The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-10-25
THE EVENING STORY
The Marceau Mistake.
CIV Martha Mcculloch williams.)

always countered, tossing her head.
There was the measure of difference
in the pair. Monsieur was all for the
great things, madame for those of the
comfortable earth. Since the BOY was
born she had striven and thrlVen for
him. The florist shop under her min
istry was modest gold mine. If only
monsieur had not been bitten with
idle doctrines-the Brotherhood OF
Man and such nke-they could long
ago have bought the house, as well
as the garden behind it. Monsieur
had held his hand till the garden was
secure-he loved the earth and pam
pered it so: he could not bear to think
of it in other hands.
"Some day you will be a big man
remember, then, I said So" Eileen
OsBrien, Eustace's girl comrade, said
to him often as she stood in his oack
yard shop watching his deft myers;
Eileen was not pretty-a slim sip
of a thing, with a tousled flaxen head,
alert gray eyes, and a succession OF
hand-me-down frocks, patched and
faded. She was the youngest OF nine
her mother had earlier taken in
washing. The fact stuck in Madame
Marceau's crop, even though now,
that big Terence was in politics and
rising fast, his mother washed for no
body but the family.
Eustace, an only child, moreover
the brightest lad in school, might have
chosen among the richest girls there:
It was hard to have him take instead
this wild Irish creature, VINO MAD
nothing to recommend her but her
warm heart, her unfiinching courage
and her respect for elders.
She knew madame disdained her,
but always showed her sweet, even
an eager Difference.
Monsieur gave her a tolerant pat
| ronage-he was too gallant to look
| unkindly upon anything feminine
which so evidently held him in admir-
| ing awe. The boy would outgroW
| Eileen-of that monsieur was certain
| Meantime she amused him, helped
in his games, stood patiently to be
sketched or modelled, over and over
| and over, and never asked more than
the happy privilege of service
Sometimes. to be sure, she got more
| when the flowers bloomed riotously
| and trade was none so brisk monsieur
sent her home with laden hands. Also,
upon holidays, she was sure OF nose
gay, even though it were scrappy
one-for then the O'Brien generation
went to the cemetery to keep Baby
| Philomena who had followed Eileen,
and gone away very quickly, from
feeling UP in heaven that she was for
| gotten on earth.
Life went we'll and easily with the
Marceaus until Eustace came to II.
! Then his mother wanted him TO go
| to her brother in the city to learn the
| trade of decoration. Monsieur inci1n-
| ed to an arts course GuSboSC
| self for a while said nothing. Then.
with much hating and stumbling, ne
made them understand-not art but
architecture was his passion: He want
ed to study it serioqslyAhr ST., as al. dn
great achievements of the great.
He had his way, though madame
wept bitterly and monsieur aged al
most visibly the day his son left. But
time. the healer, brought 1hem IN pa1e
| comfort-so did letters 1oll VI 1iopo
and courage.
"Don't ask me to come back-not
for long and long" their lad entreated.
mot until I am ready to prove my
It was hard-but they made the
| sacrifice comforting and cherishing
each other as best they might
Eileen helped them nightly. She
other edge of town. Big Terence
still climbing, had taken his people
| all to the green country. He was in
real estate, and developing suburb at
ter suburb.
monsieur and madame, who never
read and had no gossips more literate,
knew only vaguely of the change.
They did not dream that the O'Br1en
| fortunes were now so far beyond
of coming to them, not patched and
| faded. to be sure, but in the simplest
plain garments, the most demure bon
| nets. She told them she had studied
stenography, that by and by she mig MT
get a regular place and earn money OF
her own. They listened, noddtng ap-
proval, but gave the matter no
| thought-they were too rapt in con-
temptation of Eustace and his career
He was getting on-in Paris by this
and had won honorable mention
more than once, and once third prize,
a bronze medal. But he had not be-
gun making money-that was the sore
SPOT His parents did not grudge what
they spent for him, but they had the
thrifty artisan instinct that, after all,
profit was the supreme test OF art
Their ioy was unbounded when a
letter came saying Eustace himself ell
had won in competition-an Amer
lican competition. He would have the
ioy and the profit of building from his
own designs.
I enough to set the Marceau household
aflutter Madame was impatient to
have Eileen come, and it must be
added a trihe uneasy. Eustace, an
look much higher than a potential
stenographer. She hoped Eileen had
forgotten those days, now seven years
back. AS for Eustace himself. she
had little t fea b1Gene edcq E, ln an 'ha'
Eileen took the great news quietly
ct am glad; he deserved to win." was
! all she said.
Madame was hurt-distinctly SO.
Monsieur almost fumed. 1T 1s tins
jealousy of the outdone." he declared
maiestfcally. "Our lad has gone so fal
beyond these OBriens they needs mus
belittle him.
"Yesi' chimed in madame; why
even Eileen seems to think more OF
getting a regular place than of oul
sons eninence. When he returns
shall bid him have nothing to do with
her beyond the mere civility one owes
a schoo1mate."
Mothers propose, sons dispose. Of
, ten otherwise. 1t was so in this case
Eustace came day early. When HI
. had been Rugged and kissed and CRIED
over to madame's content, he stoo(
up very straight, looking down at boil