The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-09-19

Deen using TO cut the LII eau when She
decides it's long enough. However.
they seem to have got along so far
without modern improvement and
they ought to know their business by
this time.
Anyhow, this story concerns Lache-
sis, who works without instruments.
She simply stands near the spinning
wheel and dabs veal and woe on that
thread and twists it about her fin
gers and ties knots In it. to suit her
own pleasure. 1t has been said that
Clotho and Lachesis and Atropos are
old and. ugly.N OF course, as mortals
reckon, these Fates are old; but years
don't count on Olympus. And as to
ugliness-well. I'm willing to allow
that Atropos has hideous face. and
it's possible Clotho Ii not beautiful.
because her back must be lame and
her eyes faded and her forehead
wrinkled from bending over the SPIN
ming wheel but Observation-Disclosures no
reason why she should be ugly. be-
cause her job furnishes lots of variety
Moreover, she's one of the heroines in
this story, SO she has just got to be
beautiful.
/ The hero is Jack Watson, a mere
mortal who defied Lachesis. She had
decided. soon after Clotho began to
spin the thread. that he should be
old, and she had picked for his bride
girl named Esther Richards. They
were born in the same little town in
OHIO and had one of those school
kid romances; and then, when Jack
was only IL and Esther 8, it ended.
Jack moved with his parents to Co.
| lumbus, where they resided three
years. Jack and Esther wrote occa-
slonally. as children sometimes carry
on a correspondence, but they were
too young to understand about affini-
ties and such things, and gradually
they forgot about each other.
When Jack was fifteen his mother
died ana he moved with his father to
New York. The boy obtained q Job
as office boy with broker and held
and about that time pneumonia
| claimed Mr.. Watson.
When Esther was ten she went with
hera parents to Vancouver. British Co
lumnia, and there they remained until
Tshe was twenty-five,
| Lachesis stood in the workroom of
the Moirae one day. holding Jack
Watson's thread of life in one hand
and Esther Richards in the other
my. how far apart they have drifted.' -
have decided differently"
jack was leaning back on his swivel
chalr with his feet on his desk, in his
own real estate office in Melbourne,
Australia. Was he thinking about Es-
ther? Decidedly not His mind was
full of business of how to travel still
farther on the path of prosperity,
which he already had found.
Esther was reclining on a lounge in
her home in Vancouver. reading a
Red Cross magazine. Did Jack hold
any place in her thoughts? No, moi
even q small corner. They had for
gotten about each others, as / have
said.
That evening Jack went to the Mel
bourne Business club for dinner with
three other prosperous young business
men, all of them married. When the
meal was finished the conversation
turned to matrimony.
How comes it you never got mar
ried, Jack?" asked George Clifford a.
he passed cigars. You're old enough
and have enough coin to make SONS
girl comfortable and happy"
Jack laughed as he lighted the
. weed.
Not me-" he said as he puffet
placidly. "Ill never get married. I'm
going to be a hermit. Do You know
fellows, it's fact that I've never beer
interested bit in the fair sex? I'm
all for business. I'm sincerely op
least"
Clifford, who was five years older
looked over the rims of his glasses
, with slight grimace and inquired
Don't you believe in love? DON
! you believe that every one was mad,
, for some one?"
Another laugh, this time louder ani
: longer. from Jack.
, Il should say mott" he retorted
There's no such thing as love. Mar
| rage is matter of business. When {
: IetloW hasn't enough sense to save hi
{ money. he needs a woman to help him
, and if he gets the right kind hes al
! right, aid if he doesn't he's all wrong
tell you I'm not interested in girl
and I'll die a bachelor, as sure as tn
, sun rises and SETS
2 Lachesis frowned. Such defiance
3 She was puzzled, but she was very re
3 sourceful. For days at a time sh
0 would stand and hold those tw,
= threads, one in each hand. But whel
I she attempted to bring them togethe
l her arms would stiffen.
i Six months before it was time 70
e him to celebrate his twenty-eiShth an
e niversafy something put into Jack
!. head the idea of touring the states A
= he had accumulated a comfortabl
q pile of the metal SO much desired o.
8 this globe, ard as he had taken in I
r partner who was capable o conduct
ing the business alone, there was n
! reason why he should not carry tn
f idea into effect.
= 1t was on the outskirts of Chicag
) that the accident occurred. The trai
r hit a broken rail or something and tn
: parlor car left the track. Only on
person was severely injured, and tina
# was Jack Watson, whose arm wa
r. broken.
ei He was taken to a Chicago hospita
d where the arm was SET His condition
d physically and financially, warrante
n a nurse being assigned to special dut
% on the case.
It This was the first opportunity h
had had to study woman at clos
u range. and It proved decidedly intel
II esting. The nurse was in constant a
is tendance during the day and ready
e. answer his call at any time during IL
,e night. She was continually putin
l. thermometers into his mouth ar
a, taking them out again. feeling h
Is pulse. feeding him ice cream and 9TH
re delicacies, and smiling. And she hs
te a pretty face. always shining wit
g, GOOD cneer. ana LOT OF otner hi'
10 ways about her.
" That's funny" Jack told himse