The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-04-20
THE EVENING STORY
The Couple Next Door.
nv Joauna Single.)

| Miss CorneIia. wedding her pansy bed
| in the early May evening, turned her
back on the couple next door: me
| Towards somehow embarrassed her.
Not that their behavior was ever out OF
good taste but their very chances were
/ caresses, their housekeeping a pro-
gress of cooling and neSt-bu1ldtng that
| made their neighbours face bit more
grim than the softness of summer
would seem to warrant. She was find
| ing that she could not get away from
love. Also that the great passion 1g-
| nors the small matter of age So, at
| nearly forty, and after the lapse of
nearly twenty years, she found herself
fondling a pansy plant-and wondering
| what had become of Steven Stratton.
Years do not sweeten the bitterness Of
| a woman deserted without explana-
| ton of her lover.
She weeded on, and heard young
Howard bid his wife goodnight as he
started on an errand downtown
Then she looked up to see the girl
wife coming towards her, and wished
she did not make herself so unap-
proachable to people.
garden you will have before June is
out! I wish I could make things
growr' Eugenia Towards very voice
was winning.
Miss Cornelia smiled and removed
her wedding gloves. She wore a
white dress with touches of black on
it. being in half mourning still for the
old father for whom she had cared so
many years. my one who had known
the rigid. stern, peevish old man
daughters leaving the place where
she was brought UP. and buying a
cottage in a town where she could
begin life of her own anew.
She led the way to the porch.
seated her visitor, and sat in silence,
but it was a pleasant silence. She
was not without a sense of grim
humor, and read the question in the
young wifes eyes.
You are wondering why-I have
not married? Married women al
ways wonder that about unmarried
ones. They are sorry for US, too
which they needn't be, by any
meansr'
Young Mrs. Howard blushed Grim
son, went white again, and gave a
Don't mind my bluntness.'' con-
tinued Miss Cornelia, cit is my way.
And I like you, and I have never
told a living soul why I am single.
At the same time, before I tell you
why it is, let me tell you that hap
piness does not depend on others,
but on ourselves. I am not unhappy.
have known dozens of married
But, all the same, I was once terri
bly, in love-terribly is the right word.
When things went wrong it nearly
killed me, and if my mother hadn't
suddenly died and left me to the dali
ly necessary care of an invalid IA
Their, 1 am sure I should have gone
half insane" She paused, and the
young wife reached out for her neigh
boris hand and gave it a squeeze.
There was no sickly weakness in Miss
COrnelia-She Strengthened as she
talked.
i've always wanted to tell some
body. I was only twenty, and loved
a man few years older than I, a
childhood friend, very sensitive and
naughty. He was the son of the viii
lage rich man. Father did not like
him, but that did not change me. We
had never spoken of our love-but
one night stole out to meet him and
he kissed me. We didn't need
from him formally asking me to
marry him. He knew my answer, but
wrote it nevertheless. 1 told him
about little silly half affair I had
had with another man, and that I
never cared for a soul but him, and
asked him to answer imm ediate1y and
say it made no difference. 1 also
told him my father objected because
of the difference in religion and for
tune. Well, days passed, and I did
not hear from him.
Then L found he had gone on a |
business trip for his father. 1 wait |
ed for his return, and still had no
word from him. Finally, wrote him |
Der of hot things, among them that |
/ hoped never to see him again; that |
he need not dare to come to see me; |
that I would return unanswered any
thing he wrote. Then, without telling |
my mother why, L coaxed to go for |
a visit to a cousin.
II went. In few days my mother
died Of heart failure, and I hurried |
trouble was over I remembered my |
lover. He had gone to Canada. |
never saw nor heard from him again"
'What-a shameE" murmured Eu-
genia Howard.
The older woman showed a placid |
face. She rose and pulled at a grow
ing vine.
1T wasn't-just losing him." she
said. "It was knowing that his feel |
ings for me was just a caprice, and |
that he was sorry he had asked me
to marry him; that he took the silly, |
exaggerated confession of my past |
half love, pitifully innocent, for an
other man, for an excuse to jilt me-
He was not worth it, of course; but
it nearly killed mel 1 would feel |
bitter, even now, if L knew he had a /
worthy reason for his treatment of
me, or if he had been man enough |
to tell me straight out! A note like
my last one should have made him
seek me out in spite of myself! He
might have GOMEZ At least, he might
have written!" Her tone was a little
angry and spirited.
Something you don't know may
have happened answered Mrs. How
ard, gently. Things happen to men,
too. 1 have an uncle who has never
married. My mother told me little
about it. The girl did not answer
his letters; her father. in her name,
sent him from the door without ex-
PLANTATION, and she finally dismissed
him In a note-I imagine something ]