The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-02-06
EVENING STORY
The Service Guest.
by IZOLA FORREsTER

anu WOGlu Ike u SuS6cSt AiShN
now, while we are assembled here to
honor our brave boys just returned
from the 'front.'" Mrs. Hampton paused
to give full emphasis to her next
words, that we each one take one or
more home with US to dinner"
katherine heard, but made no sign
of acquiescence. She had been on the
Citizens League committee of welcome
and had worked for two weeks on the
program for entertainment, but this
was bringing the question of patriot
ism straight into the privacy of her
own home, and she objected.
1t happened to be particularly coy
home where she had lived since the
death OF her father, Doctor Fenway,
with Maria Tupper as housekeeper.
Nobody in North Waldo ever spoke of
Maria as a servant, altho her life had
been devoted to service in the doctors
family.
The house stood well back from the
sidewalk on upper Main street; a large,
old-fas hioned house, with a cupola on
top and wide piazza surrounding
three sides of its lower floor. The gar
den was withered and brown now,
with patches of snow in the deep hol-
lows around flower beds and shrub
berry. but in the spring and summer it
was a glory to the eye of the passerby.
And to old-time residents Kath-
crime seemed q part of the garden.
somehow so many seasons had found
her there, working here and there
over the ANIMALS and perennials, and
training the myrtle at the base of the
old rack pedestal that held the sun
dial.
Very few suitors had ever passed up
the winding path. There was some
thing frosty in the air at the Fenways;
something that nipped romance in the
bud. As Rodney Allan expressed it,
the first and only time he ever asked
Katherine to marry him:
She thinks there's a Fenway with
wings right beside ST. Peter. I'd like
to see the pride taken out of her, all
right"
But Katherine went serenely on thru
her twenties without apparently re-
GREETING her position the prize
maiden lady of the little Maine town.
| She had plenty of money, an assured
position, and all the old doctor left
her. Life had run in serene channels
until the war flame reached America.
Rodney had organized the first volun-
| teer company that went down the
| coast. She heard he was a captain,
and his sisters smiled at her in church
| in a sort of triumphant way for hav-
! ing missed such a chance.
| He was in the hall tonight, deco
| rated and handsome, with one of the
| Halsey girls beside him, Evelyn, the
prettiest one. Katherine heard some one
| say they were engaged. and suddenly
| she realized that all of the girls and
| friends of her own girlhood had some
special soldier to welcome and cling
| to. Her straight, dark brows drew
together slightly, and she drew her
fur cloak closer around her. 1t was
| chilly in the back of the hall. She
| heard a window close two seats be-
| hind her, and glanced back to see who
! had noticed her discomfort
| He was a stranger to her, a tall,
| deeply tanned, western type of man,
| with service bars on his sleeve. Later,
as the meeting broke up, she noticed
he walked with limp, and appeared
| to know nobody there. Their eyes
| met again, hers with quick question:
| ing of her duty to him, as the other
| members of the committee speedily
gathered up their guest units among
the boys and went home.
"PiI send your silk flags home to-
morrow, Katherine" Mrs. Hampton
called as she went out, but under the
| words Katherine knew there was the
| censure. All she had done was to
furnish silk flags and money for the
decorations. She turned with a sud-
den impulse to the stranger and in
| V1ted him home to dinner with her
Maria's eyes opened widely when she
was told to set an extra place for a
strange man, but, after the first half
hour Katherine began to find her
| self-consciousness leaving her, as he
sat at her fathers place and told of
MS experiences at the front. He was
just out of the hospital and had come
north with the Maine units because he
had friends among them.
There's no one expecting me spe-
cially," he added. MY people are all
gone, excepting a sister out in Seat
tie"
And then. how it happened she
never knew, but Katherine saw him
grow tense and white. and Maria
helped her lift him to the couch in
the doctors old room next the study
She'll shock and overexertion. young
Doctor Morton's verdict was. He must
rest and be cfeered up before he tried
to go on farther.
In the days that followed the full
lesson of war came home to Rather
inc as it had never before done. Clad
in white. she took her place as his
nurse, and fought to bring him back
to the normal Tie was Bob Lorimer
she found out, nothing more, but al
the end of six weeks when he was
able to have breakfast in the Jtt'e sur
parlor off the dining room, stI; felt as
if he had always been a part of heg
hoInes
Il suppose it didn't mean anything
to you, Miss Fenway, that night" he
was telling her; you just did your
duty by strange soldier, but to me
it was handing me back my faith il
human nature. I'd said all the time
since we landed, nobody cared except
ing those who really belonged to you
don't you know, and 1 hadn't a soul
1 don't see how you'll ever get rid OF
me now
She was pouring his coffee, and
met his eyes for one swift second as
their hands touched in passing cups
but the undercurrent of appeal in his
words sent the color to her face deli
cately. Maria was singing goSpe
hymns out in the buttery and Cheer
| Up. the canary overhead, was tryins
wildly tQ~keep up with her. The sun.
light poured thru the south window:
on rows of Towering plants and the
| pink and white china.
TT will be very lonely without YOU
, oh