The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-12-23

! 10Y 1z0IR GOxT90I01sy
It's none Of my business. only 90
Battersea concluded in her rich.
hearty voice, ~ she ret the tray OF
tea and honey cakes before 9ybil
Hes the closest. oldest character you
ever came across, anyhow, and don't
have mite of patience with him In
half he does. but there's the house. and
you can't live next door and see 1t go
to rack and ruin without lifting hand
to stop it,
! sybil nodded approvinsiy. toasting
! the old kitchen. She had thrown back
her throat scarf OF moleslkin. The mum
lay at her feet on the rug. and her fair.
curly hair was rufrled by the wind. .
It's darling place to live and
ness one bit. I want to be lonely when
I'm really working. II have been
down here before-laSt summer-so I
know what the house - like inside"
well, he told me to do as liked.
SO long az got somebody that wouldn't
break things up. He's left his easel
upstairs and some old chests and beds
and tables and what not. Sailed for
Egypt a week ago last Saturday. didn't
SybiI nodded looking thoughtfully
down at the fire. her cup Of tea un-
tasted. And somehow. before she
could stop herself. she sighed But be-
| fore Mrs. Battersea could remark on
the significance thereof, she had paid
her month in advance and turned the
conversation into purely business chan
nels.
"I'n be down Monday. and please
don't tell anybody"
| Mrs. Battersea understood perfectly
so she said. But later she stood In
girlish figure in the gray tailor made
gown step lightly along the narrow
strip of beach. And she had her mis-
g1vings. It didn't stand to reason that
such a pretty, companionable creature
should come across the Hudson to that
live in q deserted old house and write
plays That was what she said she did
for q living.
She looked again at the card the
visitor had left Miss Sybil Latham!
II she amt nursing secret sorrow 1
miss my guess" smiled the custodian
Of the Stanton studio. She watched
until she saw the girl boarded the tiny
motorboat that ferried across the Hud-
son, and some way her heart warmed
tie pitiful droop to her mouth and the
sadness in her eyes. A month at tho
gray house would do her good. 1t did
MT begin to grow really cold until after
New Years, and she and Joe. her big
boy. would take good care Of her.
that Sybil moved in. She brought over
a trunk and typewriter with her. and
decided to occupy the studio room on
the second floor, with tts high north
light and all OF Stanton's parapher-
MALTA lying around. Joe was to see
that a good fire was kept up on the
hearth in the living room below. and in
the round studio stove. 1t was all very
coy and inductive to work. yet after
the door closed on Joe and his mother
~ ~2A AS~Sn%p
one good look around. and dropped
down on the broad couch to have a
good cry.
Bob had not even sent a message,
one last message before sailing. He
had said that any overtures must come
from her side. since she had been the
one to break the love bond between
them.
but I'm not doing 1t for my sake,
Bob" she had told him. and it had all
seemed 30 simple and plain. These
years Of work and study mean SO much
to you, boy, dear. and you're not able
swing the load, and you say I mustn't
work. think men are selfish to the
core, Bob Stanton; selfish straight to
the core Of their hearts. They expect
in the world may be. or what ambitions
she may have. to throw it all into the
scrap heap when they marry her. and
just-juet-"
go ahead. You're doing finely" Bob
had counseled generously. do you
want to be free. sweetheart"
IT think you ought to be-for your
works sake" she had ialtered.
But even then, way deep in her
heart she had not thought he would !
take her seriously. She wanted to be
argued masterful1y and joyously out /
wanted him to say he didn't give q !
rap about anything she had said. but
that the subway was running inviting |
~, and the way down to the city hall |
was not fraught with any special dam I!
gers to a young man and young wo- |
But he had said nothing Of the sort. !
He had said that she was probably /
right, and that he wasn't the sort of !
chap to make her SO happy that she (
didn't care. for anything else in life. I
And he had sailed for Egypt. Mrs. /
Battersea had said.
She had heard it in town first !
among the studio crowd and had not !
quite believed it. He had taken ref |
uge over at the tiny gray shingled i
house on the strip of shore under the
Palisades, where he worked all sum- !
mer long. She knew the way over,
and SO she had gone to find him, but
vacant house. and she had wanted to
stay there. among all his little private
The day before Christmas all her
wavered. Far down the !
Hudson at night she could watch the /
lights of New York glowing in the
gray mists. and they called her back.
But Mrs. Battersea declared she had
caught a cold sitting up the draughty
studio. and must be dosed with vari-
GUS things, and not allowed to cross
the river with the water in long, dull
gunmeta1 waves running high under +
the keen wind.
On Christmas Eve she lay wrapped
in her steamer rug on the old couch
drawn up before the fire, when she
heard Joe talking to somebody In the