The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-04-10
EVENING STORY
BY Indirect Method.
BY LANE OSBORN.

JAM OoDOINAN
It's fact that Kate Perkins did &C.
casionally 'listen in" to the converse
tions that went on over the wires that
formed a network before her over the
switchboard at the Dawkins plant
What else did those round eyes of blue
indicate but an unquenchable curiosity
mot malicious, prylng sort or Curl
osity, but a perfectly open and guile
less desire to know as much as she
could about as many of the people
who worked at the plant as was pos
sible? Otherwise Kate would have
found those long hours irksome. Her
work would have been a supreme
monotony.
AS it was, there was nothing mo-
notonous. The switchboard was trans
formed into the field for the most in
teresting excursions into the study of
human nature. But Kate didn't get
this information about her fellow
workers with an intent to spread it
broadcast or to gossip; she got it
merely for her own inner satisfaction
and entertainment.
Besides having very round blue eyes,
Kate had long black eyelashes that
shaded those eyes and pink and
white complexion that somehow did
not lose its freshness in spite of the
| long hours at the switchboard
The fact is there was quite a lot or
| feminine appeal about Kate, enough
to have secured for her some dozen or
or ADMIRERS among the lOTCc at llAC
Dawkins plant. Hildreth Jones, right
hand man to the elder Dawkins. was
| among them. Now Hi1dreth was an
outspoken man enough when it came
| to business matters, and there was Ut
tie that indicated timidity about him
| in the way he carried on for the
Dawkins interests, but when it came to
proceeding with his courtship or kate
he evaded the direct method.
| 1t would have seemed SO absurd, he
| yofA To a a n
him to a show when by chance a show
did come to the town where the Daw-
kins plant was located. Hildreth had
no false notions of his own social I'M
! pOrtance.
He felt no concern at having fallen
victim to the charms of so humble
parsonage as the telephone operator.
| If it came to that he would not have
/ hesitated in marrying her, but he was
not at all eager to have 1t known that
| he had been rejected by her.
| Hildreth felt the best way to go
| about it was by the indirect method
He would first let her know OF MS
regard, let her know also his pros
lpects and the fact of his loneliness III
| this town so far away from his home.
| IF he could let her know these things
| in some indirect way, he felt somehow
she would be clever enough and klnd
enough to let him know how she feit
| toward him without actually bringing
| him to a. declaration.
| Hildreth was not long in devising
his plan and his accomplice was his
| elder sister. Stella Dawkins did her
| bit toward carrying out the project,
! tho of course she didn't know at the
time. On arriving in the small manu-
featuring town in response to the elder
| Dawlxins taking him on as his gen.
eraI manager Hildreth Jones had
been unable to find accommodations
| in the already overcrowded hotel, and
so it was that he was harbored in the
! old-fashioned Dawkins mansion, given
| a latchkey and made to feel free to
come and go unnoticed and undis-
| turbed by any of the Dawkinses.
! Occasionally of course Hildreth did
see Stella, the only daughter. and less
| often the stately Mrs Dawkins, who
| apparently did not regard the fact that
| he was SO closely associated in bust
ness with her husband as a reason why
| she should extend to him any sort of
| social cordially.
| 1T a letter comes for me from home
| please call me up Hildreth asked the
Ihousekeeper one morning when he had
| worked out his plot; but when the
| letter did arrive the next day the
Stella's musical but rather formal
| tones that came to him over the wire.
Hildreth took it for granted that Kate
| was listening in at the time. That
| was Inc WnOle point IN having MS SIS
ter write as she did.
Stella informed him that the special
| delivery had arrived, Hildreth asked
her to open it and read it. He rather
| hesitated in having to ask her to per-
form this service for him, but it was
essential to his plot. The letter was
full of sympathetic had told this in
triguing sister of his to make it So
| She assured him that she knew how
| lonely he must be, assured him, too,
that she could tell from his letter
| that the step he contemplated was
partly due to his loneliness, but that,
| as he was secure in his income, if not
| from his position at least from the
| family estate which had now been ad-
justed, she thought it was quite time
time that he take the step; assured
| him, too, that if the person in question
| felt well disposed toward him she
| would show her feelings in some way.
This was all the more or less vague,
of course. but distinct enough, Hill
dreth thought, so that Kate would
! understand as she overheard the read
ing of the letter.
| That evening Hildreth hurried past
Kate as she sat at the switchboard.
One of the shipping clerks, who ought
| to have been working at the time. was
! leaning over the switchboard and Hill
dreth's feeling was not SO much of
jealousy as of annoyance that the
young woman whom he had chosen
as his ideal of loneliness should permit
! that particular sort of familiarity.
Stella Dawkins was in the spacious
| center hall of the old mansion as he
entered the house, and he would glad
ly have passed her as hurried1y as he
had passed Kate, but she detained
him. He was beginning now to feel
especially sorry that he had asked her
to read the letter.
The housekeeper might not have
taken note of the words she read, but
somehow he was sure that Stella Daw-
kins had made mental comment on
every one Unconsciously he made a
comparison between the rather too
formal charm of this young woman
and the more obvious attractions of
| Kate.