The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-01-17
ZEE EVENING STORY
Stephanie's Sister Sarah.
(By A. Maria Crawford-)

(By A Maria Crawford-)
my sister Sarah is coming home to-
morrow after travelling for two years
in Europe" said Stephanie Martin to
the latest and most attractive of her
admirers. "Of course know that you
won't like her. She is rather plain and
dreadfully learned. Billy Bruce says
| that the reason Sarah is an old maid
| is because she is much too clever for
any man in our set
Your mother looks very young to
have an old maid daughter" said
TONNES Gaines CALAMITY.
Sarah is U.s. confided the sister of
Is summers. Father and mother are
quite reconciled now to the fact that
Sarah never will be married"
TONNES Gaines meditatively flicked
the ashes from his cigar. He had Ia
ken the girl out sleighing and later
had accepted her mothers cordial in
, vitation to stop for dinner. When he
had met Stephanie the night before, at
a big dance in a fashionable club
house, something in the pretty young
face had stirred his fancy and set him
to dreaming like boy. OF course he
would never see her again, the one
girl, the memory of whom was the
fragrant garden spot of his thought.
Stephanie was like her in a way. That
was why she had attracted him. She
had the same wavy brown hair, the
same white brow, but the eyes were
different. There had been a depth of
expression in the girls blue eyes that
would never be seen in Stephanie's
brown ones.
The music of a sweet toned violin
sounded somewhere above the draw
ing room, rousing the man from his
reverie.
Fathers playing walked you up.
thought you were going to sleep"
laughed Stephanie. You sat there so
quietly, staring straight in the fire.
Not to talk is a sure sign that a
woman is asleep. but such signs fail
when it comes to judging a man.
Il expect you were thinking of some
big deal on Wall street"
I mo, I was not thinking of "a BUSH
ness"
Some girl them"
The majestic strains of Handlers
beautiful Largo flooded the room
with melody. The girls voice the night
she had told him goodby was sweet
and deep-toned like the mellow music
that came from the bit of stringed
You are right" acknowledge
TONNES Gaines slowly. 'I was think
ing of girl. You remind me Just a
little of her.
WAS she pretty and were you in
love with her?''
L
love with her, -e.l.2
That's interesting" pouted Ste
phanie, but disappointing. Frankly.
I am sorry that you are not eligible.
You entertain me-
you are f1attering. why ami not
eligibIe?"
IAN engaged man is out Of the
market"
''Well, I'm not engaged" Gaines
smiled at the coquetry of the girl
before him. If she were his, he re-
hected, she would be in school get
ting some knowledge tucked away
under that mass of brown curIs.
''You confessed that you loved her,
so you will be engaged
THAT doesn't necessarily follow.
Perhaps she doesn't love me-"
with all your money and good
looks.'' Stephanie declared. she'll be
willing enough to take your name"
generation would probably learn to
say money before 1t said daddy. 1t
was certainly a commercial era when
a young girl of Is thought nothing of
mans love and everything of his
fortune.
st wouldn't marry any woman who
didn't love me-
MY, but you're old-fashioned!
That's the way Sarah talked. Now
she's an old maid"
mot at rs! She's just old enough
to have some sense about matrimony"
you take life too seriously-the
way father does, Mr.. Gaines. am
not surprised at him because he be-
longs to the past, but you. you, are
part of the present and you'll have
to adapt yourself to changed condi-
tons"
What suffragette has been lecturing
in the city this week?''
You needn't laugh. I'm not voicfrg
somebody else's sentiments. I have
'Indeed!' said Gaines, adroftly Iead1r z
her on to further revelations of the ad-
vanced thinking of eighteen
when father was young, people mar
ried for love because life was less strenu-
Gus and they didn't have to consider the
commercial problems of today. Conpet.-
time to fall in love. He simply picks out
an attractive girl who will do him credit
in public and narTfes her.
"And the grip
about besides a love sick boy Life If
complicated for her. too. What with cuI- |
ture and bridge clubs, 1uncheons, teas, |
dinners and the opera. she is busy all the
body to attend to her financial affairs.
Domesticity is a thing of the long ago.
you are too wise for me-"
The music overhead had taken on the
staccato notes of Dvorak's "Humor-
esque" and Townes Gaines mind fingered
once more in his garden OF remembered
called the fireflies that had jeweled tire
valley below them when they had stood
together on the mountainside the night he |
kissed the girl good-by- Ten years mad
passed and yet by closing his eyes he
could see the Quivering mouth and tie /
brow, white as marble. in the moonlight
"Are you thinking about the girl
again?" demanded Stephauie.