The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-04-15
The Evening Story
Laughing Lauretta.
(By Dorothy Douglas.

of laughter. There were those among
her friends who rebelled at the con-
slant supply of mirth possessed by the
girl. She seemed ever ready to smile.
the most darkened path.
You are quite incapable of serious
emotion" David Granton said to her
on one occasion. II suppose you
love you" There had been slight
appeal in his voice.
"Yes-I suppose I would Lauretta
had responded. The smile had been
trifle laggard, but not so slow but that
Granton had witnessed it. He turned
away in wrath and Lauretta'S laugh
ter had floated mockingly behind him.
A sigh fluttered, new born, on the
girls lips. She had stifled it into 81
lence, brushed a hand across her eyes
and had turned smi1ingly to meet a
second partner in the dance.
Some few months before Lauretta
had found herself, through no desire
of her own, in a social set far above
her own environment A chain of cir
cumstances, disconnected, broken, but
always encirclfng her. victim of So
cial intercourse.
Lauretta drew n meager salary from
a big department store while her as
sociates drove about in hmousines
with footmen in livery that matched
the shade of the car.
Often and desperately had she
set in which she found herself, but
she was firmly wedged there by the
strength of her own personality.
So Lauretta laughed and Knocked
and made friends. but not one among
them knew the girl nor the prope1ling
force behind her smiles.
David Granton was perhaps one of
the most respected members of New
York society. He was of an old and
honored family Life to him was Sc
rious and fra ught with great problems
that must in moments of stress be
gravely and seriously handled. Lau-
retta'S laughing eyes and her ever
mocking lips had captured his senses,
while his brain rebelIed against the
constant frivo1ity that fingered when
ever she was present. He knew, too,
that many men wanted Lauretta II
only for the laughter that sparkied
and made them forget their troubles.
Granton, however. wanted wife who
understood that tragedy existed and
must be helped, one who knew hu-
man nature in all its strength and
weakness. Lauretta just SKINNED the
surface of things like a butterfly on
the wing.
Her children would no doubt be a
little nest of cooling, twittering birds,
with never a thought for life, ne
ruminated.
1t was in the smoking room of his
club that Granton and John Delevan
got to discussing criminals, their mo-
tives and consequent punishment
Delevan had put forth the argument
that the innocent suffer far more than
the guilty.
For instance he said, 'if you had
a brother who had embezzled and was
sentenced to punishment, you would
suffer far more than the actual Grim
ina1. He would have overcome his
own feelings SO far in the very act OF
thieving that punishment would fall
lightly upon him, while you would SUI
a of COndemnGd.'
THE tortures of the condemned
would be nothing to my feelings If
my brother were serving sentence
in prison." Granton said. Loving my
brother as I do, 1 know that 1 could
sell my soul rather than see him suf-
fer"
'I wonder if affection such as that
pays? We have a case such as the
ina ginary one we are discussing right
down in the shop" Delevan glanced
at Granton to make sure of his inter-
est, and continued. There was
good silly little flapper
employed in the costume department
who succumbed finally to the lure of
lovely clothes and who set herself out
to obtain those clothes by fair means
or foul. During the year following
her fall she got away with some thou
sands of dollars worth of gowns. hats,
etc. For one so young it was quite
record of thieving. The investigation,
when the loss was discovered, was
put through very quietly"
You had not mentioned this case
to me-" Granton half questioned.
1T was kept absolutely dark. Not
one soul save a laughing girl of per-
haps twenty summers knows about
the affair. This girl bears the entire
brunt of the tragedy on her own
shoulders. When the plain clothes
men went up to arrest the young flap
per- if you'll believe me, the elder sis
ter tried to take the blame and plead
ed SO desperately that the policeman
came away empty handed The flap
per went all to the bad and landed in
an asylum, where she will end her
days. The elder sister is paying the
debt back, dollar by dollar. She would
have sold her life to save the others
name, and by Jovel she laughs her
way through the world, housing her
sisters secret like grim DEATH" Dele