The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-04-05
EVENING STORY
Love in the CobbIer Shop.
BY JANE OSBORN.

There are advantages in having but
! one pair of shoes, for when you go to
have them mended you can swing
along to the cobbler shop with the
debonair air of one unburdened by
the bundle containing the other pair
/ if you had one.
] For it is only when you are down
| to one pair that you will wear the
worn pair to the shop and sit there in
| the old rocker in front OF the cobblers
bench reading. a much begrimed copy
| of the Saturday Evening Post for
! some time in July, 1915, and wearing
| that is the rather dreadful part of it
the carpet slippers provided for
| such as you.
| So Nathaniel in his well-brushed
| though somewhat shiny serge suit, his
carefully tied though mayhap thread
bare cravat, and last years hat we'll
posed on irreproachably arranged
| locks, stepped rather jauntily into the
| cobbler's shop, bent on concealing
| from the world any resentment that
he entertained toward fortune for not
having made him millionaire or to-
ward his superiors at the plant for
not having Increased his salary more
rapidly.
For Nathaniel had a mother and
some sisters down state" somewhere
who had to be provided for, and liv-
! ing was very high in Burtontown.
where his plant" was located. You
surely never would have guessed had
you seen him that he was a man with
1 one pair of shoes, man crossed in
| love and fully determined since the
| one girl in the world could never be
his that he would remain bachelor
| for life.
When Nathaniel put on those old
| slippers he turned the rocking chair
so that those who passed the cobbler
| shop might not see his face and recog-
nize him. Not that it mattered much,
| but h would rather not have had his
associates at the plant know this de-
! tail of his poverty. And then-did
not she, the incompatible she. live in
| a country place not far distant from
Burtontown, and might she not pass
| in her limousine and see-him sitting
| there?
He was just bordering the artless-
| ness of a highly colored Autograph
calendar, an advertisement for shoe
| polish, that graced the cobblers wall,
when he heard a footstep on the cob
blers floor that somehow thrilled
him. The door closed behind some
one, and then:
Il want to get some-some shoe
strings, please" 1t was the incompar-
able voice. 1t must be Ruth Blithers,
i, Nathaniel seized the out-of-date
weekly and began reading an adver-
| tisement for the 1916 model of we'll
known automobile as if it were of alb
sorbing interest. He felt that she was
looking toward him. He could see
the cobbler get the strings.
1t would be a short transaction, he
| thought, and she would soon be out.
Could anything be worse than to have
| Ruth Blithers see him sitting there,
with his toes thrust in the worn car
| pet slippers, waiting for his one pair
of shoes? Somehow he felt over
whelmingly ashamed of those bare
stocking feet of his, yet there was
nowhere to tuck them. 1t was an
agonizing moment, but it would soon
be over, and then:
Come to think of it, said Ruth,
| "pn have my shoes repaired. Can L
sit here? It's so convenient having
them done while you watt
| Somewhat surprised, the cobbler
pointed to a pair of carpet slippers
that lay on the floor and to as little
from his Italian eyes at Nathaniel for
not proffering his more comfortable
rocking chair to so charming a lady.
| But Nathaniel appeared to be deep
in perusal of the magazine. He also
appeared to be near sighted, for he
held it remarkably close to his face.
Thanks to the industry of that same
cobbler the repairs were completed on
Nathaniels shoes in fifteen minutes.
! but it was the longest, most agGnizing
| fifteen minutes that Nathaniel had
ever spent. Meantime the cobbler's
assistant took the heels from Ruth's
shoes and replaced them with some
| made of rubber. OF course Nathaniel
realized that he would have to speak
| to her. So he looked up but by that
time Ruth was deep in the perusal of
a sheet that had fallen from the 1915
| periodical. Then occurred to Ma
thaniel the reassuring thought.
When he had met Ruth the sum-
mer before when on one extravagant
two weeks vacation at a fashionable
watering place before he had ever gone
to Burtontown-he had not told her
at first of his poverty. 1t was the old
story.
He wanted to make believe" for
| the space of the vacation. But Ruth,
whom he danced with at the hotel,
| walked with and swan with on the
| beach and in the surf, loitered with
on the boardwalk and flirted with in
the moonlight, had shown herself to
| be so much more generously provided
with this worlds wealth than he, that,
tho he felt that she returned in a
measure his devotion, the thought of
a possible continuation of the friend
ship was out of the question.
| Besides he could never let her know
that he was not as well to do as he
had pretended to be, SO when she left
him, giving him to understand that
she wished to hear from him and mem
tioning that she lived not far from
Burtontown, Nathaniel felt convinced
that that was the end.
He did not even write to her, but
when little later he went to Bur-
tontown to work he was filled one
moment with the fear that he might
see her by chance and then with re-
greet that he did not. But to have her
see him sitting there in the cobblers
carpet slippeD was agonizing. Then
came the light. She too had her shoes
repaired while she waited. She too
Observation-Disclosures
1.-THE Ga0~ro N