The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-11-14
EVENING STORY
Geo. Standish's Brother.
BY JANE OSBORN.

BY JANE OSBORN.
"Daily demonstrations in the max,
ing of sugarIess desserts and war
bread. Demonstrating, Clarabelle SMELL
United States food administration.
Next demonstration 2 o'clock
Bill Burke regarded the sign and
then looked at his watch, observed
that it lacked but twenty minutes OF
the hour and decided to stay-how-
belt with a guilty conscience. He re-
nected to his comfort, however, that !
it was really Laurette's fault II she
would insist on sending him TO mousse
hold furnishing sections OF depart
ment stores where such bewitcmng
lwhite-clad demonstrators as Clarabelle |
Smell performed culinary miracles in |
the enticing background of an electr1- |
cally equipped, white enamel kitchen
such as the one set up on the demon |
| strator's platform before him, then
she must take the consequences.
The fact was that Laurette had seat
| him on an errand some two hours be-
fore-hadn't exactly sent him, but had
| indicated that it was her pleasure that
he should go and buy some cooking
utensils, had told him to go to this
particular department store. and he
had gone. This wonderful C1arabeiie
| creature was just finishing a demon
| stration on sugarless date pudding
| when he came, and drawn by the
magic of her voice, he wedged his
gathered around her little demonstra-
ton platform kitchen. There was
look of yearning in his thoro1y mascu-
| line eyes. There must have been, and
| Clarabelle must have thought 1t was
yearning for some of the pudding, for
when the demonstration was over and
ne still fingered, she smilingly asked
| him if he would sample it. And he did
and fancied it ambrosia, tho he really
had no taste for date buildings. After
l - - A-1 n tho
store and had come back just to see
| CIarabelle again.
| Now to explain just why Bill Burke
| was so vulnerable to the charms of the
whitehead Clarabelle Smell and her
Hoover kitchen. Largely, of course it
| was because Clarabelle was really a..
very charming sort of person; her par
| ticular charms appealed to him be-
cause of the contrast they bore to the
| woman whose personality dominated
| no less than the justly celebrated
novelist, George Standish. in private
life Laurette Burke, his sister. Laur-
cite was some five or six years older
than he. Her first successful novel
had helped him thru college and by
the time he was graduated her re-
nown and her income from her writ
ings were phenomenal.
But she needed a manager, her bank
account was in a hopeless mess, she
could not endure to live alone, her
rather eccentric housekeeping meth
DDS would have been the despair of
tany woman who might have been
helpful to her, and, though she might
have chosen a husband, she preferred
the less binding companionShip of her
brother. He shared her literary tastes
if not her talents, he had a good head
for business and was at least used to
her ways and owed her a rather deep
obligation.
| So, just when he was trying to de-
eide what his choice of a career should
be she settled the matter, offered him
a salary that would have been a temp
tation to any young graduate, and
took him on as her manager. In that
choice Laurette showed that for once
size had managed her affairs wisely,
for with Bill as her constant compan-
ion and adviser she nearly doubled her
literary output, found new inspiration
and was relieved of all the little in
terruptions that had previously har-
assed her,
Meantime, Bill had become nobody
in tie world but George Standish's
brother. He lived in her apartment, ate
of her oddly chosen meals, criticised
! vigorously all that she wrote, stood
between her and her publishers, and
incidentally did such other not really
worthy tasks as going shopping for
her, hiring maids when they left and,
when they couldn't be hired, shar-
ing with Laurette the work of their
admittedly shiftless Housekeeping.
fI Of course, it was not Just the manly,
strong thing to do-to become so alb
sorbed in the personality even of a
brilliant sister. But Bill felt keenly
his obligation and he couldn't make
up his mind just how he would take
the first step that would mean his in
dependence.
At times the whole thing really got
very much on even his steady nerves.
The morning of his first vision of
Clarabelle was one of these times, for
Isaurette had worked all night in the
throes OF a nearly completed novel
and came to breakfast haggard but
jubilant and ravenous. 1t was lin one
of the cookies epochs of their house
keeping, and what breakfast there was
Bill had got; and Laurette, who might
have been a very comedy woman-and
in fact was so on occasions sat there
eating the scrambled eggs that Bill had
made, serenely unaware that they
were burned and cold, reading aloud
the product of her nights labor. A
new maid was promised for that aft
ernoon, and to solve the dishwas hing
Y problem until then Laurette had con-
ceived the happy idea of getting more
dishes and pans and hence Bill had
been dispatched to the store to buy
them.
And as he looked at that imma GU
late kitchen he thought of the contrast
1t would make with that other one in
! Laurette's apartment. Then, as Clara
belle returned. he contrasted her as
she stood there-as ne a type OF
woman as his own sister-yet willing
to take the matter of home making
| and cooking seriously. A thrill swept
J over him as he asked himself whether
men no more worthy than he some.
q times found wives who would give
!. thought and attention to this matter
of making homes run easily and
smoothly. What low 1t wOuld he re-
buy electric stoves and dish washers
and all the other costly equipment
:, shown in that kitchen if there were
some one like Clarabelle to appreciate
j. them and preside over them!
. Well, that is how it began. There
was no long-drawn-out falling in love
The was in love when he first saH
7 her. and there was no reason that hs