The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-05-10
The EVENING STORY
For Self and Wife.
(By lola Forester. }

I'm positive it's Ralph" Vera
leaned forward in her steamer chair
to get a good look at the man who
had just passed. ''He has marched
around about forty times so far this
morning, Phil. and I do wish you'd
find out for me-"
ST didn't know you were so keen
on digging up Ralph" Phils tone
/ was a mere grunt of disgust, from
the depths of his rug. Didn't that
die out at Pinehurst last fall?"
| Didn't what die out?'' Vera look
ed meditatively and innocently out to
sea.
| Weren't you engaged?"
mot exactly
| mot exactly? Upon my word. Vera,
you girls get on my nerves. You
think loves polo game. When
chap comes a cropper, you lift your
play right. You know Ralph was
lawfully cut up after you left, and
when did you see him last?''
| Vera rose, smiling mysteriously.
| phil, it wouldn't be right for me
to tell you. It's bad enough to en-
it's worse to give a description of how
they took the tumble. Go and find
out from the ships list If it is Ralph;
there's a dear. And if it is. look him
up, and be nice"
| Most unwillingly, Phil obeyed in
structions. There were over six years
between Vera and himself, and an
elder sister has rights which even
fellow Of Is has to recognize. Care
fully he went over the list of first
cabin passengers, but found no Such
name as Ralph Maynard.
| Hes in stateroom d. promenade
deck, because I asked steward" Phil
protested. who's got that room
can you tell?"
somerset Lane, for self and wife,"
| fn1 they're
just married, and on their honey
moon"
st don't believe it." Vera said.
calmly, when Phil brought back the
news. at is Ralph. know, now, be-
cause I bowed to him as he went by
the forty-first time. while you were
gone and he knew me. Why should
he ship under an assumed name %
maybe it's a secret marriage" sug-
gested Philip archly. Hes wise old
dog, anyway
aHe is not, Phil. If ever there was
an open-and above-board, straight
| forward boy, it's Ralph Maynard. Did
it give the wife's manner"
| Phil shook his head
! Gust said for self and wife?''
| "But where's the wife? If he were
on his honeymoon, would he be tramp
ling the deck madly hour after hour %
| maybe she's seasick?" Phil sug-
gested brightly. II saw him talking
1
smoker this morning, SO on the way
back up the companionway I ran into
him and asked if he knew Somerset
Lane. He said he did. that he was
bully young chap, and 1t was shame
his wife was so delicate that she had
1.-THE passage over
Vera's face was a study. She
frowned and pursed her pretty lips
tensely. Some way, she could not pic
IT, % oil hn
only remember the last night at Pine
hurst. 1t had been in September, and
the Carolina beach looked wonderfully
fair in the rich, golden moonlight.
IHatless, they had mounted horses. and
gone fo~ a canter at low tide along the
wet sands, far, far out to what they
called Lovers Leap. 1t was jutting
headland of rock that cut off the
beach. And it was here that Ralph
lhad taken his chance with Fate. She
could see him still, bending toward
her from his saddle. his face bit
hard and tense in the cool moonlight,
j his eyes full of yearning. She had
said no, of course-every girl does the
first time she is asked by a man-and
Iif he had been older he would have
understood the challenge in her eyes
and words. and fought the game out
with her to its winning. She had wish
| ed him to win, but the next morning
when she had risen she got the news
of his departure for New York on the
first train out
| And now he was on board under
an assumed name, in a stateroom ''for
self and wife,
81 say, Vera, here he comes" Phil
said suddenly. I'm going. Good
luck, sis. You might offer my con-
gratulations with your own. They say
lemons are good for seasickness."
| The next moment Ralph Maynard
stood in front of her cap off, very
i erect, and on the defensive, but with
the same splendid brown eyes that
could plead a cause better than all
the lips in the world, she had once
thought.
at would have spoken before, but
lyou didn't seem to remember me, Miss
Chalmers
we've only been out one day?"
She looked up with smile, but it
was not an encouraging smile. A girl
does not feel sunny and sweet tenn
lpered toward a man who takes unto
himself wife six months after he has
made love to her. 'I had not noticed
lyou before
MAY I take Phirs chair for a
while %
surely, if you wish She waited
"a moment, then said gently, very gen.
tly: How is your wife, Mr.. May
) nard?"
"Good Lord. I'm not married"
gasped the boy. How can you ask
that, when you know I never loved
Iany woman in the world but you.
, Vera? Why, I heard at the last min
| ute you and Phil were sailing on this
Iboat for the futile wedding in Lon
/. don, and 1 caught it at the last minute,
lust for the chance of even looking at
, lyou."
Haven't you a wife in stateroom d.
! who is seasick and unable to appear
during the voyage?"
He met her clear blue eyes I'M
fiinchingly and tried to speak. but she
went on Didn't you tell the old
lgentIeman from Virginia, in the smok-
: er, that your wife was delicate? Aren't
7 lyou registered on the list as Somerset
lLane? oh, Ralph, I mover thought