The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-11-03
TIE EVENING STORY
Margaret's Knight Errant.
(By Ida Donnelly Peters. )

eyes. EANCh yOu kuOW Indt
simplicity is cut of date nowadays. A
girl, if she wishes good time, can
not afford to be so different from
others in her set.'
Forgive me, Margaret" pleaded
the young clergyman with a CLEAN of
something more than mere friendship
| in his kindly face. "Only yesterday,
| dear girl, you would have been anus
ed at so marvellous a transformation.
But to me you are always beautiful
and dear and sweet
She was keenly conscious of the
| tenderness in the clergymans voice
and face; there was undoubtedly
something in her own heart that re-
| matter of fact. she could rely too
surely on, what she considered his
commonplace affection. He had
boarded with her aunt. the former
c1ergyman's widow. since Margaret's
early girlhood, and she had passed
the half of every year under the same
roof with him.
They were too much on the plane
of humdrum friendship ever to be
anything more. she told herself petu-
| lantly.
Her young soul yearned for great
heart throbbing, undylng, die-for-a-
loved-one, shrouded in mystery ro-
nance. And all this she believed she
had found in the godlike. handsome
| Percival Harriston.
She had frequently met this youth
at afternoon teas. and from the first
he had singled her out for particular
attention. Yesterday he had muir
INJURED to her in his inimitabIe man
ner:
'I am longing to see you without
your hat and veil. for I know you
look like a dear little French mar
quise with your pompadour, puffs and
curls."
| Hence the towering structure adorn-
| ing her hitherto smoothly waving
locks, and the amused astoishment of
the clergyman, whose expression had
now changed to one of trouble as he
gazed at the small figure of the girl
who had resolutely turned her back
upon him.
| At this crucial moment Mr.. Har-
riSton was announced.
| PerciVal had just the right shade
of warmth in his languid brown eyes
when he greeted Margaret, and some
| how though her heart was not salts
fed, she felt pleased and excited at
his melancholy, you-only-understand
me air
dess" he breathed softly, as he
placed her in an ornamental gilt seat
after which he arranged himself at
ease in a wide, softly cushioned arm
chair.
! There, seemingly oblivious of her
discomfort, he sat the entire evening,
gazing tenderly into her eyes and
murmuring sweet nothings in her
willing ears.
The saccharine quality of the con-
versation and the romantic type of
| PercivaTs beauty could not quite blind
| her to the consciousness of the clergy
| mans troubled face as he sat at the
| writing table in the library just be-
yond, nor that her aunt glanced in
| the parlor disapprovingly as she rus
tied by to join the lonely figure.
| This evening was the beginning Of
daily meetings with the exquisite Mr..
| Harriston and his sad impressive dig
nifty continued to fascinate the vision
airy girl.
night after one of PercivaPs calls,
| "do not get it into your head that
| lossal bluff. He doesn't care for a
thing on earth or in heaven beyond
his own pretty SELF
ooh, Aunt Jean, if thai be true,
why should he come here?"
HE comes here for the reason he
freuuents teas and other silly. man
/ less functions. for the sake of the
incense you and other women, who
should have more sense. pour out so
literally before the shrine of his self
love"
"You are unjust to him. auntie.
He really cares for big things in life.
He tells me often of his longing to
perform great deeds for the good of
|
"Humph," grunted none too patient
| Aunt Jean. ''if he could be induced
to get off the pedestal built on his
love of self for minute and use lit
tie old fashioned common sense, 1t
would be much more to the point than
all this dreamy moonshine."
"You are unjust to Percival, Aunt
JEAN" repeated Margaret.
| "Percival, Percival; well, what can
one expect anyway from a man with
name like that?"
please don't, auntie."
| Every well, I'll say no more, but
my chief consolation is that in your
heart you care no more for him than
| do. You are fascinated by his ro-
mantle looks and high flown speech.
pray earnestly. dear child that you
do not throw away beyond recall the
substance for the shadow"
And Aunt Jean left Margaret to her
own not very happy reflections.
| On a SATURDAY. afternoon not long
after this conversation Margaret went
| for stroll in the park with Mr.. Har-
riston. 1t was an ideal red. gold and
| in the park was filed with gay,
laughing children, but finally Mar
garet and Percival discovered and
took possession of a bench in path
way deserted but for an infant sleep
ing peacefully in a baby carriage OPP
posite.
Percival, his languishing brown
eyes looking unutterable things, be-
gan to hold forth in the language
| that seemed to go SO well with his
| type of manhood, While Margaret sat
| listening, entranced.
st assure you, Miss Startled, knight
errantry is not dead" he went on
| grandiloqCently; 1.-The things one can
do in these modern days are as great,
as noble, as chivalrous and are of
4 L. aP fI7o