The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-02-19
EVENING STORY
LOuiSe'S Ledger.
BY IzoLA FORESTER.

at least, with her mother, IL only 10
see that she was comfortable after
her arrival. The whole thing had
come down upon them so suddenly
she could hardly realize she was alone
Only two days of illness, then the
Doctors verdict of pneumonia and
that she must be sent where she could
be given the best treatment possible
If she had been conscious, Louise
knew how her mother would have re-
belled against leaving her, but some
how she did not have the courage to
tell this strange city doctor their per-
sonal story. City people seemed diff
ferent from those up home at Glen
Falls.
Not even in the apartment house
| where they had lived for nearly four
months had any of their neighbors
them There really was only the new
ledger to whom she could speak now,
! excepting the janitor's two kiddies on
the basement steps.
The ledger was another problem
He had been 50 welcome the previous
week. when he called in answer to
their advertisement. They had moved
into the college section on University
Heights in New York, hoping to Sc
cure some of the students, and the
| rooms were furnished in three tiny
suites of two rooms each, study and
1t had been such fun fixing up
| their rooms, camoufiaging them by
daylight SO as to make them do in
turn for living room and sleeping
| room, kitchen and dining room.
Louise concealed a row of hangers
behind the portieres, and by standing
the piano cornerwise there was a hid
den recess for shirtwaist boxes and
choes trees.
The kitchen cabinet was curtained
closely in sheer crossbar wolfe, the
same as the windows, and a tall mis-
sion screen hid the sink from curious
eyes.
Mission shelves swung on chains
from the molding. with Mrs. CondelPs
wedding china on them, and Louise
had found some tall wall candle hold
ers of mission wood that matched the
shelves.
| With all the rooms rented they
could easily live until some of the en-
| gagements came true. Choir or con-
cert singing, that was all, but at a
reputable agency they had assured
Louise, after hearing her clear, vi
| brant young soprano voice, that she
could accept IA few professional dates,
| too, if she wished to. ~
| As she turned away from the win
| dow a latchkey sounded in the outer
lock and Mr.. Bancroft came in. She
! thought he would go down the hall to
his rooms. but instead he came to the
threshold of the living room, his face
serious with sympathetic concern.
Excuse me. Miss Condell, but I
! happened to be in the drug store just
now when the ambulance came had
no idea your mother was so i'll. Can
| help you any?'
| Louise thought quickly 1t was no
| time to stand on ceremony.
| Indeed you can" she told him
| eagerly Don't you know somebody
who would rent the other rooms? You
! n OT1ff L I7r -
! now, and keep me from being lone
some, too"
He came into the room and sat
down by the piano. She had not no.
! ticed how boyish he was.
| ~ gu need girls or women" he said
| sagely. Some one to keep you COM
! pany. I know two mighty nice girls
| from my state who are studying here
| They might come, and I'll talk to a lot
of the fellows, too, and I've got an
aunt in town who's been living at
motel and she can't bear it. Maybe
she'd Gomez
From that day the star boarder be-
came almost partner in the estab-
nshment The first result of his eff
| forts was his aunt's occupancy of the
sunny suite. She was not at all the
type Louise had expected and rather
dreaded, but a keen-eyed young
woman in business who thoroly APP
| proved of Burton's choice of a home
| the suites were occupied, and Miss
Bancroft had pleaded to have her
| breakfast also, with Burton to make
/ a third, at the tiny round table in the
| camouflaged kitchen.
! Il don't know what I would ever
have done without you" Louise ex-
claimed gratefully as the day came
when she was to relinquish her place
to her mother. 1T has really helped
mother get well faster, too, 1 know.
thu and the beautiful flowers you
have sent up every day.
They had walked thru the univer-
| sity to the library and paused under
the sentinel rows of Lombardy pop
lars Burton was on his way to look
up some data, bur he forgot political
economy gazing down into the blue
eyes of his landlady
He wished he could have told her
OF the fight he had been putting up
| the past two weeks, how he had writ
ten to his father that he might be en-
gagged any day, just as soon as he
could gain her consent and the answer
had come back ordering him home if
he dared think of such a thing before
he completed his college course.
| 1t had been Aunt Irene with her
clear, new ideas of fairness to youth
and to the ideals of first love, that
had made the family change its mind
Perhaps his own letter. too. where he
had written he would rather quit and
go to work like other men, if he had
to give up the hope of winning Louise.
And the comical part of it is that
your dear mother was dreading a Ban
croft marrying his landlady's daugh-
ter, when as matter of fact, Burt,
the Condells are quite as old family
and as we'll connected. 1 find that
Louise's fathers branch is descended
from the Chevalier Adrian de la Con
dele, who was friend of Lafayette's, -
his aunt had smiled over at him across
the restaurant dinner table the previ-
Gus night, and the smile had given
Burton courage for today
"In have to send them to you now
that she is well" he blurted out boy
ishly. would you mind very much :?
I'd love to- 1t wouldn't be a bit of
trouble. you know
''Oh. but you couldn't do that It's