The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-07-25
EVENING STORY
The Big Hope.
BY LAURA DREW.

dollars, and NOBODY seemed 10 appre-
ciate the value of his presence there
in a business way.
He had been so accustomed to the
way people regarded him up home it
had been a distinct shock to be over
looked. In Saginaw his father was
the old lumber king, Jackson Lindley.
| His boats were leaders in lake ship
ping, his name a power in state poll
into his place.
The trouble was that son had in>
J herited the temperament and looks of
his mother, Nanon Sevrier, a French
] Canadian girl from the straits, whose
dark eyes and capricious ways had
drawn the silent Yankee lumberjack
to her back in the early days in the
| northern forests.
Lindley had come out of Ann Arbor
with new viewpoint and the wan
/ derlust. His love affair with Bah
Wellesley had been a natural result.
She was with a little musical comedy
| company that happened to strike
Saginaw on its route up the lake, and
| to Lindley she was the disqualification
of the New York world he longed to
see and be a part of. In his senior
way he had tried to meet her and
make her four-day stay a whirlwind
memory, but the trouble was you
couldn't find the makings of a whirl-
/ wind in Saginaw. At the end of the
motor trips and little suppers after
| the show Bah said goodby.
| You're an awfully nice kid, Lind.
If you ever hit New York you'd get
along great, if you'd keep your head
and not be like they are down there"
He had asked what she meant, and
she had only shrugged her shoulders,
\ Nothing. she had said, only nobody
| cared about anybody else down there.
/ t1sf
didn't care whether you lived or died,
even If you happened to be next door
to them.
You'll know what I mean If you.
! ever go there" she added.
| Now he knew. He had moved
from the McAlpin into a little fur
| nished room on a side street. Not that
he had to-. He could have wired home
for money but he wanted to>show the
! old man he could stand on his own
and make good. There was nobody in
the rooming house who ever spoke to
him excepting the old Irish woman
who came to clean up his room.
But when he passed i'm and out he
often saw girl at the telephone in
the lower hall She attracted him
oddly. because she seemed like one of
| the girls back home. She was rather
| little, with big. earnest eyes and dark
hair worn simply. She had the front
| hall room, he knew, and seemed to go
her way with a happy independence
that interested him immensely.
| shes a fine little lady" Nora told
him, as she ran the carpet sweeper
| nonchalantly hither and yon. "Her
name is Miss Donald, and that's all
| know, but she's very talented, Mr..
Lindley. You should hear her sing
Sure. she can trill Just like a bird and
better"
| By the end of the second week he
found himself watching for her every
day. She was the only person in New
York he wanted to know. and she
passed him in the hall quite as if she
| did not even see him.
Then one night he was wakened by
the emarting sensation in his throat,
and he opened his eyes to find him
self in a gray cloud. There was no
light in his room except from the
breath, choked heavily and wrapped
the blanket about his mouth and nos
| trils as he struggled to the window
aud threw 1t wide.
From the basement windows the
smoke was pouring out thickly- A
man passed in the falling snow and he
hailed him, telling him to turn in the
alarm at the corner while he reused
the rest of the house. He tried as he
made his way thru the smoke-filled
halls to remember the people in the
! rooms above, but on the third land
wrapped in a long gray cloak, the fur
! collar turned UP. Some way in the
unreality of the moment he thought
she was like a spirit of the smoke that.
curled around her.
! I've called thenla ALL" she told him
/ quietly. 1T is just'the furnace. There
isn't any real danger of fire. Nora
forgot to open the draugh+s before she
went to bed. and the house is filled
with coal gas and smoke. It's all
right now. She went down to fix it.
There's somebody pounding on the
basement door"
1t was a patrolman. Lindley let
him in. and after inspecting Nora and
the furnace he went away.
Il feel pretty foolish losing my head
lover that little thing Nsaid Lindley.
standing in the law hall and looking
up at her "You were mighty brave"
when there's so much smoke there
isn't much flame, Mr.. Lindley," she
said seriously.
How did you know my name? I
didn't think anybody in New York
knew their neighbours names even," he
told her.
She laughed and hesitated.
You see, I know some one who
knows you. Bah Wellesley. She's in
the same show 1 am this season up
at the Jardin des F1eurs, roof show.
you know. I'm from the west. too,
Omaha. and we're friends. She was
down here to see me and recognized
you as you came thru the hall, but
you didn't seem to remember her.
But I know all about you, and I've
wanted to talk to you so much and tell
you to go back home"
go back homer" he repeated.
'Why7"
! Before you lose your big hope. Bah
wanted tosbe the new Marlowe and
thought / would be at the opera in
! wear and here we are IN there at the
Jardin, and glad to get the engage
ment, too. She's going home, too. I
would too If I had any to go to- but
my mothers dead and my fathers
married again. so I'm not wanted"
i At the end of three months old
Jackson Lindley landed in New York
to look up his lone and only" as he
told Nora when she led him into the