The Topeka state journal., 1919-12-17
Eoening Story
Wanted-A Wife.
BY OSBORN LONES.

Years Eve he reflected that they were
the last letters dated 1917 that he
would ever sign. Therefore the me-
chanicai act of affixing his signature
would be somewhat more momentous
than that performance usually vast
would be in some slight measure epo-
chal. because 1t registered the passing
of another year. Therefore he took
the pen from the pen tray with rather
more than usual care and dipped it
in the heavy glass ink bottle that lay
before him on his monster mahogany
desk Drawing the top letter on the
pile to him he started TO sign, but the
pen made no mark. Irritation immed-
lately supplanted any interest that he
may have felt in the signing. 1t was
intensely cxasperating. The ink bot
tie had been allowed to go dry and
only a gummy mass of metallic black
showed in the bottom of the ink well.
1t was really almost pathetic. he re-
flected, that he. the president of the
great concern of Blank and Bridges
he whose time was worth that concern
some twenty thousand dollars a year
should have to waste that precious
time fretting over empty ink wells.
Every modern convenience of efficien-
cy in business methods had been in
stalled in his office-there were silent
typewriters and automatic letter op-
eners and a girls lunch room and en-
ployers insurance and annual bonuses
consideration for his employees-and
yet he-Paul Bolton-had to fret him
self day after day about such things
as empty ink bottles. undusted desks
and chairs, unwashed drinking glasses
and untitled water bottles. He was
tired from an extremely trying week
and SO instead of rising in wrath and
storming at office boys, secretaries,
stenographers and everyone else with
in reach of his voice-and Paul Bolton
his feelings in that way--he was filled
with self pity. No one really cared
enough for him to spare him those an
noyances. He went to a stenog-
-Fapher's desk, found an ink we'll that
happened to be filled and signed the
letters dejeetedly.
Then he went to his nearby apart
ments where he reigned in bachelor
supremacy and his experience there
showed him again that no one really
cared. There were no fresh flowers
Bolton especially liked to have yellow
daffodils and jonquils in his rooms on
cold. raw winter nights and he had
told his Jap so on more than one oc-
casion. the CRATE fire was not light
ed. The Jap explained that no coal
could be got. Well, the Jap ought to
have got a scuttle full somewhere. If
he had cared for him as much as he
seemed he would have got a scuttle
full somewhere. And dinner wasn't
exactly what he wanted. and his slip
pers hadn't been warmed and the
water was too cold. The Jap ought
to have known by that time that he
didn't like ice water.
So it was that the next day. when
Bolton began to think about New
Years resolutions, he registered two
resolves. brief yet important To get
a really efficient private secretary-a
young woman who would care enough
to see that the ink wells were filled.
and to get a wife. A wife would see
to the jonduils and the slippers he was
sure. h
Before a month had passed Bolton
had achieved one of his resolutions.
He had obtained from an exclusive
agency young woman of unusual
merit-Alice Blair-who had proved
herself to be worth considerably more
than the forty dollars week that she
had demanded. So Bottoms days were
passed with an absence of confusion
and irritation. Miss Blair seemed to
get inside his mind and find out just
what he wanted done before he had
time to formulate it even to his own
knowledge and she always did things
with perfect ease. She didn't have to
fill the ink wells or dust the desk,
but-what showed her forty dollars
a-week va1ue-she saw to it that the
way with her. She never seemed to
be especially busy and yet everything
was done.
But Bolton still had no wife and
the Jap did not improve Another
Jap would have been no better. Boil
ton was sure it was only a wife who
could make his cup of happiness com
plete. And yet there were wives and
wives. The wife he wanted was not
like those of any of his men friends.
In the first place she would have to
be companionable and sympathetic
and stimulating when he was weary
from the office grind and then she
would have to regard her task of be-
ing his wife and home maker as seri-
ously as he regarded his business of
being president of Blank and Bridges.
Bolton began accepting invitations to
dinners and dances in the hope of
finding his paragon, but he was al
ways unsuccessful. He was discour-
aged in the accomplishment of his
second resolution. so, revelling in the
achievement of the first, he got into
the habit of spending more and more
time in his office. going home to his
apartment andShis Jap only for hur-
ried meals and short sleep. As time
went on he sometimes imagined he
was completely happy, so rejoiced
was he in Alice Blair. But in time
the extra hours at the office began
to tell on his health. He really needed !
the home life if he was to keep up |
his mental viEor and good health. He
sometimes wondered whether the ex-
ira hours that Miss Blair had to work
for she always stayed at her post
whenever he was at the office-were
not telling on her. too But she never
murmured and she seemed always in !
the pink of condition.
One day Bolton began wondering
about Alice Blair He wondered why !
she did all this for him-whether It
was Just the result of her training plus /
n keen mfnd--was it induced ertirely !
by the forty dollars a week that she |
had demanded, Perhaps it was But !
the effect it produced was the same
it really did seem as if some one cared !
now and that. after all, Bolton con |
cluded, was what made the big differ /
ence. Still he kept asking himself, did |
Miss Blair care? How did she keen |