The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-08-01
THE EVENING STORY
A Girl of Yesterday.
By Temple BafIey.)

went to her room, looked at herself
squarely in the mirror, and discovered
patch Of white in her pompadour.
There was also a little sagging of flesh
beneath her chin, and a wrinkle or two
between her eyes.
''Oh. you girl of yesterday" Beatrice
said to the face in the mirror, why
| can't you make up your mind that you
| will soon be fair and forty, even If you
aren't fat?"
But the face in the glass looked at
| her sadly. and answered never a word.
That night Beatrice wrote to Angus
| March. He was a Scotchman who had
loved her for years. Beatrice had grown
| so accustomed tothe monotony of being
| asked to marry him that she would
| shake her head YEARLY and demand,
| why don't you say 1t some new way.
Angus?" and he would reply, with his
whimsical smile. There's only one way
| to say I love you,' and that is to say
! it,
"I should think you would get tired"
| she would retort, and then he would
answer, IT shall never get tired, and
| some day you will say yes"
"Perhaps-when I get too old to
charm any other man." was her cruel
summing up.
| But she could not hurt him. You
| love me-" he said, land no other man
can win you away from mel am
illing to let any one enter the Held
1t is marriage you fear. not me-"
1
that he spoke the truth.
| Her father and mother had been
very unhappy. All her little girl life
| she had been tossed between tenpes-
tuous temperaments, until she mad oe-
1 clared, passionately, s'Ill never marry
ever-never-never.' Until now she
| had kept her word.
! But it was not easy to face her
| future alone. Ten years ago her beau
/ tiful mother had died, and five years
| 20 no "a father had killed
! himself. 1t was all very tragic, and
the daughter had asserted repeatedly
| when Angus had pleaded the happy
| married life of his own parents, But
| how do we know that we would be
like your father and mother? 1t might
| happen that we would be like mine"
! 1--WE would be happy" Angus stated
/ gravely. az am not tyrannica1 and
you are not jealous. 1t was tyranny
i and jealousy that caused your father
| and mother to draw apart
Mother was such beauty Bea-
trice defended, land father loved her
So" >
/ AND you are not a beauty" Angus
| told her. laughing at the flash that
/ Lighted her eyes; "you are simply love-
| ly, and sweet, but men don't toast
you in three states, thank heaven"
! ST know what you mean" Beatrice's
| tone matched his in gravity. You
mean that mothers beauty made her
abnormal, and she expected as much
| adulation as she had before her mar
riage from a world of lovers, and faith
| err wasn't willing to stand that. He
wanted her to think only of him.
Every man wants his wife to think
only of him." Angus said, "and II
| win you I shall not be afraid
Yet, he had not won her, and now
she was nearly thirty-fve, and her
beauty was waning, and soon other
| men wouldn't care for her.
She said something of the kind in
| her letter to Angus.
1T am so blue that If you were here
| and were masterful enough am
| afraid. I should say yes and that is
| why I don't want you to visit me in
| August. know my weaknesses, and
I know that I have been so near Civ
/ ing in, that I shan't be able to hold
my own this time. So please go to
Europe instead of coming up here.
You can't want to marry girl simply
| because she is afraid to face a future
of o1d-maidism."
The answer that she received made
| her smile. "As If you needed to mar
ry to escape single blessedness. Every
man / know would be glad to sail
away with you to the end of the
| world"
/ But Beatrice knew better She had
reached the point where at dances she
sat occasionally among the wall-fow-
| ers To be sure. that was because most
of the men in her small town were
younger than she, and to them she was
an old story, but she was not sure that
1t would not be the same with older
men in a larger community.
/ Anyhow she wouldn't accept Angus
as a last resort 1t wouldn't be fair
to him. And so she came to strange
conclusion. She would go to some big
summer hotel and If men called her
fair, then she would marry Angus with
a clear conscience. She would know
then that it was love and not mere
reaching out for a home and hearth
stone that caused her to accept him.
| In August, while Angus went ODE
diently abroad. she began her cam
paign of conquest.
She was not a f1irt. however. nor
hard hearted. "I am not going to let
any man really fall in love with me-
she said. but do want to be sure
that I am not wronging Angus by let
ting him tie himself to an unattractive
wife,
No one would have called her un-
attractive as she entered the dining
room the morning after her arrival.
fiat sailor hat which hid the white lock
in front Her slender figure. her ease
of manner. the charm. of her direct
glance, made the women look at her
with some curiosity and the men sit
up and take notice.
But all day long she was alone She
walked on the beach. or read novel
In shady corner of the porch, and
spoke to no one. Only when night
came did she permit any approach
from the guests in the house, and then,
a dream in white and silver. she met
the men and conquered them.
She was chaperoned by a sedate aunt
and her introductions were all that
could be desired. In her own town
: her charm had been undervalued be-
cause people had known her always,
but here. where the keenness of her
wit came unexpectedly, where her
grace was a revelation, and where her
womanliness, which was tinged with
: fashioned sweetness, was new to
} the worldly wise. she became at once
, the vogue.
And she enjoyed 1t. It was a renewal