The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-01-18
THE EVENING STORY
MademoiseIle Cartier.
Antoinette de Coursey Patterson.

For the last two or three years.
Graham Hartley had been taking me
none too seriously. An uncie-Gra-
hams parents were both dead-was
largely responsible for this. He had
taken the boy Immediately after his
graduation from college. where he hao
done really we'll. home to his magnln-
cent bachelor apartments; he had
helped to develop the Unborn taste
for luxury and beauty of all kinds
Incidentally he had encouraged Lax
ness.
Uncle and nephew had lived ami
cably together until one day. WniIe
they were travelling abroad the lat
ter fell madly In love with the pretty
prima donna of the opera which was
creating furore in Paris.
| On the first night, for full haiI
hour, Graham Hartley had gazed
Istubbornly through his opera glasses
! at Mademoiselle Cartier. not only be-
cause she was pretty and charming
but because he seemed to remember
having once seen her before. sud
+, denly it came to him; she was the
little French girl who had been edu-
Gated with a young cousin of his own
| in a convent near Paris, and Wnom'
during the summer vacation three
this same cousin at a villa near
| Dinard. She had charmed them all
then with her fresh young voice, ana
| had added much to his regret when
United States.
Graham Hartley lost no time in
| slipping behind the scenes and send
| ing in his card to Mademoiselie Car
tier. She remembered him perfectly
and seemed glad to see him.
Hartley wanted to bring Uncle
John; but Uncle John was obdurate
He had little enthusiasm for the thea
ter at best and a rooted objection 10
/ actresses. Had Graham known at
I %1,o ,f e
of his uncle's life and how 1t had
| been irrevocably bound up with a.
woman of this profession. he would
have understood things better.
| AS it was, he gave little thought to
the matter. and soon. indeed. ne
gave very little thought even to
Uncle John. Uncle John had behaved
much in the same way years ago,
that fact. Every opportunity that
offered found Graham Hartley IN the
| company of Marie Cartier
, When Graham finally confessed
the true state of his feelings, Uncle
John, for a supposedly sane man, be-
came very violent
1t was the mere fact that she was an
actress that Uncle John objected to.
He didn't mind at all womans be-
ing before the public. Mile. Cartier
might have been doctor or law
yer, or an author, or have led suf-
fragette meetings all over the county
for all he would have cared! Indeed,
If she were only distinguished in any
! other way than on the stage, he would
have raised no objection.
Graham went to no end of trouble
| to explain to Uncle John that Mile.
Cartier had adopted the stage merely
as the best way of making a living
for her grandmother and herself.
Had he chosen to do so, Uncle
! John could have found out for him.
self that Marie Carriers own lovely
nature had kept her as unspofled as
/ when the convent doors had closed
! upon her. But Uncle John preferred
| to arrive at his own conclusions ur1-
hampered by stubborn facts; and to
everything that his nephew urged by
fway Of special pleading he simply eS-
claimed, "Bosh!''s
One morning after stormy scene,
the two separated, the uncle uttering
dramatically the regulation formula
that never again was his nephew to
darken his doorSi
/ Graham Hartley threw a few things
/ into his bag, walked out of the hotel
and straight to newspaper off1ce
where as luck would have it, he sue
ceeded in getting job which prom
ised IS week on account of his
knowledge of both French and Eng
1 lish This held out little hope of an
! early marriage, but it would at least
i keep him alive in a world which was
such a pleasant place to live in SO
i long as Marie occupied a portion of
it. The great objection was that he
must begin at once with night work,
which would make it necessary for
him to miss the evening performances
at the theater But there would be
/ afternoon calls to console him, and
matinees, until he suddenly remem-
bered he would not be able to afford
tickets to anything.
Hartley wrote an explanatory note
to Mile. Cartier and, receiving one SO
kind and altogether satisfactory in
irnm ediate reply, he started light
heartedly to work that very night.
The same night Marie Cartier had
returned as usual to her room in the
Inexpensive hotel where she lived.
4 It was the room they generally let
her have on account of little bal
cony she had fancied just outside of
one of the windows. A timid person
might have been afraid of that little
balcony because Of the inducement
. offered to burglars. But Marie never
d thought about disagreeable possible
Titles. Her mind was full of happy
Thoughts involving certain young
man and all that he had come to
mean to her. She sent her maid to
the next room and stepped out on
the balcony to be alone with the
stars.
, a loose screw holding the window
bolt slipped ou- and fell to the floor
!, She could not see it anywhere around
/ Perhaps it had rolled under the bed,
{ which was in a dark embrasure of the
: room Lighting candle she went
|. toward the bed and then blew out
: the flame with the casual air of one
/ who had suddenly changed her mind.
She had seen, distinctly, something
: that looked very like the part of a
mans foot under the bed!
Because she was woman, her i'm
pulse was to scream; but. also be-
cause she was a woman and grasped
Immediately the whole situation, she
! did nothing of the kind Instead, she
called quickly to her maid
| t.Susanne, please unfasten this pin
for me I mean the one at the back
Marie Cartier had inherited from her
7 tmother some very handsome jewels
(which, through years Of poverty, she
l lhad cherished.