The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-04-14

lplnk-sprigged gown. Upon her troub-
led, inadequate pondering, broke the
voice of DR.. Brandon.
I'm so glad to learn. Margaret.
what Jacob has just told me. Mrs.
Brandon and James have come along
as Witnesses
/ With a puzzled smile of greeting,
Margaret rose with Jacobs unob-
trusive assistance. In haze she fol-
lowed his gentle leading tt the little
front parlor, where, in the presence of
the silent companions of her twenty
years of isolation, she stood beside ia
cob and said to DR.. Brandon the words
Jacob bade her say. Her heart warm
ed to the good will and gladnes in the
words OF congratulation.
Margaret had just begun to feel the
weight Of Jacobs unaccustomed pres
ence, when he said:
| Lets go over to see the big house"
| He led her from the little brown
cloister to the house that stood close
by the highways of men.
Aching from the aloncness of the
years, chilled with the stranEeneSs of
the big rooms, she looked over the
new home and its master, her .hus-
band. She owned a feeling of gladness
| only when Jacob said:
No tramp can frighten you here,
Margaret NINE"
| Then as If he understood some tiny
part of her struggle to adjust herself
l
familiar things.
Run along, honey, to your garden,
while Mirandy gets us our wedding
supper.''
With flying feet she sped. from the
proposed festivity With clutching
| ing face the tall syringas and the am
bilious climbers. By degrees the per-
picking universe outside the brown
fence slipped back into its proper des-
uetude and the Joy in her flower
friends soothed tangled nerves and
troubled memories into forgetfulness.
Shipping a twig here, kissing bios
som there, stopping to talk to the pur-
pie and gold faces in the pansy bed,
she slowly made her way, just as she
had SO many summer evenings in the
twenty years of solitude. to the little
kitchen door.
With the habitual repetition of her
narrow round of conduct. she washed
| her hands in the tin basin and threw
the water gently on the morning glory
pile of kfndhng wood beside the stove.
she started fire and set the tea kettle
to boil. Into the tiny brown teapot
she dropped the usual: pinch Of tea
leaves and set it on the hearth.
On the table she placed the tiny
cloth beside the blue plate she placed
the napkin in the old silver ring and
the blue cup and saucer; from the
ceoky jar in the pantry, she took two
seed cookies, as usual, and put them
on a small blue plate in close conjunc-
ton with the white dish of strawberry
JAM In reply to the tea kettles
whistle of readiness she was pouring
the boiling water from its kissing
spout when. Jacobs hearty voice broke
the spell of two decades of seclusion.
Don't you think man ought to be
invited to his own wife's wedding sup
per 2" with. a hint at a chuckle cover
ing an anxiety which touched even
Margaret's se1f-centered abstraction.
A barrier seemed to break, high
wall between her and the joy of life
seemed to crumble and set her free
into a gladstone world whose beauties
she had quite forgotten With sob
that was not of sorrow, she pushed
Jacob outside the door in which she
turned the key. Placing the key and
her hand in his eager palm she let him
lead her through the rose hedge
Copyright. 1911, by Associated Liter
airy Press.9 -