The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-02-04
The Euer,i,,g Story

The Euening Story
What's i'm . Gown -
CBy Dorothy Douglas.)
Leonard saw the gown for the first
time in the Van Tyle's drawing room.
His artistic senses were stimulated
to degree quite foreign to them. for
Leonard was not of an artistic nature
He was the more surprised, then, that
gown worn by a perfectly strange
woman should SO excite his admira-
ton.
Usually, Eric Leonard found his
senses stirred, if they were to be
moved, by purely personal charm He
was never in the least certain whether
his companion wore pink. yellow or
green, and whether her hair was COP
perry or raven black.
Therefore. in view of the strange
emotion awakened within him, he
went Immediately to his hostess and
craved an introduction to the girl in
Waterman with nod of his head
in the direction of the tall girl who
was laughing lightly with an officer
in the navy.
His hostess raised rebuking eve
brows at him.
pink. Ny dear Eric, that is new
dawn, not pink" She let fall the last
word as if it were a word erased from
the latest dictionary for society.
''All right. new DAWN. laughed
Eric. rejoicing that he was a mere
man and not expected to know pink
from any other color. He followed
his hostess until she had piloted him
and lef him at anchor beside Elise
Waterman. who had turned with
delighted smile at his approach, and
Eric knew the girl outmatched her
new dawn gown both in beauty and
the effect on his senses in general.
Elise Waterman seemed to rise from
her gown even as the sun rises above
the softness Of the dawn-swept clouds,
| sparkling, radiant. Her eyes flung
rays of light into his own, and her
| hair was a heap of silky gold. Eric
| hoped she had not heard his quickly
| indrawn breath when her hand had
| met his own.
| Apparently she had not. for she
talked on as if an emotion had never
rested upon the cool beauty of her
face.
| Eric fell in love with her. He was
| a struggling journalist, with scarcely
enough Of worldly goods to hold him
securely in the world of success. Yet
his precipitate fall into the realm of
love was none the less violent
! When he danced a few minutes
later with Elise and felt his hand
touch the back of the New Dawn gown
|
within 1t Eric vowed that he would
write the points off his pen in an eff
| fort to make himself worthy to win
Elise Waterman for his own.
He went home that night with an
Inspiration such as he had never
known before. He would write a
| novel, a play"eomething big that
| would hurl him once and for all time
| into the world of success and financial
strength. After that he could tell
| "a
| a sigh and hoped fame would over
take him before many new dawns. He
rejoiced inwardly that the early hours
of the day had always been his best
time for work. Somehow Elise and
her dawn gown seemed always present
when the sun peered at him over the
house tops.
Fortunately he was a practical and
he wrote because 1t was what the pub
lie wanted and not what he himself
considered good.
Before the idea for the great play
came to him. Eric saw as much as
possible Of Elise. He tried, without
putting it into words to convey to her
the knowledge that she was the mis-
tress Of his heart, and that one day
he would tell her SO. It seemed diff
cult, and yet Eric felt occasionally
telepathic messages of rather delight
full import into his inner conscious
ness. The knowledge only inspired
him the more, and his senses reeled
in anticipation Of the day upon which
his tongue could express the love he
bore her.
When the great idea came to him
for the play that was to make him
famous Eric made the one false step
in his career. He went off into the
seclusion of the country to concen-
| trate and left no address behind him.
| Friends, even the best Of them, were
bound to destroy his train of thought.
Seclusion, absolute and perfect, was
into that seclusion. Short notes. with
just a word of explanation, informed
| his friends of his departure and in
| tended application to work.
When Elise Waterman read the
brief note of farewell a feeling of de-
preston swept over her She felt sud
denly very lonely, and knew that she
would not be really happy until Eric
Leonard returned to her side. She
wished that he had at least trusted
her with his address
But Eric had trusted no one with
knowledge of his whereabouts, Elise
least of all, for even the sight of her
writing would drag his thoughts away
time when she should be his.
/ So the days wore on and Eric Leon
ard created the parts OF a great play.
He had no word from his friends in
all the five months he worked in his
enforced seclusion. He had read no
papers.
However, his play was finished.
More than little dragged and tired
from strenuous tension of nerves and
energy, he made his way back to liv-
ing beings and the city of friends.
He had no premonition, no hint of
the tragedy that was awaiting him In
town, Elise Watterson's father had
been found guilty of endorsement,
T.. I,v,f vN<a<9
ishment by q short. Elise, feeling the
disgrace keenly, had disappeared