The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-02-01
TIE EVENING STORY
Practical Polly.
(By Mary Marshall.)

| give was that he was too impractical
to make her happy. The only excuse
| that he could offer to himself for nav
| ing let her go with scarcely a protest
was that she was much too practical
to make a successful artists wife. He
had fallen in love with her, wooeo
her devotedly for a year and finally
has asked her to marry him because
| of a certain unusual and, to his ar
tistic soul, very satisfactory combina-
| ton of light brown hair and dark
! brown eyes and a wrist that was in
comparable.
But, when Polly, after she had con-
sented to marry him, began to show
| a decided taste for account keeping
ACTUALLY evinced as great an interest
! in the price of paints and can
vases as she did in what STAN
ton put on those canvases-he be-
gan to- wonder whether that wrist
was so indispensable to his career af-
ter all. So it was "all off, before most
of Polly's friends knew that it was
''on." Polly had actually gone to
Stanton's little studio to ask to be
released, for having once decided on
this plan of action. she did not want
to put it off even an hour. Such waste
of time was not practical.
Stanton accepted his doom in en-
barrassment and amazement and,
having seen Polly to the street door
of his studio building, shook hands
with her in awkward formality and
went back to indulge in a fit of ar
tistic remorse over the loss of that
wrist and those dark brown eyes. If
Polly had been more temperamental
she would have INDUCED in a few
tears, but she was too practical to
think of such things till everything
else was attended to. Polly walked
straight down the street to the near
est stationers and inquired for dark
blue wrapping paper.
rs that what is used to wrap white
fabric in to keep it from turning
yellow with time?' she asked.
YES" said the stationer, 1--WE sell
great deal of it for that pur-
pose" Polly bought a roll of it and
hurried home.
Perhaps I shan't ever use the
white Satin," and she could not sup
press little fearful sigh as she said
it, "but 1 may, and if 1 roll it UP in
blue paper it will last forever without
discoloring.'' Polly went to the oak
all the linen and fabrics she had
collected for her expected wedding
and laid the things out neatly. She
wrapped the satin and the lace that
she had bought with birthday money
away ever SO carefully and tenderly
and then took out a neatly arranged
pile of letters. In one pile were the
letters Stanton had written before
the engagement, and in the other the
letters he had written since that event.
These Polly took to her fire place and
burned.
Returning to her chest Polly
looked with critical interest at an ar
ray of damask table linen all marked
with a 1aboriously embroidered S. Just
then Pollys mother came into the
room and listened with motherly in
terest to Polly's account of her break
with Stanton.
II wish" said Polly, that I had
marked these things with my own
initial the way you did when you were
married; then they would be good for
us to use. But all the girls were u.s.
ing their fiance's initial. 1t is the
English custom, 1 believe, and 1 was
TOO bad" said the mother, who
shared Polly's practical temperament.
She looked at the fine stitches that had
been taken in vain, with more show
of regret than she had shown over
the tale of her daughters broken en-
gagement. You may as well rip the
embroidery OUT she said Il will buy
the linen from you. We always can
use more with a big family like ours.
Mind you don't cut the damask when
you take the stitches out"
Polly thought for a moment Per
haps' she said, and she colored slight
ly as she spoke, ''perha ps 1 might need
the letter again. There is one chance
in twenty-four that the name would
begin with an s.
so there is" agreed her mother, who
knew instinctively that Polly was re-
ferring to her future fiance's name,
"even more than one chance in TWEEN
ty-four, when you think how seldom
you meet a man with name that
begins with an x or z, or a U or a
""
So it was that Polly left the SIS in
her table linen and that her brother,
who dotted on his unaffected sister,
when he heard of the arrangement.
teased her numerically about all the
men she had ever known whose name
began with an S, barring Stanton, of
course, whose name was never men,
toned. The result was that Polly did
not dare even speak politely to man
whose name began with this letter for
fear of starting a fresh volley of her
brothers teasing. Still she did not rip
out the SIS.
Two years passed and Stanton had
practically passed out of PolIy's exis-
tence and a new petitioner had found
a charm in Polly's light brown nair and
dark brown eyes, but her wrist, ex-
cept that it was part of Polly had
gone unnoticed. The present sutton
was a friend of Polly's brother-a Mr..
Roberts, whom Polly had first met
when her brother brought him home to
talk over a business deal. He was a
bright, energetic, business man, and
Poily's little practical ways, which
her better. seemed to him delightfully."-
old ia shioned and piquant-
He was in love with Polly and Polly
well she had let him get to the point