The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-31
LETTERS OF
TWO WOMEN
From Kate Osway, Business Girl, to
May Bond, Wife.
BY ZOE BECKLEY.
New OH,
Friday the Something.

Friday the Something.
May Dearest:
l loved your letter about the chick
en- and your other culinary Difficult
ties. But l shall dismiss il with
passing giggle and go back to the pre-
ceding one in which you say, Can
didly your dark foreigner does not
sound promising; he sounds interest
ing" Well, DEAR in heavens name
1 ask you what could be more prom
Using than something interesting?
Aren't most of us girls simply dying
of lack of interest? Don t we run
away from home or get into love en-
tangleme nts or take jobs as mattresses
or go on the stage or flirt with mar
ried men or marry out of sheer bored
ness? Aren't we like Shaw's young
woman in "Misalliance, who would
rather be comprcr used thai have
nothing happen, year in, year out
Aren't we?
A girl at the office came to me the
other day, crying to break her heart,
imploring me to tell her what to do.
where to go, how to face life and the
trouble that was ahead of her. !
comforted her in the conventional
way.
/ got my rich aunt, who is head Of
a home for girls or some such htdeous
asylum, to befriend and provide for
her. for she has no close relatives of
her own. But in my heart, Maize, !
almost envied that girl!
At least life had singled her out for
high adventure! At least she would
not die of dry rot! At least she had
something tt thrill her, if only terror
You ma think I'm crazy to talk
this way. I am not. May. I'm only
tired of things. So tired that for two
cents I'd throw over everything and
1 come out to Kerryville and bawl in
your lap. You don't know what's the
! matter with me. or why I rave thus
wildly. Well. dear, be patient, ana
I'll give you the whole mixed-up
story. It's a relief to tell IT, aItno
you'll have to excuse me if l sound
& ,rambIed I've thought until my
brains numb.
Ther.'dark foreigner affair has
s71ddenly and unexpectedly turned
serious I entered into sort OF mr.
tatious friendship with him on the
rebound from quarrel with C j.
I looked no further than the mo-
ment was pleased that this
strange, new kind of man liked me
7 tried to make him like me. Girls
always try to make men like them.
7 tried extra hard. first to soothe my
injured feelings &C. j. had been par
ticularly unkind); second, because 1t
flattered me to have man VINO nau
not noticed any other girl in the
office notice me; third, because l
knew him to be tremendously odu-
Gated and all kinds of a highbrow;
fourthIy. because l wanted to be
flirted with There
He asked me to dine with him one
night. 1t was about our third or
fourth meeting. We went to an in
teresting place way down town in
narrow street, where writers gather
and all the women smoke-not that
it's anything new for a woman to
smoke but these women did it as
necessity, not as a fad. They didn't
pose over it. They just smoked.
Afterward we rode up town on top
of a Fifth avenue bus 1t was a
glorious night, all moonlight and
romance, and 1 was filled with the
excitement of getting acquainted"
We were new to each other And
how wonderful and stimulating it
was to adventure into each others
minds.
Wen. Maize, I'll make it short.
He proposed to me. At least / think
II was a proposal. II wasn't just a
plain, straight-out viii you marrS
me2" He told me a story, an allie
CORY. of himself and me. The last
chapter was a sketch of the future
Oh, so fun of charm and sweetness,
May and humor. too. Fancy man
being able to put both charm and
huTnor into a proposali
What shall I do? Shall 1 tell him
about c J.
Your distracted but devoted