The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-08-10
The Euening Story
Pursuing Polly.

grey WOULD HOlly n0lO up inc
unsigned letter with speculative air.
TOO long for electric display, isn't it I?
You know, motherkin, just sure
as shooting some day my name will
be right out in front of theaters.
sparkling and dazzling the natives"
Smoke up!' came deep rumble
from the couch where Peter SUM
bered, or pretended to, during the
family council.
pete, you keep out of this" flared
up Polly in hasty sisterly resentment:
Somebody's got to do something; and
I don't see you hustling around. We're
in a state of siege with fate and for
tune, perched like a couple of crows
on a tree, waiting for us to give up:
down to New York, find Aunt Eudora
Phelps and make her give me a Gin
derella cot in her top garnet while I'm
hunting a place where my genius will
be appreciated"
Pete grinned happily. He was fiji
teen and life held few complexities.
| bet a cookie Buell. hasn't been
asked to give his consent
| Polly bent over her desk industri-
ously so the family could not observe
her face.
II can get 1920 train that gets me
in-let's see-about 2:45 that after
noon. I like that one"
I'm sure Eudora won't approve at
all, Polly her mother remarked,
rather plaintively.
| well, neither do you approve"
| laughed Polly, going over to kiss her.
| But when folks really love you they
| let you do what is most conducive to
your own happiness. It's terrible to
have people always trying to make
you happy in their way"
| Like a certain party We know, IN IN
fingers through his towseled hair and
beamed at Polly like benevolent imp.
Il don't see what you want to
make good, Polly You girls think
after you's sung in the choir in
dinky little town like Waneota all you
have to do is get up on a stage and
| be a prirna donna quicker scat
Buell. says
II don't care to hear it, Peter
What on earth have you got
lawyer; and, by Jimmy, he will rise
sure enough. He's going up in an
aeroplane."
Wadleigh Polly looked at Peter with
| doubt and suspicion in her eyes and
| the time table in her hand.
HE is. 1 heard him talking to some
fellows at the postoffice, and he said
| he'd just as soon go as not.
Polly went out of the room with her
nose tilted at rather scornful angle.
| 1t was quite like Buell. to say such
/ thing in Pete'S hearing to be sure 1t
reached her ears and would make her
worry about him.
| Polly decided that nothing could
ever make her worry or trouble her
/
not interested in his goings or COM
| ings, or ascensions for that matter.
| Safe in her own room, she stood before
the oval mahogany framed mirror, and
! looked at the face that stared so
| haughtily, so uncompromisingly back
| at her. The eyes were very blue, start
| lingly blue, with dark lashes and eye
| brows, and her hair too, was dark.
| Polly liked to take it and pile it high
| on her head, with few loose curls at
her temple and ears, like a picture of
| the Empress Josephine she had cut
| from a magazine and pinned on the
wall. 1t was a pity some one had
not planned an opera around jose
phine, she thought. She would have
some stocky Napoleon.
Buel was rather Stocky. Tall. but
/ broad shouldered, and rather inclined
to take things too easy. Yes, that
was exactly the whole trouble, Polly
decided for the hundredth time. He
didn't have a thrill of romance or
Itemperamental excitement in his whole
makeup. He took everything for
granted He had even taken her for
granted, come to think of it.
| 1t had always seemed natural for
Buell. to be her sweetheart, natural for
| him to ask her quite casually one
| evening a few months ago, which
to live on, Polly, after we're mar
ried?"
That was the way Buell. proposed.
spoke of the divine fire of love in his
/
! Polly had rebel1ed from that min
ute She did not select her favorite
side of the track either. She told Mr.
Abbott that she thought of running
down to New York and studying for
| grand opera. And Buell. had stared at
her for a minute in utter amazement
! before he had actually laughed at her
| and chuckled.
You're not, really. Polly?"
"Oh, but 1 am insisted Polly. Pm
going next week.
All during her preparation for the
trip she thought of him until by the
time she took the train for New York
she almost relented and called him up
rather noncommittal and not half so
anxious as she had expected.
Peter, too, was missing He had
wished her a good morning with a joy
Gus CLINT in his blue eyes, and
promptly vanished. Polly felt dis
tinctly aggrieved when she watched
the old red station out of sight down
| the vista of track 1t was no way for
future prima donna to be leaving
| her native town Another thing, fu-
| ture prina donnas did not permit
| traitorous tears to tumble down their
| cheeks over persons like Buell. Alb
bolt, persons who let fate take away
| their love from them with never a
| single struggle.
1t was around Poughkeepsie, half
way down the Hudson, that Polly no
ticed the other passengers watching
| something from the windows, some
| thing very exciting. When she looked
| out she saw lowering over the river
| a flying shape like a great bird.
Straight down it came toward the
racing train. AS it passed them, the
! engine emitted a shrek of salute, and
| the people called from the windows
| and platforms, waving caps and hand
kerchiefs; but Polly drew back into
her own seat. with wide, almost
| frightened eyes Over the telephone