The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-12-15
EVENING STORY
A Mutual Confession.
(By Hilda Morris. }

mummy in a glass case 1t was the
mummy of lady, painted cheerfully
in patterns of red and blue and yellow
with a discreet touch OF gold 1t was
a fascinating mummy.
wouldn't colors like those be just
the very thing to embroider my dress
With" she asked the person opposite.
tern with her. forednger, and did not
look up.
"They certainly would agreed the
individual she had so evidently ap-
Peggy lifted her head with start,
and saw tall young Nman looking at
her rather quizzically.
"Oh-I-I-excuse me. thought
blushing to the brim of her pretty
brown hat The young man bowed
gravely.
Il beg your pardon" he said. ct
thought you were speaking to me,
since there's no one else in sight"
You thought I was speaking to
you when we've not even metz" Peg
gy repeated, looking very indignant.
Why, IL wouldn't-Tm not that
kind of a person! My sister was here
a minute ago, and 1 thought
1t was the young mans turn to look
embarrassed.
st didn't think for a minute you
were any kind of person who is not
twinkle in his eyes You see. real
appreciation of art is a sort of bond
between people. I thought that you
were so in love with that mummy
that you just had to share your pleas
ure with some one, and was the only
person around at the moment I am
sorry if offended you. But it would
make stunning embroidery pattern.
Did you want it for a border?"
''Yes,'' Peggy nodded. She had q
fna1iOor that she nl1Obt IN rim. ayVaV.
but he seemed like a gentleman, and
he was getting out paper and pencil
Almost before she knew it she was
watching him sketch the border for
her-lotus, bud and scroll. It seemed
that he was an artist, and his name
was Morton-Arnold Morton.
| of course, it was all very improper
for her to stay there with him, but it
was quite pleasant. When sister Har
riet returned she found them chatting
promised to color the border and
bring it around to Peggy some eve
ming that week. Altogether, it was a
livery exciting adventure.
Where did you meet Mr.. Morton ?"
Harriet asked as they walked home.
Harriet was an older sister, with
responsible feeling of chaperonage for
Peggy's nineteen years.
Peggy blushed and murmured some
guilty thing about the office. After
any man. Now that fate, in the form
of a mummy, had brought this one
into her life, why should she. object to
him because they had not been prop
terly introduced.
"He seems like nice young man."
Harriet commented, and sighed softly.
There had been no nice young men
in her life. She was thirty-five, and
had kept house for all the others. 1t
had -hurt5lher that Peggy-pretty,
kgelden-haired Peggy-should have to
work in an office and have no So
I clad life. Now, perhaps-Harriet
| dreamed for Peggy the things she
Cared not dream for herself.
Peggy was half afraid that Mr..
Morton would forget to call, or think
I better of it. But he came. They
spent an evening in the living room of
the sisters little apartment, Harriet
| having gone to Red Cross meeting,
and Peggy played for him and sang
She even got out an old portfolio of
! drawings she had made in school and
showed them to him. He said she
had talent, and pretty hair and-oth-
er things. He asked her to go to a
lecture with him the following eve
ming.
'Mr. Morton is very intellectual
4 young man, isn't he?" Harriet asked,
as Peggy dressed the next evening.
! IT'S SO nice to go to lectures, instead
of silly plays or moving pictures"
Yes. agreed Peggy, Il suppose he
! is intellectual"
During the weeks that followed.
/ Arnold Morton came very often to the
| little apartment, and he and Peggy
spent many evenings at lectures and
| concerts, many Sunday afternoons at
art galleries and museums. Some
times they had little suppers together
| at very quiet places, and sometimes
/ he came home with Peggy for Welsh
rarebit and Harriet's hot biscuits. Al
| together, they spent delightful au-
| tumn together.
! But sometimes Peggy wondered a
little. There was a lot of new plays
she couldn't help longing to see; also
the graceful beauties pictured in the
Sunday papers and the magazines
\ She couldn't help wishing to hear the
latest music and see the newest dances
Arnold, however, seemed to have nc
thought for anything that was not
Ecultural in the way of amusement
Music, pictures, exhibitions of old for
niture and rugs, all of these appealed
to him as worthy forms of entertain
ment And so Peggy tried to put more
frivolous desires out of her mind
she sought earnestly to cultivate her
interest in things worth while" She
equal if she could. She even got books
from the library on such subjects as
the history of art, the theory of color
and modern music. She puckered heI
pretty D1OW over them ana
them interesting, in their way.
after ALL" she used to tell her
self, you're learning an awful lot
Peggy Andrews. You ought to be
glad Arnold isn't like everybody else
Most any man can take a girl to mus
zeal comedy and talk about the
chorus, but not very many know al
about pictures and etchings and
things, like Arnold"
i And so, after a while Peggy thought
that she had quite stifled her desire
for frivolous pleasures. She even fell
superior when she heard the other
girls in the office talking about the
favorites of the moving picture worlc
, or the latest hits in musical comedy
One evening just before she left the
office Arnold telephoned her, his voice
sounding strangely excited
Gould you have dinner with me
without going homer" he asked Eve