The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-08-20
The EVENING STORY
A Question of Cooperation.
(By Jane OSBORNE


that old Baily college was to become
co-educational. For two centuries It's
lichen-grown brownstone walls hao
stood firm against the intrusion OF
petticoats, and now just because OF
the SibeH-Ashley bequest or several
millions all this fine tradition was
tottering.
No one opposed it more bitterly
than did Dudley Tilbury, the regis
trar and treasurer of Baily. He was
a bachelor of thirty-five, who in spite
of the fact that he was unden1ably
good looking and had. when he chose
very likable manners, was the college
woman hater.
IF you accept this gift of $4,000
600 On the condition that the college
be opened to women, Mr.. Chairman,
he told the college president at a
trustees meeting one day in the
spring, Il, as treasurer, shall refuse
to record the bequest in the college
b 1oks."
The president took this piece of in
subordination good naturedly and,
after the meeting, persuaded the reg
istrar that as long as it was decided
upon to open the college to women he
had better make the best of it, and
Dudley Tilbury, more than ever
woman hatar, reluctantly entered the
100000 on the college books and
consented to stay.
However," he said as he closed
the books in which he had made the
entry, 81 absolutely refuse to have
anything to do with the registration
of the-new Students
The college president. looked over
blessed, Tilbury,'' he said. I'VE all
know you are a woman hater, but
having to take the resignation of a
few undergraduate country girls isn't
going to hurt you"
But Tilbury was insistent. and the
or no he ho5
the girls went around the faculty dur
ing the summer vacation as a new
joke. The college president said no
more about it to Tilbury, and when
he returned in the autumn to his du-
ties on the first day of college, he
was mildly anxious to know what ar
| rangement had been made.
AS he passed across the campus
from his rooms in the college DOR
mitory he caught a sight on the
There were actually some of the CO.
eds. He hadn't thought before how
they would look on the campus.
He pushed his way into the regis
trar's office. He had been there a.
day or so before to make sure that
he opened the door he saw that a
change had been made. There was a
desk placed on the opposite wall
about twelve feet away from his.
=
then the door that led into the presf-
dents office opened and young
woman passed into his room. She
was hatless. He noticed that she was
dressed in quiet tones in dress that
hung gracefully to her figure,
Who was she? Tilbury didn't have
long to conjecture. She came up to
him unaffectedly and with the assl1r-
ance of one who has been the first in
the field.
This is Mr. Tilbury, isn't it?"
she said. This is Miss GRAY. The
president has appointed me to helm
you with the registration of women
students-your assistant, I believe"
MI T1lbury was almost overcome.
ana yet as this undeniably charming
ana opened it he couldn't, even to
himself, resent her presence. Yet
OF course, there was some mistake
apout 1t: Wonen had never been
employed in Baily college.
without seeming to be in snv
great excitement, he paused a. bis
desk to set his pens to rights and
then hurried into the presidents
o11lce. The PRESIDENT was very busy
as was natural on the first day of
totioS ana TOOK no time for de-
talled explanation. Miss Grav is to
pc your assistant said the president
one VIII relieve you of the regis
tration of women"
e t neH INJURY came back to his Of
nee he found one of the neu, "co-a1e,,
waiting at Miss Gray's desk I'll
pury noticed the contrast of tba 49,
ny OF tne coed and the softness and
I Ts o1 the new assistant Miss Grav
the ne ree rfrss Two or three days of college
ehe registrar office Is ALWAYS foo I,,,s,-
ior thought of much else bur vort1 rrfi
Jury was busy from in the morning iii
iate at night, and his assistant was aiso
pussy He didn't have much tin1e 20 $50 go
ABOUT her except to wonder how, A.
president had ever had the termeritv To
impose a woman upon him and 10 - ~
DER why it was that he found her nrasenno
delightful. ei presence
One morning after she had. been there
dering, as he crossed the camnus bory
ms assistant would be dressed that morn
ing; He knew the different dresses She
mad worn by heart. There was the b1a 81
chngy dress she had worn the first do
he saw her. She looked older but more
sel1-possessed and alluring in that There
was the dark blue dress that looked a
little military-she was wonderfully brisk
and irfvigorating that way. Then one dav
much OF girl, though Tilbury knew she
must be thirty. He wondered whv he
noticed these things so much
.Cionfo,nd ~ = stopped WIN a shudder
I'll bet I in love" He remenbered
back in his poetry-reading days to have
But then she was quite impossible There
could have been nothing permanent about
II then But with Miss Gray he to
see her day after day-was to grow more
familiar with that ever-varying voice of
hers, to grow more accustomed TO seeing
those capable slender white hands of hers
arranging the papers and cards that he
handled He was to her writing on
the papers he worked over, to feel her
touch and eyes on eervything he did
He wondered if she were poor and had
to work. She had never said anything
about herself.
A month later Mr.. Tilbury was sure ,
he was in love. So definite were his feel
ings. in fact, that the question of CO.
education at Baily was of no import He
could pass dozen girls the campus