor child, it is May and De-
cember' 1 fear with us, Mabel. I am
too old for you. should never have
allowed you to become my wife.
'I have noticed for some little time
how quiet and changed you are from
the happy light-hearted girl / married.
1t is natural and all my fault, for was
old enough to know better, he ended.
Nonsense. Herbert; why do you talk
of being old? You are not old" she an
swered.
But Herbert, taking Mabers hands
(stiII filed with her f1owers) in both of
his own stood tall and straight and
broad -shouldered before her, as he said,
very seriously:
to try to convince me that
Won are not we'll aware of the too great
difference between us-between our
ages You have tried to be gay and
know well, for I have often seen you
rouse yourself from what I knew must
be sad thoughts-but the fact remains
that you are not happy. and as I said
the springtime of life and I-weIl L
have passed into the cold and loneli- {
ness of winter" !
Dropping her flowers unheeded to the
Mabel came close to her hus- .
bands side, and putting both hands on !
his shoulders, she looked up into his
ewes as she said:
My husband, do you not know why
AZ oJ~1ao 7