The Topeka state journal., 1916-12-28
EVENING STORY
Spangles for Spaghetti.
(By Osborn Jones.)


past twice a week. If it wasn't a
case of love at first sight it was some
thing very much like it. Hildegarde
Henry had arrived little late-the
boss had kept her at dictation later
that night than usual-on that first
afternoon in November, and the fact
that the only vacant chair in the
room was next to young Alonzo Ar
mold was very good reason why she
took her place there. Yet as the pret-
ty little light brown lady-her hair
and eyes and suit and hat were all of
the same soft hue-walked toward his
chair and sat herself there he could
not help but feel that she had favored
him of all the other young men in the
class, drawn as if by an intangible at
traction to him. Perhaps he showed
a touch of self consciousness that be-
tokened pleasure. Once on that first
day she smiled at him. To be sure it
was when the Spanish instructor had
asked him how he did, in Spanish, and
he had stammered out his '.Muy bien,
senor,' with particularly Yankee in
Election. Everybody in the room had
smiled, but her smile was the one that
counted. He had caught her eyes and
smiled a little, too. That was the in
PRODUCTION.
After a few lessons they exchanged
a Good evening when they met, for
they continued to occupy the neigh
they became acquaintances. and then
friends, and then Alonzo accompanied
her to the subway station every even
ing after class. One evening toward
the first of December he told her he
liked her better than any other girl
he had ever met before, and she had
smiled and said something about al
ways having liked big. courageous
men, tho Alonzo was not quite either
But there the matter stopped for a
| while.
Perhaps this was because about the
| fifth meeting of the class Alonzo had
remarked harmessly enought that he
thought the course of Spanish very
/ helpful and Hildegarde had said:
! siYes. it would help SO if one went, to
| Spain, or Mexico. or South America
Yes AIonzo had said. TT would
! be splendid trip to take, to go to
| Spain, or South America, or Mexico
and the girl is known to have said yes
and then added something about just
| doting on travel. Then:
Now, / have told you why I am
| studying Spanish. why are you?'
/ Alonzo might have said that it was
| because he had read a certain adver-
tisement in the paper to the effect
that Spanish stenographers were re-
| ceiving from 40 to SO per cent more
than the ordinary sort of stenogra-
1 pliers and that it was in order to make
| an opening for his own advancement
| that he was devoting himself to the
| new commercial tongue. After the
| girls remark about travel this seemed
| too prosaic. He wanted her to imagine
! that he was a broker or lawyer at
least. He didn't look just like a stem
| ographer, he assured himself
well, you see, I have interests in
Mexico he said. True, he had once
bought one share in Mexican oil
well that had never paid dividends.
Zone can never tell when one might
have to look out for ones own prop
erty.'' 1t seemed like harmless de-
| ception.
/ So the affair between Hildegarde
Henry and Alonzo Arnold progressed,
and it grew near Christmas, and AL
! ONO. in spite of the fact that out of
| the SIS a week that he earned as a
| stenographer without Spanish he sent
nine home to his mother, managed to
go to the big department store. and
there he bought fan. 1t was a large,
| sweeping, luxurious fan, such as he
| ina gined the great ladies at the opera
welding as they sat in state in their
| boxes, and it was covered with hun
| dreds of spangles that would catch
and reflect the light like SO many dia-
| monds.
It was after the last lesson before
the holidays that Alonzo made his
| presentation.
He was escorting Hildegarde to the
subway, where she always disappeared
at the close OF their little walks, and
they stood there in the misty night
air with the stream of traffic hurrying
past them. Alonzo tucked the little
package under her arm. Its some
thing I hope you will like he said,
and then a little warm brown-gloved
hand went into his overcoat pocket
and left something there
It's just little.'' she said, "but
you can wear them with your evening
clothes-' Then they stood and smiled
at each other At that moment
/ Alonzo had almost courage enough to
ask her the important question, but
the fact that Hildegarde lima gined him
to possess evening clothes put him
suddenly in mind of the gulf that he
| knew must lie between them. If he
proposed he would have to let her
} know that he was not a broker or
lawyer or an oil well owner. but Just
a stenographer. Still. as she smiled
out of those brown eyes, he was en-
boldened Very soon l shall have to
ask you great question" he began.
She turned her face away. No,
don't" she begged, and with pres
sure of her warm little hand on his
arm she left and Joined the stream
that swept down into the subway.
During the Christmas week there
were no classes in Spanish, and that
week seemed long. But Alonzo, in
buying the spangled fam had used up
he had dined on 25-cent dinners for
flour days he grew hungry. He might
. have sent less of his wage to his
5 mother, but this A1onzo was too duti-
full to do So In his hunger his eyes
fell on those studs the girl had given
him. He could not possibly use them
now, and there on the bureau they
could only serve to remind him of the
igulf that kept her from him. They