The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-12-08
The EVENING STORY
King Carnival.
(By Roget Maurice.)

I'LL iiA5s singing gay SldSCAOS VI
happy French, laughing and shouting,
twining in and out, among the riot Of
the throng, swung the two American
girls, Jean Newton and Alice Edge
comb, from the Hotel Busby, and
their escorting cavalier, the young
officer Du Val and his ever constant
friend, the genial Count de Luceaux.
A thing unparalleled, in the ethics of
the French, was this escort, un-
chaperoned and free, but Americans
are Americans, and this was the fete
of the carnival when critics. for the
most part, are frowned away.
Moreover, what did it matter, any
way? They were all EMBODIED in pink
dominoes, the hoods drawn close,
and. in the case of the two girls.
masks. And ali Of Nice was on
holiday and unlikely to behold the
mote. Care was forgotten, conven-
ton cast aside. as under the ropes of
threaded lights, common and duke,
fair lady and beggar maid, all attired
for the festival, danced and laughed
amidst the eternal swirl of confetti
showers.
A sudden shout and the crowd,
looking down the light strewn way,
ment since but why skeletons guard
ing the entrance to the avenue, fame
into sudden brilliance. The white
threads changed to vivid rose, strange
unexpected greens made weird the
scene and then, beneath the arch. in
a brilliant crash of music, came
marching the, beplumed array of
the capital guard. There was a
scattering from left to right. vivid
b1are of trumpets, loud shouting from
ahead, and Carnival was coming!
The girl Jean, standing tiptoe.
found herself shouting with all the
rest, king Carniva1I' Her dreams,
her ambitions seemed realized in the
G.sA II fA&-
she had longed for all this very thing,
the gay life, the complete forgetting
of self, the branching out into a new
world, King Carnival and Nice!
He was coming now, that strange
the of na the Of them nears
feast. He came, not a mere human,
ensconced in massive chariot, but a
marvellous mechanism giant dunn
my, twined with flowers, seated high
ponies. He was a prodigious crea-
ture. astride his polar bear, surround
ed by wee sea urchins. There was
renewed binding of confetti the deaf
ening din of shouts. another burst
of music and the king was gone.
But following came the queen.
And after that cavaliers and grena-
diers, following fantasy on fantasy,
new gorgeous liveried bands, soldiers
on prancing steeds, present and past,
jumble-and the dream was gone.
After all, it seemed but a dream,
a vision, unreal, intangible. Perhaps
with the restless. surging of the crowd
the tension breaking with the passing
of the pageant, the reaction was set
ting in, and the girl realized for the
first time her material self and the
wear it had endured. For two hours
she had been moving in an atmosphere
of overwrought excitement. She was
mentally ond n11ucfoa11u fqO0ndi Gha
turned to her friends. "A1ice, we must
be going" but she found herself
gazing into the vacant eyes of a
bedizened Columbine and already they
were gone.
Surely they could not have left her
alone in all this seething madness!
Alone! She who had never been
upon the street without a guide or
friend.
She drew her hood close about her
that she was tall and slim. In the
protecting domino, among the small
foreigners, she might well simulate a
man. There could be no harm in
miliar forms beyond. She elbowed
past dippant pompadour and her
attendant squire, striving to reach
the three. But a strange face met
hers beneath deceptive folds-they
were not her friends.
Jean Newton felt small and insig-
nificant, fealful and alone, a child
lost in a dreadful nightmare of a.
dream. Was this the end of all her
pleasuring?
Having elbowed fighting from the
throng, she wandered aim1essly to a
dinnly lit parkway and sat down to
puzzle out her way. The others, quite
frantic at her loss, were no doubt
could not fail to find her.
She lifted her hands to the hot
throbbing of her head and laughed,
instead of crying, a little bitter laugh.
To find her? Who was she, anyway :?
And in that strange mood. she ques-
way?"
An American girl, Jean Newton, of
Newtonville, a girl of splendid ante
cedents, q glowing future. Surely
creature who this very morning had
mapped out the cartoon for the
stained glass window. She was not
that eager, vivid pleasure seeker who,
loud in the freedom of high holiday.
| She was not any of the Jeans her
friends and family knew. She was a
| lonely heart-sick child. the girl that
| Cecil Spoffard had kissed for the last
time beneath the tall arching elms
of the Vermont home, saying Good
bye-go learn of life. And call me
when you want me, dear; I'll come"
Cecil! In all the overwhelming ex-
citement of new scenes she had for
gotten the tall, brave friend of early
years. Yet never had the thought of
him been wholly absent. There be-
yond everything, he seemed to
wait, enriching the high lights of her
| dreams.
This very morning she had heard
of him. Cecil Spoffard,'' read the
clipping sent from home. "has sailed
| for France. Young engineer plans
/ business trip to Paris and so on
] down the page. She had thought at
/ first that he would seek her out, then
she knew In a moment that he would