The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-12-07
THE EVENING STORY
Violence and the Widow.
(By Lawrence Alfred Clay)

marry the young and rich widow. Mrs
! Coleman, who had been out or mourn
! ing for a year or more. AS matteI
| of fact. both principals in the case had
been CONGRATULATED by intimate
friends The widow had blushed ana
male no reply, and the gentleman hao
said that he was too busy to grant an
| interview that day.
There was more than a grain OF
| truth in the gossip, but gossip hau
hurried things along too fast. 1t was a
case of love, but love except in those
cases where an empty-headeo Ne"
/ York girl wants to buy a title ana a
| scritter'' with it can't be hurried. Then
| the whole business can be concluded
| in twenty-four hours. Besides Delhg
Young and rich, the widow was calleu
handsome Besides being fairly well
off the sculptor had a fine face ana
figure, and a name in the world, ana
among athletes he had high rank
He want crazy on that subject, put n
needed exercise, and he took it this
way.
There was one thing about the
widow he had not yet come to under
stand She had inherited a terror of
violence She had tainted away at
sight of two men exchanging blows on
the street. A lame dog or Wounoeo
bird brought out all the sympathy IN
her On an occasion her only brother
had been rendered insensible by blow
from a ruffian She clasSed athletics
under the name of trough house" and
it so happened that she had neither
read nor heard of Mr.. Vernon's eX-
ercises' The information came to her
with a great shock.
Through the newspapers she read
that at a heightened club, ,where
Scrap had been put on, her admirer
had donned the gloves and knocked
out Billy the Terror, who was quar-
ter of an hour recovering his terrible
senses What kind of gloves were used
the widow didn't care, but there was
one thing sure=Mr. Vernon must be
brute to step forward and hit Mr. Billy
a punch on the jaw that almost de-
prived him of his life.
She had read the sculptor as a man
of refined and gentle nature, but she
saw that those sentiments were but
thin veneer. The brute nature lay close
to the surface He might use his fists
on the gardener-on the cook-even
on her! She could think of him only
with a shudder, and she could think
of The Terrible only as some gu1leless
half-grown man who had been cajoled
into standing up to be knocked down.
It was dainty little note Mr.. Yer
non received a few hours later at his
studio. but it had a string to it. The
golden cord, if golden cord there had
been, was broken, and the silver bowl
was mashed fiatter than a pancake.
The two were to be strangers hence
forth. Yes, he was reading the dainty
little note that sealed his doom while |
one of his club friends was saying:
"Clyde, old man, that was one of the
prettiest punches I ever saw. He was
about to swing with his left when you
crossed your right, and, oh lordy, how
he sat down and snored!"
"Yes-ahem." replied the sculptor |
as he laid the note carefully aside.
She'll have husband that can pro-
tect her."
'.Yes-just so.''
eve congratulated you once, but
shake again
Would Mr.. Vernon answer the note ?
Would he call and ask the privilege of
making an explanation? Certainly
not No woman, except a prizefighter's
wife. could be made to believe that
boxing was not brutality. If the widow
had wanted an explanation she would
have asked for it-even demanded it.
And so it came about that the gossips
had another thing to talk about. They
asked each other why, but no one
got to it was to say that there was an
other woman in the case-an old love
with whom the sculptor had quarreled
and made up again.
1t is easy enough to answer what
a widow does in town. There is society
and there is shopping. But when she
goes out to her country home, what
then? She wants a rest and she gets
it in part by going fishing, if the lake
or river or creek isn't too far away.
She may give it up for the day after
a nibble or two, but she has rested and
had time to think of many things It
was so with the Widow Coleman. After
her trunks had been unpacked and the
servants had settled into their places
she took pole and line and went
through the woods to the creek. She
dshed and she thought. She fished
and she meditated. She fshed and she
felt irritated and annoyed.
That's a Woman'S way She Will give
a lover his congo in the most emphatic
terms, hoping never to see his face
again, and then get mad because he
doesn't come around and show it the
day after. When the Widow Coleman
dispatched that note she fully expected
the sculptor to come rushing to the
house within an hour. When he didn't
rush she expected a note in reply. NO
note. She waited two months and then
few to the country. She carefully sup
pressed the fact of her going from the
the same time told some one who
would be sure to tell Mr.. Vernon. Two
weeks of fishing and thinking and sigh
ng and no Mr.. Vermont She didn't ex-
actly say out loud that Mr.. Billy, the
Terrible. could go hang, but she
thought it.
And down at the house one after
noon, while the fishing and thinking
we're going on, an Italian tramp APP
Piled for food and was refused it. He
threatening, and caught a chicken in
he road and started up through the ]
woods to roast and eat it. j
As ne found a spot to make camp he
caught sight of the widow fishing !
Here was a chance for revenge. and !
hands and knees and crept toward her.