The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-06-13
THE EVENING STORY
His Dreams.
By Edith Gray.)

breed strummed his guitar and sang
in voice inclined to nasality, but not
utterly unmusical, the refrain of pop
ular song then much in vogue at Vera
Cruz.
Richard Marston, the young Ameri-
can seated within, translated to him
self, my soul, my life. love you, land
flung aside his cigarette in a sudden
l love you! Truly, of what use this
daring plunge into the mountain lum-
Der camp of Ell Orc, this exile from
friends and family in persistent quest
of forgetfulness? OF what use when
the forgetting is as far distant now, in
the continual round of tedious duties,
the overseeing of Indian gangs and
balancing of numberless accounts, as it
was the first days?"
The long hours of morning toll
brought, for a time, detachment and
mental relaxation. but when evening
came with it's crying demand for physl-
cal rest, its breathing of wind in the
oak trees and glittering of first stars
above the shadowy pines, Marston
was invariably overwhelmed with old
| cloaked, her hood drawn over her soft
brown hair, stood once more before
him, gazing wistfully outward through
her tear-dimmed eyes. Unnumbered
times, had the bitterness Of that part
| ing been renewed.
ston tilted his chair legs back against
| the crude, unfinished boards, and
| stared meditatively out through the
| open window. His glance ignored the
| miserable outlying huts of the labor
| ing half-breeds, passed along the mar
row dirt road, cut and scanned with
| the continual repassing of the heavy
| loads, and fingered above on the hill
side, where, its lights cleaning bright
| ly through the intervening trees, stood
~
| his friend and employer, Lewis Penn
| berton, promoter and engineer.
Several days ago Lewis Pembertor
| had deigned to conflde to his at
tendant corps fact that had lons
since been suggested by the radiant
shining of his eyes and his frequent
outbursts of gay, impulsive laughter
that the young lady back home had
| finally come to a favorable decision
and was now expected, accompanied
| by her mother and several friends, tic
spend a month or so in the crude but
| hospitable shelter of her frances cot
tage Pemberton had selected three OF
the boys to act as guides and general
cavaliers to the ladies during off hours
Newton, Jim Howard and young
Dick Marston.
| Newton and Howard had jumped al
| the invitation but Dick had shaken
his head with finality, pleading thai
| he was too busy. Pemberton had re-
piled, "Wait till you see the girls, my
boy" and had laughed immoderately.
What pleasure could companionshiE
with any girl be since Natalie had
gone? At best these friends of Penn
berton's betrothed would be colorless
| insipid creatures, or the usual forward
| type of chattering girls. Natalie, with
| her deep, grave eyes, her tactful I'M
derstanding, her unfailing sympathy
had spoiled him for the frivolous ban
ter of the girls whom Newton ano
Jim Howard were now finding so en-
chanting in their first enthusiastic
greetings at Pemberton's festive little
cottage on the hillside.
| To MarStOn, cOmpan1Oned by MS
| loneliness and sorrow, occasional peals
of girlish laughter mingled with brok-
| en- snatcheS of conversation and song
softened by the distance and the trees
foated downward through the night
! He closed his eyes in hopeless sur
render to homesick. longing depres-
sion. And, even now, in the midst OF
gloom, scared and overshadowed by
| the contrasting gayety above, his
| thoughts turned to Natalie and the
| days long past.
| How sweet she had been, how brave!
! How loyal to her cross grained old
| father. who, in a burst of ungoverna-
BILE rage, had forbidden Marston the
| house and further communication with
| his only daughter! 1t was on that new
| and ddsmay that Natalie had explained
| out under the stars of the great subur-
| ban estate
HYou see, Dick, he's very old, and
mother left him to me when she died
Always thing first of your father she
said. :lnd so. Dick dear, you had bet
! Ter go away somewhere, for I can't
possibly marry you. Go away some
where and forget"
| He had gone away, to the ends OF
| the earth. it had seemed. At first, he
lad received unself1sh little letters
from his far-away sweetheart, but soor
these were entirely dropped, and his
onIy news of her was CLEANED from the
| ,, ontf-old newspapers from home. But
| in spite of seeming indifference on hel
| mart. and persistent endeavor on his
| he had in no way followed cut The in
| function of the piteous, pleading girl
| s.Dick. please, Dick, forget
I Not even, after long period of neg
| lect on the part of the social section
when he had perceived this glardng
headline, final and complete, Brokers
Daughter Betrothed-Miss Vernon tc
Wed Son of British Peer" had he de-
| nounced the loved one
Natalie Nataliei without. the wind
! whispered tender things to the tower
| ing pines, and the stars still shone, un
| needing and unminiful of his hurt
| Only the guitar sounding mellow and
deep toned, seemed in sympathy with
/ the throhbing tyraut. bound fast within
his breast My heart. my soul,
love YOU.
| For long time. he sat there, his
| eyes closed, oblivious to his surround
| i.igs. So completely had he been sweep
onward by the eyer-increasing current