The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-09-21
EVENING STORY
The Fathers Helper.
(BS Osborn Jones.)

all his vows of devotion he thought
his struggles to win her as his wife
were practically over. Madeleine was
visiting boarding school chnm when
the romance occurred, and for that
reason, perhaps. Dick had forgotten
that Madeleine probably possessed
parents and that those parents might
have something to say before permit
ting their eighteen-year-old beauty to
become Mrs. Dick Stoner. But Dick
knew that, as parents usually rated
ns-in-law-to-be, he was not unde-
sirable. His record at college and in
business since then, tho not actually
! brilliant, was clean and progressive,
i and any father-in-law or mother-in-
| law-to-be would not have much diff
! Guilty in discovering that his share of
| the Stoner fortune was a large one.
| So it seemed as if the matter was
settled till. after a sudden burst of en-
thusiasm on the part of Madeleine, as
| they sauntered in and out around the
/ sand dunes at the seashore, she sud-
denly changed her tone and her eyes
grew round.
| "Pd forgotten about father" she
| said. He will never let us do anything
we wan- to-we are great trial to
| him, you know, and don't know how
in the world can ever be married If
he doesn't consent. 1 just couldn't
! elope."
Dick didn't like this intrusion of ar
Directing father-in-law. 1t was much
nicer hearing Madeleines guileless
! praise of his own many virtues and
good features. So he tried to persuade
her that the father whom he had
never seen was not such gruff sort
after all and that it would be an easy
matter to bring him around.
You haven't any idea how strict he
is" Madeleine protested. He's pro-
fessor of psychology and this year he's
trying to write his greatest book and
and we'll, it is very hard to be the
\ fa Of Arthur
and Bennett and write a book on
psychology. It's hard to be the father
of five daughters anyhow, he says,
especially when they are the kind of
daughters that we are"
why can't he shift RESPONSE bill
ties till the book is done?" suggested
Dick. Couldn't your mother man.
age to keep you within bounds?"
"Oh, mothers just as busy as she
can be mending us and darning us
and planning meals and things She
has mothers helper to help her
and still she never seems to have time
. to breathe. And poor old father said
he was going to try to get a fathers
helper'-to make his task of being our
, father easy. just as mother does with
her mothers helper So far he has
MT found any one that wants the
job"
what would that fathers helper
have to do?" asked Dick, rather
: amused at the turn of Madeleine's
) conversation.
; "Oh, 1 suppose he would have to
: help Bennett with his Greek and spank
Arthur, and he'd have to come to
:. meals and see that we were all there
l and maybe say grace, and sometimes
4 just happen in the drawing room
: when Minerals suitorS were there
: Minerals the sumner, you know, and
r she has just coolies of suitors. and
mother says that father ought to ap-
e pear once in a while just to show that
!, there is some one keeping track OF
r how often they come. But father
can't stand that sort of thing. And
e l suppose the fathers helper would
l have to scold me sometimes because
1 am so reckless when ! ride-mother
keeps at father to scold me for it, but
) he hates to; and he would have to
scold the servants when mother could
7 MT manage them, and sometimes, il
: one of us girls didn't have an escort
to a dance, / suppose the fathers
helper would have to go with US
: Father ought to, mother says, but he
e hates to-"
I MY Greek is a little rusty" an
nounced Dick, when Madeleine had
finished her monologue, 'but 1 think
z III take that position. You say your
rather hasn't found any one for it. All
I right. I'll make tracks for your place
! tomorrow and by the time you have
come home I'll be installed and per-
haps one of the first things L can do
Will be to show father that it is to his
interest to let his daughter MadeIeine
2 become Mrs. Dick Stoner."
When Madeleine reached home at
the end of that week she found the
4 young man whom her father had re-
y Gently employed to be Identical with
the man to whom she had recently
e become engaged except that he was
! dressed in dark blue serge and her
: fiance had inclined to light tweeds
I. : and white flannels. Besides he spoke
I in voice that was subdued and his
speech was free from slane-not very
? much like the explosive discourse OF
the man to whom she had recently
!. engaged herself And besides the
man she had known at the ,seashore
had been eager to see her alone and
| often, whereas the new inmate of her
| fathers home, after having been in
q | troduced to her, seemed not to notice
her 1t was not till the following day
that they did chance to come upon
d each other in the library
e We mustn't try to meet each other
on the Q. T. at ALL" Dick began.
Those brothers of yours are just the
s sort to find II out, no matter how we
t try to conceal it. We can stand II
e this way for a while. Your father has
h morning. He's especially worried
s about you-you wretch. He tells me
: you worry him SO he can hardly write
e says you ride the widest horse in the
| stan go OH In the WOODS unattended
J. and otherwise render him incapable
Of the high degree of concentration
l. that he needs to complete his book
I He asked me to watch you especially
= and to suggest way to tame you. I'd
y no idea you were such wild creature
: you wonderful. sweetest girl--there
couldn't help it that tirne-but
:, won't steal another till am no longer
e playing THE role. IT would spoil
= everything if any one suspected"
The next communication Madeleine
= had from the new employe was writ
= ten and slipped into her hand as she
"a passed him one evening on the stairs
= 1t was brief and dictatorial. I'm or
e der to accomplish the aim in view yol