The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-12-12
EVENING STORY
Hunting for Romance.

.Sn0 naQ taken up SlelOSTdpAly III
the first place because she had to
support herself, and the next because
a girl had given her a list of eighteen
millionaires who had married their
stenographers and loaded them do .
with love and diamonds. The eighteen
did not comprise the full list, but were
all that the girl could think of at
moments notice.
Miss Eileen took the place at White
& Company's without making any in
quiries of a social nature. She rea-
soned without any reason for reason
ing that Mr.. White was waiting to adj
mire, love and marry her. In fact. she
made out in her day dream that he
had been Tilted several years before,
and that he would tell her all about il
when they came to talk in confidence.
She had the honeymoon trip all
planned.
Mr.. White proved to be a fat man.
whose eyes could not see how his feet
were getting on. He had been mar
ried twenty-one years, and had often
been made to wish that he had never
married at all. So had his wife. He
was blunt and brusque.
Mr.. White entered the office after
the new stenographer had waited an
hour. and lin a voice that could be
heard miles and miles away he said:
mot cent for the Salvation
Army!'
mo, sir"
Nothing for the hospitals"
mo. sir
And don't show me any sample
subscription book,"
mo, sir.
Then why don't you go?"
Because, sir, you hired me as your
stenographer yesterday"
Then you ought to have said so
long ago. Get to work.
Was there any romance there :?
81
And the company" was a man 20
years old, who never came near the
office, but often sent down a note to
his partner, reading:
L am glad that business is good,
but don't let that lazy stenoSra pher
loaf on youi"
The bookkeeper? He was ) years
old and shaky in the knees, and ex
pected to he fired at any moment.
His assistant? He was callow and
crosseyed and his mother had for
hidden him to have a dream-book or
a romance.
The shipping clerk? He was en-
gagged to three girls already, and his
salary of eight dollars per week was
undergoing a terrible strain.
But did Miss Eileen despair? You
don't know her if you think she did.
She'd look for her bread and butter
inside and her romance outside.
And there was Guy Taylor, a young
man of twenty-three. He had been
romantic from his babyhood up, and
six years as floor-walker in a depart
ment store hadn't worked a cure. He
had a moderate salary, and he had to
live in a moderate way, but the idea
was ever present that some rich wo
man, young or old, was going to of er
him her hand and heart-and her
lends. 1t might be on his personality,
and it might be for saving her life
He rather hoped that it would be for
the latter, for he was true knight at
heart At his boarding house he had
let it be known that his true name
was Brian D'Artagan, but out of def
erence to the owner of the store he
had temporarily dropped it for that of
Taylor.
Rich ladies came to the store-rich,
young ladies and rich old ones-and
the floor-walker pulled down his vest
and met them with the smile that
wouldn't come off. But just as sure
as one of them fell and rolled down
the basement stairs he was at the rear
end of the store blowing up sales
girl for some cause or other, and the
rescue was made by someone else.
One evening Miss Eileen Danvers
had a presentiment as she rode from
White & Company to her boarding
house 1t wasn't that the landlady was
going to pick the cotton batting out of
the gas burners and enable her guests
to get around their rooms without a
guide to New York. But 1t was that
her romance was due.
When Mr. Guy Taylor left the store
he had that very same feeling, and he
whistled and hummed.
When Miss Eileen had finished her
prunes and tea and retired to her
room she decided to help romance
along a bit. She therefore, by the
light of the gas jet. penciled the fol-
lowing note:
"a young and innocent girl has been
kidnapped and is being held prisoner
in a room on the second floor of No.
4S2 Whoever finds this hand it to the
nearest policeman. L am in terrible
situation"
This note was dropped out of the
window and went fluttering down until
it reposed on the flagstones. and was
picked up only after a full hundred
pedestrians had walked over it.
And was the name of the man that
picked it up Guy Taylor, who was out
for an evening stroll and ready to
meet his romance half way?
1t was. He picked it up from force
of habit and he started to read 1t
without a jot of curiosity. When he
had finished his hair was curling.
Here was romance at last.
Hand it to the nearest policeman!
Not if his true name was D Artagan !!
He would make the rescue alone and
unaided. or he would perish trying
He looked up. and the number 4S2
stared him in the face. Up the steps
at three hops The door was not
locked Up the stairs. and half way
M he met the landlady. This person
was fat and solid, and weighed zoo
mounds She was not near-sighted-
She saw at a glance that the floor
walker was a stranger, and as he tried
to elbow her aside she took him by the
neck. In their struggles both rolled
down into the hall, and both shouted
for the police
The police came. They drew the
| fighters apart, and as soon as Mr.
TAYLOR could get his breath he told his
| story and exhibited the note The
| police went bounding upstairs, and he
went bounding after them.