The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-03-01
THE EVENING STORY
Miss Redn1an.
(By Jean Ramsey1

through the doorway at tbe bIani< eray
log without 1t settled in little jeweI-like
! ~ ops upon the metal screening and blew
IN eerie swirls about the rapidly darken-
ing street From the direction of the sea
Aoeilne could hear the melancholy call
OF fog-bound steamers, and if all fitted
SO wei with her mood that for the first
! dismal sound
She had always hated the seashore she
rejected, and she supposed that was why
ner parents were so anxious to settle in
TINS deadly spot for the summer. 1t is
true they had always shown a preference
Tor ocean breezes, and last year it had
peen rather nice. They had stopped at d
3 hotel Where there had been some nice
people-one or tWo-and the swimming had
! been fun-whatever else might be said of
: Dick Stanton, he certainly was a fine
| swimmer She didn mind the dampness
| SO much last year; it curled her hair and
| people could see that she didn't have to
| use irons on it like the other girls.
! DICK had once asked her why she didn't
wear wells and things around her head
/ IN damp weather He had said she was
! the only girl who never made a fright of
herself. In those days she had been fool
lsh enough to care about his opinion of
i her She sighed at her folly and
then VIc1ouSly kicked the innocent door
and went inside in the parlor to lie down
| with her face in a sofa cushion. The
moisture had somehow crept into her
eyes.
I She had often made confidant of that
particular sofa cushion. 1t a hideous
affair, decorated with two distorted Glib
1t, unaware that the tide had risen above
their waists. She had embroidered it
Ier sen Iast summer on the peacn' anu
ne had once thought it very cute" then
! she had found it rather touching. Now
! she knew it was extremely silly, but
somehow she had grown used to telling it
things.
Just think, she whispered to it, Il
might have gone right on and married
him and never found him out till after
, ward, when it would be too latei'
She tried to picture to herself the trag
edy her life would have beer had the dis
cOvery been too late. The discovery of
what? Maybe it was the big white fog
outside and the voices of the imperiled
steamers crying with all their might for
somehow Dicks offence, the unforgfvable
cause of the breach between them, began
to look rather trivial and mean.
But he knew l hated chocolates" she
exclaimed peevishly and then blushed hot
ly that even the cushion should hear any
thing that sounded ridiculous
1T wasn't only that she added quickly,
sitting up to argue the matter more ably,
but he shouldn't have been stupid
to get mad Even if it was horrid and
rude of me to throw the nasty old candy
out of the window he should have known
it only a little fit of temper, and if
he had loved me he would have known it.
But he never loved met She had to
search wildly for her handkerchief and,
/ failing to find it, forgave the cushions
interruption hastily and took it into her
most intimate confidence, especially the
ruffle.
1t was so true If he had loved her he
would never have brought her chocolates,
for he would have known of her aversion
to them, even if he had brought them
he never would have made such a silly
excuse as saying she had never told him.
And she would have even forgiven him
that did she not know that no true
lover would have taken it seriously for
a moment if a girl gave back her engage
! ment ring after a quarrel like that
She was aroused by footsteps on the
wet path, and the voice of the girl next
H. n mother
he Gomez?
The house next door was set we'll back
from the road and the path leading to 1t
, led by her parlor windows. Adeline could
see the girl family, her large, athletlc 1ls-
ure magnified in the mist and following
her was a young man with an umbrella
AdeItne hated that girl. Even though
it was so early in the season she always
had a number of young men calling on
, her and they would sit out on the veran-
ia stems and talk and laugh, Adeline was
sure about her. Perhaps they even plueo
her, because they thought she had no
admirers. Well, she was not Hkely 10 eA-
plain to them that she had been dlslllus-
toned and had foresworn men forever
She heard them mount the steps OF their
porch and draw up chairs, a ELL W had
called I'D to her mother. Then they were
very quiet, except for soft laugh, now
and then or the scraping of q CHAIR
AdeIine deliberat ely lit the gas in the
parlor and made faces at the house next
door. but she was dencate enq 'iiS +, TO
INDUCING herself
In the middle of a facial masterpiece
the front doorben rang. Adeiine rusi I'd
to the door, wondering what drought i1ei
father home so early
DADDY" she called TREMENDOUSLY to the
dripping evening darkness
81 hse pardon, does Miss Redman
..Dtcki'' gasped AdeIine. Dick ana
W yue1 he had followed her thought of him.
and then had come dancing along IKE
kite drawn earthward by little boy
hand The simile struck her as being so
narticularlv apt and comical that she con-
tinued to laugh, and when she saw lie
had a package in his hand, she was conf
NJ StaIv overcome with merriment, and a.
last found herself seated on the bottom
step of the stairs, crying nystericaIly
called her ''Addie, my poor little Adder! ,
When they opened the candy, very M
/. discreetiy just before Gunner 'hefe WAS
not a chocolate in the box
Dear" explained Dick, since that day
I've never been able to look at a choco-
late
IN and come and everything Did You
know I was just longing, longing, lone
1 meuld Glt send @ for You? think should
have died if you hadn't come.
Don't talk like that: dear. l don't de-
tie and they walked down to the village
teiegram to send to his business house.
While he was composing this. Adellne
amused herself making up urgent dis
matches that she and her family would
have sent to Dick had he not come Al
of hers were tragic: his was brief and I'M
der the circumstances, surprising: !
Miss Lily Redman-Regret must break
aDointment tonight. Impossible to leave
+a1S-r DICK STANTON"
As thew turned in at their own gate
way they saw the boy from the Telegram h |
station turn in at the house next door
That girl next door was expecting
somebody she informed Dick Il guess
that's to tell her he can't come. 1 know