The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-09-05
TIE EVENING STORY
Avis Lends a Hand.
(By Dorothy Douglas. }

| ring note, not even the coppery-red
| OF the girls head, to mar a perfect
harmony. Avis sighed with a sense of
complete peace. She selected a bon
| bon from the silver basket at her side
and nibbled it while she turned the
! pages OF her magazine.
A little smile of pleased surprise
crossed her face. She had found a
story by one of her favorite authors.
Settling herself more comfortably and
propping her dainty slipper-clad feet
on a footstool Avis began her story.
suddenly, and without moments
| warning, some one in the next house
struck tremendous chord on the pi-
ano. Avis, with ears keenly alert to
anything musical, found herself lis
tening.
After a short prelude on the piano.
the person in the next house began to
sing. The person was a man.
AVIS sat for ten or more minutes
trying to concentrate on her story
but always the mans voice swept her
mentality along with it. In her brain
she was singing each of those notes
upon which he was practicing. Up
and down the scales she went, reach
ing even the upper register and des-
cending with equal ease.
AS the spectators at a race are
Keyed to the pitch of squirting the
horses as If they, too, were on the
back of those speeding animals and
were participating in the race, so
Avis felt in regard to the voice next
door.
She. herself, could not sing, yet
when the man stopped for a moment
from his scales and vocal exercises
she sank back quite exhausted with
her efforts
The harmony and peace of her hour
was completely gone. She could no
more follow the trend of her story
when anything musical was within
hearing than she could have sung on
the concert stage. So Avis gave UP
even the pretense of reading and lis
tened to the mans singing.
After a few moments more of scales
he began on a song.
To the girl listening the song was
as familiar as her own name, but to
the man it was evidently new. He
was learning it. Avis followed each
note and realized that the man was
not good reader His piano work
was wretched. When the accompani-
ment changed from one flat to two
he was divinely unconscious of tho
fact and continued to sing and play
the E natural.
Avis squirmed in her big chair each
time he sang that note. Over and
over again he made the same mistake
until the girl felt that she must eth
and out of earshot.
What a shame that he is learning
1T wrong" she commented to herself.
1T is so difficult afterward to get the
SO hard"
Suddenly Avis had an inspiration.
She rushed to her own grand piano
and put on the loud pedal. After that
she played over and over again with
all the strength in her fingers the
passage in which the man had made a
mistake. She emphasized the E flat
to the best of her ability, lingering on
it until the rhythm of the song was
lost in the prolongation of that one
note.
When she stopped moment to lis
ten Avis smiled. Evidently he is not
dense" she decided as she left the
piano stool and returned to her chair.
She laughed outright.
The man in the next house had tax
en- her correction and after running
through the passage with the E flat
he played a line from Noel Johnson's
II Need Thee So"
Avis smiled at the mans audacity.
You certainly do need me-" she
said half aloud. And I would love
to accompany him. she added to her
self TT seems positively wicked that
he should have to struggle along that
way when I could help him so much.
But such are the conventions Avis
sighed.
After that. as if to make up for
having SO tortured her eardrums, the
man sang a few well chosen songs.
Avis was thrown back into her con-
tentment as she listened to his rich
was lonesome. The brooding quiet of
the room no longer satisfied her. The
stiffness seemed to rob her of that I'M
known presence-the man whose
voice had enriched the passing mo-
ment.
AS the days wore on Avis was
haunted by a desire to know the man
in the next house. Her every waking
thought was of him.
II certainly must be losing my sane
mind" she smiled as she found her
self becoming a prisoner to ideals re-
gafding him. He is no doubt under
sized, and perhaps has a mole on his
chin or nose. Little men always have
big voices" she argued with her in
buttons, which had limited at a big,
broad, flaxen-haired man with gray
eyes.
And when, in the course of events
Avis met big, broad, flaxen- haired
man with deep gray eyes that gazed
admiringly into her own, she had not
the slightest idea that he was her next
The mutual friend who had intro
duced them left them together. 1t
had seemed to the friend that Avis
Miller and Hugh Wentworth were
noticeably delighted to meet each
other. Her company was in no way
necessary to their happines and she
left them together with a smile in
her heart.
Hugh Wentworth glanced down at
the dainty fragment from the femfn-
inc world that it had been his pleas
ure to meet.
Avis glanced up at the big giant
whom good fortune had guided across
her path. Then, the imp of admira-
ton Haunted itself bodily in the mans
eyes, but in the girls it was swiftly
hidden. Heavy lashes came to the
rescue.
When she looked UP again he was
still gazing at her. Despite her efforts
the color famed into her cheeks.
what is it?" she asked with a catch
in her breath
The aaxen-haired man shook his