The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-06-05
THE EVENING STORY
Enchantnent.
(By Henderson Welsh. }


| Perhaps it was because her mother
had read a great many silly love nov
| els that Phrynette was somewhat silly
about love and had romantic ideas of
PrinceChafming and other Charmings
! that would be hers If only she could
get away from the little home in the
mountains and shine in the great city.
Perhaps it was because she had such
a name as Phrynette, when all her
! neighbor girls bore less romantic
names. But her mother and the love
novels were responsible for the name
| also.
| Phrynette worried and fretted that
| her beauty should be so wasted in a
| desert place. 1t really was not a
! desert at all, with the wonderful emer-
| aid hills and the winding, glinting riV-
er and the odorous pines and most
| beautiful forests where leaf-carpeted
| walks wound their way under arches
| of walnut and elm; but it seemed a
desert to her because she had never
| been shut in Sitting city, and so
! could not know the beauty and rich
ness of her home in the hills. She
1onged for the gayety and glamour
which only the city could give. There
she could meet rich and brilliant men,
and there she could dazzle them with
her charms.
One day her uncle, who lived in the
city and to whom she had poured out
her desires many times, wrote that if
she insisted on coming to the city he
could get her a place in the great Of
flee where he held a position as book
keeper. She could stay at his home
and SO not have to contend with the
worst phases of trying to make way
in the city.
Phrynette's joy knew no bounds, and
she speedily responded to his invita-
ton He did not have much of a
position himself, but he stood we'll
with the great company, and they
were willing to give his niece chance.
She knew no kind of office work and
fhn limo f1I vbaT
she could gradually learn the routine.
She was not backward, for here was
her chance to meet the great things
of life, so she told herself She was
over-romantic nature; but her capac-
ity was for cooking, for playing
hostess, for true housewifery.
There were handsome fellows in the
office at whom she sometimes glanced
admiringly, but there was much that
was disappointing about them. They
even had some of his ways; but when
they strolled past her at noon hour
and jollied her and the other girls,
Phrynette knew they lacked much of
her ideal. They also looked down on
her somewhat and were very attentive
to girls not half so pretty she.
Her uncle and his wife had out
grown any young friends, and though
did not satisfy. Most of the men she
saw were neither brilliant nor attrac-
tive, and those who were did not seem
to see her, and Phrynette was very
lonely in the great city.
One day the big thing happened. |
Young Harper, the junior member of
the firm, returned from long trip, |
and the instant she saw him Phry- |
come, indeed; but her heart fell as
she realized that he did not seem to
know it, that he did not even see her. !
Frequently he spoke to her about some |
either to go on past her or else he |
spoke with his eyes fastened on papers |
in his hand which he read even as he |
questioned.
Then like an outgrown garment, |
Phrynette's Stiffness of romance slip |
ped from her. She began to feel the :
appressiveness of the concrete walls |
about her, and to long for the bills. |
The smoke and dirt-filled air seemed |
to choke her. If only she could stand |
again upon Crescent mountain and
look across to where the Pea Ridge
lay like blue haze in the west, and
then breathe and breathe and breathei
That would be life, she felt. One
thing was sure. She must get away
from the man whose presence made
her heart leap like a frightened doe,
So strong were these feelings upon
her that her aunt decided she was sick
and she did not deny it. Soon the
train was carrying her to her Ozark
hills.
What had seemed a desert before
was a haven of refuge to her now.
The grooming of the pine trees was
soothing to the heart, and the con-
slant babble of the brook slipping
down from the spring brought her a
strange hope. She was a sad little
girl in many ways, but with no more
shallow romance and breathing out
the wonder spirit of a girl who was
her depth of love.
Spring passed and summer came,
and with it many visitors to the hills
men free for a fortnight of
fishing; tired men looking for rest.
the kind of rest that restores nerve
and life: men who for the once had
laid aside the strain of contest and
were again young and ready for enter
tainment, with an eye for the dain-
test flower or patch of color the
hill and an ear for the catbird, the
cricket and the nightingale.
Phrynette was dipping pail in the
cool spring under the cliff when a
stopped near her. She knew
him at first glance, but he did not
know her His eyes did flash, how
ever, with delight at the charm Of
the bare-headed, bare-armed girl,
with the background of cliff and moss
and mirrowing water. She saw he
him sparkling drink, as is the Gus
tom of the hills.
He accepted with a low bow. This
must be the Spring of Enchantrnentl
and you the enchantress,' he said.
TT is she laughed. don't drink
unless you want to forget cares and
and business and the city
while you are in these hills: for the
hills are enchanted too" She threw
h1v in IN oy7h ri