Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-05-29
THE EVENING STORY.
Man-on-the Wall.
Copyright. 1913. by ". Werner,

Miss Meg sat at her window sewing.
She had just begun her nineteenth
patchwork block and it took twenty to
make quilt.
But it will be silk quilt when it
| is done. even if it is in patches" Miss
Meg said aloud to the Man -on-the Wall.
! The Man-on-the-Wall did not reply
| or even deign to look interested. He
| lived in a huge furnished gilt frame
and had been living in that same frame
when Miss Meg's father found him at
an obscure curio shop. bought him and
brought him home. He had been In
that same place on the wall when Miss
| Meg was born. and he looked as II he
might still be there when she died. He
was indeed the one stable. unchang-
ing fact in her life. the one agreeable
truth that she knew she should wake
up to each morning. Other things.
money parents, friends. had gone. but
the Man on the Wall remained in
varia bic.
In reality the Man on the Wall was
extremely well, too. by an artist who
/ had evidently understood his subject
| The painting was fully sixty years old.
| but the man himself was only about
| thirty He had All olive skin touched
on the rather high cheek bones with
carmine. dark piercing eyes. thick
curling black hair combed straight up
from his forehead in the old mode. He
was i'm truth so beautiful to see. in
spjte of his old ia shioned pointed col
| lar and stock, that YOU wondered how
| he had ever lived like other people
whose eyes. mouth. ears and nose are
more serviceable organs without being
| in any degree ornamental.
1 ha6 fol in
Man on the Wall when she was about
thirteen and she had never fallen out
| again He had secretly stood to her
ever since for all things that a man
| and lover should be He was. in short.
her ideal And because of him she was
living single this very day.
| Miss Meg. being of that apple blossom
| type of rrettiness which only grows
q little paler and more fragrant with
advancing years. had had lover and
spurned him. His name was Joseph
Jones and because of her he had never
married He had however. not let his
disappointment utterly spoil his life.
for he had grown rich. He lived In a
| boarding house and every day walked
to his office past Miss Meg's door.
| Sometimes she glanced up she sat
sewing and nodded to him, while he
lifted his hat grayely. This exchange
Of greetings always set her heart !
| f1utter for no woman Is ever indif-
| ferent to a lover. The very fact that
ne IS lover. even though she desplSeS
him. lends him interest in her eyes But
after CHANGING at the matter of fact.
most ordinary and busfnesslike appear
| ing Joseph Miss Meg would lift her
eyes to the Man the Wall and sigh
| In her youth she had often fancied
that suddenly he might slip out of his
frame into reality. Maturer wisdom
| had taught her that she need expect
nothing like this. Yet he had domi
| mated Miss Meg's simple life to such an
| extent that she could not marry. least
of all a commonplace. commonly named
person like Joseph Jones
/ Her friends told her that she was
| simply adding to the mistake she had
| always made hy not taking Joe when he
| thought so much of her. Some of her