The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-02-07
The EDening Story
The Gray Sweater Girl.


of superstition about him that he d
been hadd to keep IN check by level
headed, practical Elizabeth, his wife
However, it was not pure superstition.
He had an odd idea that when luck or
chance threw anything in his way It
was his duty to make his life sub
servient to that chance until the end
in view was attained.
The thing that Elizabeth found
hardest to keep down was his pen
chant for signs to be followed. lie
was always looking for something.
Sometimes the signs were good he
got many good plot for stories that
way), but oftener they We're bad, and
Bryan was likely to go off at IAN
gent at any time.
Elizabeth stuck by him dutifully, a
good, solid anchor for this poor craft
so often storm-tosSed on the sea Of
Imagination. She was Il splendid
heIpmate for such a temperamental
person, but not only that, for she had
made his house a wonderful place TO
live in, even in days when acceptances
were few and far between and she
had had to do the cooking herself.
Then slowly, but surely-wiIh good
meals to nourish him and IL devoted
wife who even took the unpleasant
ness of business off his shoulders and
who often sat up until the most IN
holy hours, with coffee and sand
witches ready when he should stop
writing-success had come and he had
slowly mounted the ladder of fame.
But will you believe me when 1
tell you that after ten years of lie
votion on Elizabeth's part Bryan still
had a doubt He wondered if he rad
not made a mistake in marrying her.
And this is why.
One day long ago. much after he
same fashion country maid writes
her name on a newly-laid egg and
ships it off to market, he wrote his
name across the corner of q freshly
Numbered silk handkerchief and he
low it the mystic letters 1T. NJ. +. W.
which meant something very senti-
mental-"To My Future Wife,
Il am going to let chance pick ny
wife for me-" said he, laying the white
bit on the window ledge. The wind
will blow it off at a certain time
there begins chance. And a dozen
people will pass it by-chance aGain-I
and a girl will pick it up--still chance
for if the writing side is hidden no
oT& will touch it, but if the writing is
exposed only a woman would be OBJ
servant enough and curious enough
will impel her to take it home. And
that's where 1 come in. 1 must watch
and see who gets my handkerchief
and follow her. Then comes chance
aSaln-sne may De HidrIi3u' put l
think not. When luck has played
into my hands so far she won't turn
her back upon me then Here goes.
And Bryan has watched the white
thing flutter to the pavement, lie
awhile and finally lifted by 4 girl in
stuffed the handkerchief into her
pocket after reading the name. He
gra bbed his hat and rushed to the
street. He had not seen the girls
-.f TOO T1..1
in clothes so easily identified.
However, at this point luck turned
against him in spite of his predictions
and laughed loud and long, Tor he
couldn't find the girl in the gray
sweater, cap and scarf.
The months went on and he married
Elizabeth. He had grown up with
Elizabeth and had always liked his
little neighbor, but her sensible, prac-
teal ways he had never associated
self a passionate, romantic sort OF
creature as a proper mate for a poet
Elizabeth was the first person he
had gone to with his secret OF the
handkerchief, but she could not help
him to identify his chance affinity
She had not laughed at the idea, but
told him how futile it would be to
find the girl he sought. Girls don't
look at advertisements she said.
! They had eventually drifted into
cred that she really did inspire him
to work. and, second, because he
found she was so pretty and enter
tanning he liked to have her around.
But always he had the feeling that he
should have married the girl in gray.
Not that he wasn't fond, very, very
fond of Elizabeth, but chance had
meant it to be another way anf-
something, probably his own stupldlty,
had sent things wrong.
iY--ff limo in :.
Elizabeth had to be away. Somebody
was sick or dead, and Bryan, minus
his companion. business manager ana
general comforter, was like newly
decapitated fowl At the end of three
days he was beginning to realize what
she was to him He mad never
dreamed he could miss her so much,
and he waited impatiently for a tele-
gram saying she was coming home.
He thought of her engagement book
in her desk. She would not mind him
CHANGING over it, he knew, and it
might give him an idea of her re-
turn. But he could not find it 1t
was not in any of the pigeonholes or
small drawers above. Perhaps the
deeper drawer below would hold it.
So he turned the key and pulled it
open. He started back, staring as
though he had seen a ghost, for there |
on top of few packets of old letters /
lay a silk handkerchief with his name /
and the mystic letters in the corner. /
Slowly he reached out and touched it /
to see if it were real. Then he lifted 1
it, staring with unbelief in the words /
"Ronnyi" exclaimed a woman's /
voice in the doorway I'm so glad I
to get backl Why, Ronny, what's the /
matter. you look-Oh, goodness. did /
you find that stupid old handkerchief |
after ali? 1 wish I'd burned it,
Elizabeth" His face was radiant |
and he clasped her to him as though /
he would never let her go. You were /
the gray-sweater girl and you never |
told me-
.-Well-what if 1 didn't? Are you /
glad to see me because I'm the gray
sweater girl or because I'm me?'s
ssRofh