The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-10-07
The Euening Story
The Spring Song.
(BY Allison Grant.O

years Elinor found herself free from
responsibility. with leisure and money
to spend as she pleased Friends,
whose kindness was of the proverbial
kind that comes so near killing, had
many suggestions about what she
should do to recover from the cares
brought on by her long years of caring
for her invalid mother, whose death
had preceded that of her unloved
husband by but a few weeks. Elinor
Ionged to be all alone where nothing
would suggest old associations, and,
having vainly longed all her life to
see New York, she determined to go
at once and to be on the train before
her protesting friends and relatives
had an opportunity to offer their COM
pany as a means of guarding against
loneliness.
Two hours later, a black porter was
handing her and her suitcase up the
steps of a sleeper of an eaStbOund
train just as the engine began to puff
it's way out of the smoky station sheds
of her native middle west city. Elinor
sank into her seat with unSpeakable
relief. She thought of the many YER
had seemed to say to people, but to
her they seemed to say: Its good to
be living and good to be goinS!" Each
time she repeated this to- herself she
nearer to new life.
Her four years of married life had
been free from friction, but respect
had been the strongest feeling she had
for her husband. She shiveAsd as she
recalled that she had married steady
Justin Moore, who was tweclty years
her senior, because it seemdIf the only
solution of all the difficulties which
piled themselves before her when Ter
mothers illness was pronounced in
durable. Moreover. the frequent
change of scene and the constant at
tention required would I've been out
of the question had Amor herself
tried to provide for the mother. JUS
tin Moore hoI long begged for the
privilege of hing Elinof's husband
and brother arsSSS. Their all in oHe, and
although shS tolGS m frankly that she
did not love him as A1e felt she ought,
she allowed him to c. lm her, and as
she cuddled into the Nnyielding car
seat she was grateful that nothing in
her conduct toward him could have
let him know that each day of their
her.
New York has a million interpreted
lions of itself for the million moods
and circumstances in which people
enter into itSlife, but to Elinor it was
a haven after n storm-a haven from
which she would later sail out into a
new sea of lie. She rode in the rub
berneck wagons, went to the mu-
Seu1nS ana TO Union square
and Madison Square and Cooper
Union, and a hundred other places of
varied interest, and so much had she
heard of those places that it seemed
like meeting old friends to see them
As for her friends at home, they had
only short notes from her telling
where she had gone.
On a springike day in late Feb
ruary, Elinor went out in a charming
new soft black gown which had lured
her into fashionable shop, from
which she had not escaped until she
had secured neckwear and millinery
and footwear, and dozens of other
things which, n complete d woman's
toilet and her peace of mind. She
was giving her new 1inery it's initial
wearing for a matinee that afternoon,
having taken special pains to find
old fashioned play with happy
ever afterward ending.
Between the third and fourth acts
the orchestra began a soft rendition
of Mendelssohn's Spring Song,'' and
cello, and the golden notes of the harp
gave out their message Elinor'S
thoughts flashed back to the spring
time day, five year before, when she
on the pier at Old Point Comfort
watching the ships ASS in and out
of the harbor. She lived again through
the evening that day when she had
ington bound steamer and babe good
bye to Barry, thus bringing to and md
their acquaintance of month while
visiting at the Virginia plantation OF
Barry's cousin Alice, Elinor's school
friend, who had married shortly
engineer husband.
All the long, hard years that had
interviewed seemed but troubled
dream to Elinor AS the music
n tined hOdV
and hungry heart revived, fand she
felt again the magic of he love she
had thought dead during all those five
hard years. AS the final ctain rose
to show the hero and herQne united
after having bridged the chain which
kept them apart during the FAIRLY part
of the play, Elinor felt cHcious per
soral sense of having bNtesed the
empty chasm in her On life and
heart.
She remembered having heard,
shortly after her marriage, of Barry S
engagement to a beautiful southern
Dry of that one perfect evening With
him. He was then a peDniless, en-
bryo lawyer, just out of college, and
he felt that he must attain some sort
of professional standing before offer
ing himself to .Elinor, but each had
understood that underneath their
formal goodbye was a haart cry that
even the long hand CLASP could not
1ully express or suppress:s Sne nopeo
he had been happy, was lRppy now.
As she went from the 'theater the
languor of the springlike air paled
the brilliant flush on her cheeks and
brought into her blue eyes a wistful-
ness suggestive of the heart within
that hungered for its own. She stop
ped to look at a window display of
poisoning plants, and unconsciously
as she looked she hummed the open
ing bars of the Spring Song" Her
deep contralto tone attracted pass
ing man, who was taking a hasty
glance at the window. A glance at
her brought him to a sudden stop.
A second glance brought him to her
side. That brought her eyes upward
casually to regard so close neigh