The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-01-16
EVENING STORY


/
where it had come from.
The neighborhood was far from
fashionable Rows of second-rate
apartment houses lined both sides of
the street, with stores on the ground
/ floors and the elevated tracks be-
tween them. But as he looked up he
caught glimpse of a face at a sec
ond-Story window, face that
matched the rose. Young and very
| girlish it was, with eyes full of mis-
| chief and dismay, too, seeing him with
| the rose in his hand. Just moment
and 1t was out of sight in the room
back of the window
Bartram went up the long stairs to
| the elevated railway station with
| curious tingling at his heartstrings
| Romance did not usually stalk his
| footsteps He led a monotonous sort
of life, day in and day out. There
was the three-and-a-ha lf-a-week room
on side street near the park, his
! meals caught at hazard here and there
wherever he happened to be during
the day, and the business routine at
the office where he filled a niche as
eastern sales manager.
All the way downtown and during
the days work he was wildly con-
scious of the rose in his waistcoat
pocket. Several times he surrepti-
tiously look it out and looked at it
| when he was alone in the office Its
| fragrance brought forth memories of
| other roses. Back home in Georgia
his mother had had a beautiful old
time rose garden. He could remem-
Der its tagged walks, with grass and
| myrtle growing up between the rock
! crevices, and Towering almond bushes
on each side. Her dresses made a soft
/ swishing sound she passed along
and he walked behind her, a lad of
nine or ten, just after sunaown. He
had not been home since her death
| Then came another rose memory
| The girl he had banked all his hopes
| on-oh, but that was years ago. He
had been twenty. just fresh up from
the south in New York life. She had
| seemed like a rose to him. tall and
brilliant and full of grace He knew
that money lay between them, but
| when she had led him on, he had
| imagined the miracle might happen
| that she might love him. She had low
ed roses. not the pink ones, but Amer
| lean beauties and the dark red Jacque-
| minots. He had used his last dollar
many a time buying them for her. And
then when he had finally mustered up
the courage to tell her, she had laugh
ed at him, and told him not to be a
foolish boy.
The next morning when he came to
the newsstand at the foot of the ele-
| waited stairs he glanced up at the win
dow. There was no sign of the face he
wanted to see and he rode downtown,
feeling the joy of the day gone.
seeking to meet her Once he caught
a glimpse of her from the station plat
form, but she recognized him and
slipped back into the room out OF
| sight. Then toward the end of the
week there came a sudden, blessed re-
lief A small, discreet sign hung in
the upper lefthand corner of one win
dow.
Room to Let
Bartram took his noon hour, and
went up to engage the room The door
in the second hallway was opened by
a middle-aged woman, pleasant faced
and hopeful. Yes, she had room to
let, the front bedroom off the parlor,
very airy, light and clean. The young
lady who had occupied 1t before had
just left
be so unkind? He followed her into
the little front bedroom. 1t was scru-
pulously clean, as she had said. In
small glass tray on the bureau lay a
few rose leaves, withered, and two gilt
|, hairpins. =.
Nothing happened to her. I hope?'
he said slowly.
ooh. nothing contagious. sir" re-
piled the woman. "She was just hurt
a little bit in an automobile accident
run down on Columbus circle She.s
at the hospital now, but you mustn
be afraid of that. 1t don't hurt the
room a bit"
NO" Bartram answered. I'll take
the room II expect to be called out
of town for little while, but I'll keep
the room"
, He paid a couple of weeks in ad-
vance, got the name of the hospital
and went out on the. street again
From a booth in a cigar store he tele-
phoned to the office. They must ex-
cuse him that afternoon. He was not
we'll and had gone home. That done
he started for the hospital. He had
her name now, Dorothy Bennett. II
| sounded like the name of a girl who
loved roses At the desk he asked FOL
her. They looked up the name, said
: it had been an emergency case brought
in during the night. She was not bad
ly injured. He could go up to the
{ ward and see her. Bartram held
tightly the big cluster of pink roses
he had bought and made his way to
the elevator.
r At the door of the ward a nurse di-
rected him to the right cot, and he
tiptoed to it cautiously. She was
sleeping. Her hair was braided III
two girlish plaits down her shoulders
She looked pale and wistful There
were no flowers on the little stand be-
side her. After Bartram had sat dowr
the nurse took the roses and brought
4 them back in a tall green glass vase
Then he waited. And sitting there
beside her, there stole over him 8
curious uplifting sense of love an6
protectorship.
When she opened her eyes withou
stirring there was no alarm or sur
prise in them. She smiled at him
ever so little, and looked at the rose,
understa ndingly.
st wondered if you'd find OUT she
said I'm not hurt much"
, Bartram told her of the sign on he
empty room, and how it had led hin
up the dark stairs to find her. Then
as the minutes passed, he found him
self telling more, right from thai
morning when the rose had fallen a
his feet, and he tried to let her know
what it had meant to him, with th'
e glimpse of her face at the window.
Dorothy smiled up at him when h
- left, and watched him as he went dow
g the room. It had been horribly lone
- w. coming into the strange hospita
h.