The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-06-17
THE EVENING .STORY
Waiting.

=.
| Yes, of course" was the reply.
I'VE have been chums for three
years?"
Yes"
about anything?"
You have said anything you want
ed to me, and 1 have done the same
by you?"
| And you won't get mad at what I
am going to say now, will you?'
No, though I hope it's nothing
awful
just little bit AWFUL
:. We'll. let me draw a long breath
first. Now go ahead"
ing?"
They are saying that Stephen St.
Clair is trifling with your
| Dorothy Lang, you don't mean it,"
I've heard it a dozen times"
| How do the gossips know that we
are not engaged I" Miss Clara asked
with some show of spirit and many
| bushes.
Just easy as pie. If you were
you'd have told me at once, and I'd
| have solemnly promised to never,
never tell, and then gone around tell
Ing to to everybody. No, you can't
be engaged yet
But who says I want to be?"
why. what question! OF course
you want to be. Every girl does.
| You and Stephen should have been
| engaged months ago.
But who says we are in love?"
They all think you love each
other and they can't make out why
the engagement isn't announced. In
one way it's none of my affair, but
being we are chums, and being I've
| always hoped you would get a good
husband, and being Stephen is GER
| tainly nice young man, and being.
But suppose he hasn't ask me to
marry him?"
"Ohr
"And suppose he does and I say
nor"
ooh! ohm
about it."
1t was Miss Clara's fault that there
was talk and that no engagement
had yet been announced. Soon after
she and young Mr.. st. Clair had be-
come acquainted the question of Amer
lean girls marrying titles came up. Mr..
st. Clair was aggressively against it,
and more to be on the opposite side
than for any other reason the girl had
said:
It's only natural that a girl should
want to marry a man that is looked
up to by a large circle"
That was a blow for Mr.. st. Clair.
He was not foreigner. He had no
title He was a cashier of a bank, and
not five hundred people knew him, AS
to how many looked up to him" he
had never figured. as it was his bust
nees to demand good security
from all borrowers. AS time went
on he was in love. and he
the girls stand on the question !
of titles. She had rich father and /
money in her own right and was hand |
some besides, and most any day a |
money hunter might drop over the |
water and seek her hand. She seemed |
to be keeping herself free for such an
emergency.
1t jolts a good man to propose mar
riage and be turned down. Stephen st.
Clair was a good man and he feared a
jolt. Therefore, things dragged along
and the gossips had something to Won
der over
When man is mystif1ed and irri-
tated by the attitude of another man
he can say:
what in thunder do you mean by
such conduct"
What can a girl say? Nothingl
Less than a month after the con-
versation on the veranda what looked
like a climax came. The Baron
Shmidt came over from Germany in
search of a wife.
She must be handsome. She must
be charming She must have money.
long green. SO that when the Baron
had FILTERED away her dowry the
fathers bank account could be depend
ed upon
Miss Clara Scott, who didn live
within fifty miles of the port of New
York, from which he first got sniff
of the air of freedom? Why, even
the hotel boys of Gotham keep a list
of the heiresses of the whole United
States. and their charges are said to
be very moderate.
Baron Shmidt was made acquainted
with Miss Clara Scott.
He was a baron and a colonel and a
personal friends of the kaiSer's. Hell
owned seven castles on the Rhine. He
was the biggest frog in the pond at !
court and had seven medals for brav-
cry. He had six decorations of honor.
He didn't make the mistake that /
some foreigners do of popping the
question half an hour after he was in
troduced. Indeed, it was all of forty :
minutes before he said that his life
was lonely without a wife. 1t was ten ,
minutes later when he attempted to
take and hold Miss Clara's hand. 1t {
was Just sixty minutes later by all the t
town clocks and dollar watches that $
he sighed a long, quivering sigh and 9
remarked that he had never loved !
before.
That evening Mr.. ST. Clair called. e
Miss Clara told him of the baron. and
So He didn't give a start. He didn't
scowl. He didn't work up a look Of
murder. On the contrary. he smiled s
and said:
1.-THE baron doubtless comes for a Z
wife, 1t is a golden opportunity for }
some American girl to wed title"
Miss Clara could have boxed his
ears for that. but hadn't she brought
it on herself? II
The baron came cheerily on the ;
next afternoon. He hadn't the least /
doubt that he was solid. Why not? I