The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-10-07
THE EVENING STORY
Little Shorn Lamb.
(By Dorothy Douglas.)


r,arerave stood patiently and watched
| the men carrying in an assortment OF
| secondhand furniture to his newly
rented bachelor quarters. When the
| movers had deposited the last article
a huge table of carved walnut, in the
! very center of the room, CarsraVe LOOK
| ed bIankly about.
! "Oh. for the help of woman g
mind" he sighed. Then he began in
| his clumsy masculine way, to arrange
| the handsome furniture.
Fortunately for the peace or MS un-
| trained muscles, the big walnut table
would remain where the movers had
| accidently placed it-beneath the great
amber light.
across Cargrave's face. He realized that
he would bring home many an accepted
story from the Office to edit there in
| the quiet and comfort of his own study.
THEN and there he made mental note OF
blotting paper for that table and many
othe.. requisites. Cargrave was maya
zine editor.
After another half hour OF work with
| the massive furniture he sank down
| YEARLY in a great leather chair ana
gazed about the room. That the ar
| rangement of things did not suit him
was manifested in the smile of eerision
that lay i'm his roaming eyes.
eff the Woman who had to sell this
wonderful furniture could sec 1t now,
she would weep afresh," he unused.
| Bachelor hands are not deft at home
ma king" He sighed heavily as If IN
deep sympathy.
"A pair of feminine hands could
transform this room,'' he runinated by
way of magnifying his misery; "but-
they would have to be slender, oeautl-
full hands that 1 would enjoy watch
| ing as they piled a needle on the op-
pcsite side of this table,
Still thinking of those hands and the
delicately chisled face he saw in fancy
above them, Cargrave pulled absently
"Humph!" he muttered. '"They are
| lcckedr'
With growing curiosity Cargrave
sought tools with which to pry open the
drawers.
After a time he succeeded. The
drawer, now open before him, proved
| worthy his effort. Cargrave's eyes leap
ed first to the papers therein. They
| were typewriter sheets-hrst copies of
poems. Also, these was the picture OF
a girl Cargrave took the photograph
to the light.
He studied the pictured face intent1y.
It was beautiful, and in vague, haunt
ing way it sent a thrill of memory over
him,
Where have I seen that face?'' he
asked himself again and again. His
memory played with him, for it brought
the girls identity to the very brink CT
tangibi1ity. and it maddened him with
the failure to grasp it. "Perhaps-on
the STAGE he hazarded; land yet
no." The picture was more or less
fancy. But why not?'' Cargrave found
himself excusing even this vanity in
the girl. Her hair was down and hung
in waves almost to her knees. Ger
tainly. it is wonderful hair he told
himself, putting the picture in his
pocket.
He returned to the table and read
the poems he had found. AS they left
his hand one by one his whole being
was perneated with the essence If
spring and roses and love. The poet had
truly found words to infuse this subtle
sense into her poems. And yet, as he
read, an undercurrent of sadness SEEM
ed TO rise and prevail even above the
1ightness of spring and roses and love.
Il could use them all, every one IF
tEem-in the magazine" he reflected.
and with considerable enthusiasm pick
ed up the last of the poems.
His eyes narrowed in thought as he
read it, "Ah-hi," he said aloud. I'VE
have published this one" Unaccount-
ably the face of the girl in the picture
came before his vision. Quickly his
That's iti' he cried. 'She is the girl!
She came into the office herself with the
poem and we bought it. 1 remember
her now, I think-yes. I admit that
ed whimsically. But she did not come"
He could find nothing In the drawer
that would give him the girls name
for she was the poet. Perhaps through
the Office he could find out who and
where she was. Somehow, with her
desk in his room. her photograph in his
pocket, her very poems in his hand and
her memory
Cargrave thought better of it; he
would not seek her identity through |
the office. And in following up his reso- |
luton fortune favored him He found |
on seeking the furniture dealer from
whom he had purchased the table, that |
the whole suite had just come to the /
shop. Yes, the address was Forthcoming, |
too.
As he left the shop with the girls |
address in his pocket beside the pho
tograph, Cargrave felt buoyant and |
h tppy. At least, he would find fur
Their good poetry for his magazine. |
In ais own mind he decided that the |
girl, with so undoubted IL talent, had |
succeeded in selling off her old furni-
ture in order to buy new.
AT the address given he was in
formed that only that day had the
tie lant left for other apartments. Her
name? It was Harmony Vale. Car
grave remembered fully then: he re-
thinking at the time that
the girl was christened to be a poet. |
Again. with the new address in hand,
he continued his quest.
So wrapped was he in the dreams
this strange incident had awakened
in him that Cargrave did not realize
that he was standing in front of a
shabby tenement staring at the num-
Der on the door and which CORE
sponded with the one in his hand.
He went straightway up the stone
stairs as if it were now an urgent
necessity that he find Harmony Vale.
He had been told by a slovenIy jan
hot