The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1918-01-12
True Blue
a.
By R. Knorl
By R. Knon


"What a fine sunsetl' Harry Still
well pointed to the red and orange
western sky. His companion sighed,
but said nothing, as with his back to
the window he was carefully putting
away his engraver's tools.
"Poor fellow, 1 forgot he's color
blind" Harry muttered, then contin-
ued louder: "But, say, Ed, don't you
see any of the colors out there?'
Edward Dalton shook his head.
life is to me one long gray day. OF
course, l don't know just how you nor
mal-eyed people see things. l distin-
guish what you call blue, such as the
sky on a clear sunny day, and flowers
like the violet and bluebell, and l also
perceive what you call yellow. But
all the other colors you speak of are
to me only so many variations of gray,
more or less luminous. What you call
color, 1 call degrees of light and
shade"
"And there you have the immense
advantage over us in our profession"
said Stillwell, to smooth away his
LuOusulltSS QuGSllOu ludl Luu pulntu
his friend. 'When in engraving we
don't know whether a color should
come out light or dark, you see the
right tone at once Are you going to
Maud Lenders dance this EVENING""
He had abruptly changed the subject.
"She asked me to come, so l suppose
I must" answered Dalton, with little
eagerness to go.
The two young men left the studio
together. For the length of a whole
block Stillwell dilated on the charms
of Miss Leander, limiting that he was
the preferred sutton to the hand of the
heiress. Dalton listened in silence;
but at the first corner he turned down
a by-street to escape from his loqua-
cious companion.
Edward Dalton, the c%ongenial color
blind, spoke truth when he said that
life was to him one long gray day.
Morbidly sensitive to his visual defect,
he was becoming moody and unsocia-
BILE. He imagined that he lost more
of the joys of life than he perhaps
really did. And he found scant com
PCLShNlOh IL NllC ldNl lAOI liz CS NNlC
exquisitely alive to form, to the lumi-
Mostly of the colors he did not see and
hence to gradations of light and shade
imperceptible to his many friends. The
latter gift, characteristic of the color
blind, made him invaluable to his en-
plOyer and had won him a fine posi-
ton. And yet his hours away from his
work were more than ever given over
to gloomy thoughts. For he felt him
self handicapped in striving for the
prize of life. And the fairest of these
was at that very moment an object
of rivalry among his friends.
Maud Leander was the prettiest girl
in town and an heiress besides. A
handsome fortune had been left her by
an eccentric maiden aunt on condition
that she be engaged on her t~wenty-ifth
birthday. Otherwise the money was to
revert to some charity. An easy
enough condition to fulfill, one would
think, for a girl of Maud's popularity.
And, indeed, suitors were not lacking.
Many of them were merely fortune
hunters. Annoyed by the persistence
of these Maud had grown to dislike
them all, and had vowed not to marry
any one among them.
There was only n young man in
town Maud cared to think of SIS her
future husband. But Edward Dalton
kept aloof. The sense of his infirmity
hung over him. And, moreover, the
thought Of her money kept him back
He detested fortune-hunting. Had she
been poor as he was he might have
asked her to share his growing pros
poets. The heiress could not ask. Yet
he loved Maud and vas miserable be
cause he would not tell her so.
Maud OWNED his feelings from the
shy Difference with which he ap,
preached her, in grateful contrast tc
the tongue worship of her suitors. She
therefore made up her mind either tc
marry him or to let the money go and
remain a bachelormaid. But he would
not speak, and she dared not, for feal
of seeming unmaidenly in his eyes
while the fatal birthday was fast ap
preaching, and a score of young mel
hung on her decision.
Dalton went unwillingly to thu
dance. 1t tormented him to see he
surrounded by that throng of flatterers
all unworthy of her, n of whom
would soon carry off the prize. 1
never occurred to him that he stool
a better chance than any Of them.
AS he entered the room Maud wal
chatting with Stillwell. But she Olsen
gagged herself Immediately and beck
oned to him.
I'm so glad you've come" she salC
cordially. "This first dance belongs Il
you" and off she went with him, leav
ing Stillwell to gaze after her as If hi
rightful property had been snatcheC
from him. His frowns promised moth
ing good to his friend. AS he watched
them swing around the an ugl.
thought took shape in his mind. Seiz