The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-10-19
EVENING STORY
More Than a Home.
(By Keith Kenyon.)

self tonight" he pronounced medita-
lively.
A faint flush warmed her cheeks.
Her emotions were always thus as
through a sweet transparency.
1T is your hair" he said again.
you haven't a crimp or curl. And
that dark gown, plain around the neck
you look five years older. L don
like it either"
She spoke her answer firmly, altho
her redness deepened. Il think Mr..
Halden likes it, she said.
is for Halden? 1t disturbs him to see
you look so young-is that it? He re-
calls the days when he was your age
fifty years ago, say The look IN
her eyes stopped him. They always
chaffed, but there was something diff
ferent in this something sharper.
81 will not quarrel with you, she
said, ''for we are too old friends" That
was true. They were the best of
friends. He had lent his influence to
secure her the business position which
she held with credit born of eff
cheney, and she had in return shown
him many tactful, womanly little
favors.
What is it about Halden, then,
Julia?" he asked. Whats up?"
81 Think she answered, Il ought
to dress to please Mr.. Halden if can.
much younger than himself"
"His-wife %
HE has asked me to marry him.
and 1 have made up my mind that I
WILL
DO you care for him ?" They had
scoffed humorously at love; they had
even proved to their own satisfaction
that there was in reality no such
thing.
IT respect him.
You respect the memory of George
Washington, L hope! Heavens, Is
that all you have to say, Julia?"
NO. she answered him, sit is not.
1 am not fraid to tell you, my friend
no, nor ashamed. l am going to
marry Mr.. Halden because II want
a home. I don't want this always
The room was agreeable, but it was
lor.
He murmured, with frowning
brows: No. Well?"
Mrs. Denton-you met her, you
know-has sent for me to come to
Boston and take position her hus-
ter one, and 1 should have gone, but
Mr.. Halden," she hesitated, had
spoken"
You mentioned that" he remarked
tartly
II could go to Boston," she said, cor
to London, or Paris, but that would
not help me. l should be no nearer
home. 1 am tired; that is it. 1
want somebody that I shall have the
right to depend on and trust. What
it would be to have somebody always
to see to checking my trunk and make
bargains with hackmen and-and al
ways to pay my street car fare-what
it would bel"
He felt baff1ed He suffered from
an unreasonable but burning spleen
But" he cried with energy Hal
deni If there must be a victim, why
of all men Halden?''
Because he wants to be the VIC
TIM" she returned.
Probably he thinks he does. Most
men have spasms of mental aberra-
ton, and this is Halden's. Julia, you
would never take advantage of it?
Julia, you couldn'tr' He got back his
old way with her-which lay between
banter and bullying-and with it his
hold on himself He warmed to his
subject.
Married." he said. "Halden mar
ried! It's inconceivable. 1t is ap-
palling."
Many thanks"
"Oh, you might not make him much
more miserable than any other woman
would But, Julia, do you know how
Halden puts in his timer
HE spends some of it.
Here, yes, that is a serious symp-
tom of his attack of Iunacy, but
what has he been doing for the last
L won't undertake to say how many
years? Why, lounging around the
club and absorbing the news and re-
freshing liquids; going to an occa-
sfonal stag dinner, and getting new
cures for his gout-or neuralgia is
it? And taking hand at poker now
and then with the boys, and smoking
on
and politics. That" Perry said, lis
what Haldcn does. and he's done it
till it is habit with him, like eating
and breathing. 1t would be a smaller
undertaking to throw a steam engine
off its track than to shunt Halden off
his And what would it result for
Halden? Misery
He seems willing to risk it," she
observed.
willing. I tell you it is
ms loss OF mental equilibrium. In
such case, there is degeneration of
the gray cells in the fore part of the
cerebrun, and strange Authorizations
are the outcome. Any doctor could
make it clear 10 you. And you would
take advantage of it? 1 cannot credit
it."
She threw back her head and
laughed.
Don't laugh, I mean it," he said
sharply, ana for space his eyes look
ed into hets- the long look burned
its way thru the something that ha d
interposed ever between .then1-the
fHmsy barrier which their ignorance
and their Eeedlessness had reared
Jula- he faltered- The door
bell rang
1T is Mr.. Halden," she said, with
trembling lips Must you go %
Nine days later, sitting in his office
in the heavy gloom and the dullness
winch Tor the past week had held him,
I n
Julia Lamont, and it was brief
L am going to Boston this after
noon. Good-by."
''Good-byi" he muttered, ffercely
sowing But all his apathy had fled
on the instant She was going to
Boston. Mhat did th.t meau2 He