The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-12-29
TIE EVENING STORY
The Hour of the Rose.

CBy Dorothy Arthur.)
IT'S so dear of you, Aunt Rose, to
come all the way up from Virginia,
Just for my wedding"
why, child. don't you know what
a romantic old maid l am at heart %
laughed Miss Carruthers, laying off
her wraps, and sinking restfully down
in an easy chair before the fire. Il
wouldn't have missed it for worlds. 1t
needed the joy-bells of a wedding to
rouse me from my sleepiness. was
turning into regular Miss Van Win
kle."
The idea! You don't look day
over twenty nine, auntie.' Bettina
knelt down on a heap of cushions and
looked up adoringly at the face over
which the freight played. 1t was a
| been too much in love with to deface
with many lines. The eyes were ten
der and endearing under their long
lashes.
Il am forty. Bette, and proud of It.
proud to have attained such dubious
age and found life sweeter, filed with
richer opportunities than ever Wlv,
am just beginning to wake up to what
really splendid old world it is. When
[ was your age, dear, 1 felt hundred
years old. and was
The door opened hesitatingly. 1t
was Bettina's younger sister, Grace
Bette, the bishops here" she said.
Don't you think you ought to greet
him? He asked for you the first
thing"
Wen be down in a minute" sang
back the bride-elect. Aunt Rose. did
write you that I am to be married
by the bishop himself-the dear,
splendid bishop. that I've loved and
cherished ever since 1 could toddle ?"
Miss Carruthers looked attentively at
Bettina-
~'What bishop. child ?"
Hepburn. Don't you know him.
T. nh a.
Rose smiled. Fate had surely played
a strange trick on her after twenty
years. 1t was foolish, she told her
self, that at forty her pulses should
play traitor and ssart to beat at the
mere sound Of a voice, the sight of a
form. Was It oEiy twenty years ago,
or twenty thousand. since the morn
ing re had found her alone in the old
rose garden at Twin Towers? He had
been such an eager. boyish Wooer in
spite of his sober clerical garb. And
She in her blind, girlish narrowness,
had sent him from her. She did not
care for the life of clergymans wife,
she told him. She loved society and
movement and action. She would
share. no dreamer's lot She meant to
travel and revel in variety. She had
told him that a man who donned the
cloak of the prophet in these days
was a shirker of the real battle of
life.
Now, they called him the fighting
bishop. She had followed his career
closely, tenderly, through the years.
Wherever there had been a chance to
raise the standard of the church mill
tant, he had pressed forward. She
who had loved action, had slipped
into her serene old-maid's life down
at Twin Towers in Virginia, and he
at whom she had laughed had become
the fighter, the man of action.
Bettina was actually introducing
them in her eager, girlish fashion.
The bishops rich, deep voice broke in
on her words.
But we are old friends. are we not. |
Miss Carruthers? Do you still teach |
the roses how to grow?'
He had drawn her a little apart
from the Others Tall. lean and clean I
shaver, with his keen, merry eyes, he |
made her think of the young rector
Most unaccountably, Miss Carruthers !
lost her sense of humor, and her ten |
der, beautiful lips quivered.
Paul, Paul. how l wronged YOU !
Oh, don't be kind to me now and try /
to smooth it over. 1 was a selfish, /
girl. 1 hope life has given |
you in full measure all the happiness /
you deserve
The bishop smiled down at her
vhinsically. What sort of happi-
ness, Rose2 1 am bachelor
Here Bettina swept down on them
and bore the bishop away to the tea
table. where her mother wished TO
speak with him. Rose slipped back
missed in the wedding rush of guests.
she knew, and she wanted to look at
the face the bishop had just seen after
twenty years. Unsparingly she raised
the window shade, and threw back the
softly tinted curtains Then she moved
the little dressing table over in the
full daylight and sat down before it to
look at herself And presently she
put her head down on her arms and
sobbed quietly, almost pityingly, for
the stupidity of that girl who had
taught the roses how to grow twenty
years before
do you know, auntie," Bettina told
her in strict confidence that night, Il
when she came in and sat on the floor
before the fire to braid her hair, st
am almost sure our bishop is serious
" smitten with Grace. wouldn't it
be interesting to have bishop in the
Keep us all in good order, I
think. He admires Grace Immensely,
and she's nineteen-almost. How old
IS the bishop ?"
''Forty-four." answered Rose. smil-
ngIy.
such a dear, and do want to keep
him in the family
so do I, Bette. laughed Miss Car
But the bishop remained heart
whole and very circumspect. The
wedding was a junior function, and
he girls eddied around him like brook
wavelets around the roots of a sturdy
pax
Miss Carruthers was to take an
early train It was in the dim winter