The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-05-27
The Euening Story
An Island Foursome.
(By Dorothy AIIen.l

tnere IN the summer m glad you
could both run down TO see Lawrence.
Gwen smiled at the two in the op-
posite seat. Smiled deliberately and
with malice aforethought and most
delightful impartiality. Flick Habbe-
ton and Dolf Cramer returned the
smile each in his own way. Dolls was
broad and melting and fatuous. 1t be-
lspoke alteration and utter he1plessness.
Flick's was full of a strange. cynical
misery, as of one who would have said
to the world. 10, she has landed me.
Behold me pant and die"
'How's Larry bearing up?" asked
Dolf
well, of course he's not really
fully recovered. 1t was awfully nice
of you boys to come way out from the
city to cheer him up. Aunt Helen
and 1 do our best, but were not like
men, you know, and his own crowd
I'm glad we just happened to catch
| the same train
| F'licked grinned out at New Rochelle
fleeing by. He had waited for hours.
| it seemed, beside the grilled gateway
back in the Grand Central to beat
Dolf, and had wakened to find Dolf
with the captured prize saunterlng
over from the ticket windows. He
I wondered how they could still even
! preserve the semblance of friendship.
Was it not he who had worshiped
| Gwen Marquis from afar for two
years? Hadn't he put up with Larry's
general pugnaciouSneSS and 1OQuac1ty
solely because he had a sister with
face like an apple blossom? Hadn't he
monitored Larry all through his last
year, pushing him along by sheer
force Just to win the confidence and
affection of Gwen? All this, while
Do1f Cramer reigned in his own special
field of endeavor, and took no more
notice of Larry than if he had been a
nudge in the adjacent blue.
Then there had come the accident.
1t had been voted a pleasant and adj
visable thing by the Junior class TO
place a goat of mature years and
lively sense of justice in the private
consulting room of the seniors, a goat
dyed a deep, rich red, with black
horns, and it was done. All juniors
had been warned to go far from the
scene of action, but Larry had linger
ed. being interested as the person who
had assumed responsibility with the
goats owner. And he had been
caught a felony in Junior eyes, caught
and taken into the private room and
imprisoned with the goat in the inner
closet until the quality of mercy,
strained to the minimum, released
both.
Gwen had come after the remains.
Larry was not injured vitality, but the
goat had not chosen kindly and he
was bruised, much bruised. There
upon, Dolf Cramer had assumed COM
mand on seeing the patients family.
1t was he who devised the pretty tale
that made Larry a hero and hid the
goat from the family history 1t was
he who conveyed Gwen around the
campus, and showed her the beaut-
full effect through the stained glass
window in the chapel at sunset and
the wonderful sunrise view from the
east loggia where the avenue or pop
lars rose in stately silhouette like
those in some far Italian garden.
Nobody had ever suspected Dolf of
esthetic tastes. He had been bluff
winter. His class name had been APP
propriated and, seemly, name
suited to his general temperament and
manly proportions. for he was dubbed
ton in any form. He could not see
that by the alchemy of love the soul
of the "Porpoise" had bloomed like
some mystic rose of gold. He could
a partial right of way, for love did not
give him any blooming roses. 1t only
made him silent and suffering, and he
took to leaning against corners of
buildings, with a face like Dante's
death mask.
Yet he had not retreated. When
the Invitation had been given for him |
to visit Larry in his convalescent state, |
he had accepted, even while he knew |
that Dolf likewise was included. Shall |
a man drop from the firing line for a
wound here and there?
You'll both love Aunt Helen said |
Gwen. She came down on an ear |
lier train with Joan. We just met |
Joan over at the PennSy this noon. 1t |
seems if you boys ought to know |
her. She's from Richmond, too, Joan |
Carruthers.''
Then Flick turned his head and |
smiled at the .'Porpoise.'' Did they
know Miss Carruthers? The smile OF.
Dolf's rotund face became fixed like |
Buddha's. 1t lacked spontaneity and |
innate joy. And Flick's humor rose. |
II have never met Miss Carruth- |
ers," he said, but 1 have often heard
her spoken of. She was very popular
at Richmond very popular"
At Sound Beach they took the car
that wound along the shore line.
Gwen said it wasn't very far, and then
just the little walk across the sand |
dunes and beach.
Larry has a boat that we use to
cross over to the island in,'' she smiled |
up at Dolf. Dolfs stock was rising
steadily. She kept near to him, and I
permitted his assistance ove r infinites-
imal pools of water left by the tide.
Yet Flick smiled at the far Long Is
land shore line and Dolf was pale ut
isn't far from shore"
1t wasn't. Larry saw them from
the distance, and sent forth a long |
hail of welcome. Though still wearing
sundry bandages and plasters, he
could navigate and WELD oars, and he
came after them jubilantly. Flick did
not pretend to disguise Do1f's pre-
eminence in the lists of love. He gave
him freely the right of way now. He
and left the two to gaze into each 9TH
er's eyes, only Dolfs gaze persistently
wandered to the nearing island with
a look OF strange abstraction.
And when they had beached the
boat and strolled up the little sandy
path to the bungalow Gwen walked
beside him slowly, confidingly, yet
Flick smiled behind them and laughed /
at Larry's jokes without regret.
1t appeared when they reached the
arlI Ia hat had ,nfT 01F