The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-01-31
The EUening Story
Loves WaXfarers.

The pastors wife was used to taxi
or carriage now and then driving up
at any hour with a belated couple to
be married. She was usually the wit
ness, with Selma, the Swedish cook
hurriedIy routed from slumber to act
as a second one.
The old fashioned Evangelical
church stood on Brook avenue, con-
venient 10 the railroad station and to
old city nall Within it's quiet enclos-
ure was also the parsonage. built in
quaint Dutch style, of stone with ivy
over it and double-peaked roof There
was a very small study to your right
as you entered and here the cere-
monies took place.
The man was about thirty. good
looking. well dressed, without trace
of nervousness in his manner. And
the woman was past girlhood with
rather worn face that had been pretty
once. She had the look in her face
and eyes of one who has gazed at fear
so long that it has lost its terrors. The
pastors wife noticed one odd thing.
When they waited in the little study,
the woman drew off her gloves and
slipped Il wedding ring from her left
hand and handed it to tn man.
When they stood up together, side
by side, she began 20 cry silently, the
ing down her cheeks. 1t was very dis
concerning and not at all in keeping
with the JOY of wedlock. But the man
put his arm around her, as he held,
one hand in his, and he patted her
gently while the pastor read the
words that bound them.
When it was over, and they stood
for the usual conventional chat before
leaving, the man said suddenly:
You don't remember US, do you,
Pastor Van Kirk? And yet you mar
ried us here in this same little room
for that reason. l had not seen my
wife fer many years until few days
ago. You don't even remember the
name. and yet we caused you trouble
and notoriety at the time"
And suddenly Mrs. Van Kirk leaned
forward, her brown eyes full of inter
est and sparkle.
Il know, I know now, and I've been
wondering all this time. You are the
rich young man and the little nurse
from Bellevue, aren't you?"
He laughed, and laid his arm around
her shoulders again, and the pastor
eyed them intently. Theirs had been
the only exciting romance OF all his
years at the parsonage. And she had
| been so pretty, ah, but so pretty. he
could see her now, with her blonde
| hair: a little damp from the spring
rain as she put back her veil, and her
/ eyes like stars when they looked at
! the man. And he had been very
| young, too, twenty-one, and very much
| in love. 1t was not until the day after
/ the wedding that he had known who
! they were. Then it was spread over
the front pages of newspapers and the
/ little gray church had been subjected
to notorietyk Names meant nothing to
| him. He had not recognized Spencer
Morton as a famous name, he had not
known he was uniting the only son of
one of New York's greatest million
aires with Dora Bishop, a probation
nurse at Bellevue.
And when the father had visited
him, all he had made answer in his
| proud, calm way, was. this:
q pray God 1 have brought them to
the gate of happiness"
| Now he gazed at the two faces and
asked:
i What happened? You have come
/ back again. What for?''
4 Because I was a coward" answer
ed Morton quietly My father threat
and I agreed to give up my wife if he
would take me into the business as
partner I believed I could make
good and win him around, but when
1 told her what 1 had done, and went
to the place where I had left her, she
haG gone. I did not find her again
until three nights ago.
Perhaps you remember how we
met. | had been In an accident, and
was taken to Bellevue, where no one
knew me. 1 was unconscious and
later on, delirious, and Dora was my
nurse. When my mother found me
there and had me removed, L asked
for the nurse to accompany me until
1 was we'll, and we loved. That was
all I did wrong to persuade her to ]
secret marriage. I was a coward Bu
for nine years 1 kept up the search
for her Do you know what it is tC
lie awake haunted by the thought OF
the one you love alone and unprotect-
ed somewhere? To have millions tt
do with and realize the uselesSness OF
money, to learn that the only things
worth living for are those rftat money
cannot buy2 And all these years while
1 have been searching for her she has
lived in seclusion, cared for. yes, but
believing I had died abroad. Ny fathel
told her this"
Your father?'' repeated Mrs Val
Kirk eagerly. He found herr"
Eyes, he found her. answered Nor
ton slowly. HE died a month ago.
must not speak i'll of him. but onl,
this: Believing that she was acting a.
private nurse in a sanitarium out west
she was really a prisoner there. NJ.
father secured a divorce for me on th'
grounds of insanity in the state wher'