The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-08-23
EVENING STORY
Ring Three.

the instrument The house was on a
party line, to be sure; separate wires
in that locality were not to be thought
of; but Eleanor did not remember
year.
Zing zing zing! zing zing zing!
clamored the phone. Miss Hanford
was wondering, as ten thousand other
people have wondered under similar
circumstances, whether she shouldn't
really answer, on the chance of the
operator having made a mistake, when
a man burst into the room.
| The man was a total STIR niger.
Eleanor had never seen him fore.
He was large man and young. and
obviously stark. raving mad; for not
only had he made his entrance to
| the house unlimited and without per-
mission of anybody. but now, without
the first word of apology and with
out even giancing at Miss Hanford. he
rushed wildly to the telephone,
grabbed the receiver and yelled in
a lavishly redundant voice, "Heflo!"
To Eleanor's ordinary calm eyes
his entire demeanor was that OF a
lunatic, perhaps a dangerous one.
] Without too much fuss she shifted
her position so that the drawer with
the pistol in 1t was just beside her
right hand.
| The intruder, who had flung him
self into the none-too-strong windsor
/ chair beside the telephone table and
made It creak alarmingly In doing
so, appeared still to be utterly unaware
OF Miss Hanford's presence.
Hello! hello!" he bawled, the look
OF wild anxiety on his countenance be-
coming still wilder as he appeared to
wait in desperate impotence, a reply
that did not come.
Miss Hanford, who was never pre-
cipitate, had almost made up her mind
to flee and seek the protection of old
| Mark, the gardener, or Hannah in the
kitchen, when a great change came
upon the man at the phone. The
| strained, eager look disappeared, q
happy light sprang into his gray eyes,
and he smiled broadly Miss Hanford
mentally classified the smile as grin.
Like a Cheshire cats she indig-
nantly concluded.
Sure. this is Les" the unlimited
guest was saying into the phone
Never SO glad to hear a human
voice in my life, sweetheart! Don't
seem as II I could wait another
minute to see you. What's that? Yes;
didn't know but you'd be up on the
two-eighteen. Yes: gets here at five
twenty. You bet; I'll be there.
Good-by. honey"
4 When about half way thru this
monologue the man twisted about on
his chair till he was facing the mis-
tress of the Hanford establishment
Then, still grinning broadly and with
the receiver still at his ear. he vinked
at Eleanor winked at Miss Eleanor
Hanford, II you pleased The nerve of
him..
| Miss Hanford arose to the full
| height her sixty-three majestic inches.
She. no longer felt any fear of this
| mailman; she was experiencing in
stead a mighty indignation. Much
anything-might be forgiven in a
mere lunatic; but for a vandai like
this to violate your privacy, to seize
upon your property. to set at defiance
all the conventions and safeguards of
society-for the purpose of making
love over your phonetic some other
| woman-ugm!
Miss Hanford was all icy calmness
as the trespasser, hanging up the re-
| ceiver, uncoiled his tall length from
the trembling windsor shair and stood
erect She gave him no time for
first word-there is no strategy in
that.
May be privileged" INQUIRED
Eleanor: ito know to whom have the
honor of being hostess-and why? 1t
would be interesting to learn what
there is about this house to give
strangers the impression that # is
hotel or an office building? I do not
think 1t has ever been regarded as a
mere public utility before"
I'm awfully sorry. Miss Hanford-
you are Miss Hanford, are you not :?
But what's the use of that talk-I
know you are. am-honestly-
awfully sorry to come tearing in that
way. but III tell you how It was.
You see. I've had that little bunga-
low that sets back in the woods a
quarter of a mile above here for a
week. I've been away for a good
while on that little business over
across and she's been in California, so
we haven't seen each other. She got
HaAwr a.
wired that she'd be out here on this
afternoons train. There are two
trains, you know, and put in a teie-
phone call for her at New York After
1t was in. and I'd waited half an hour,
II realized that II waited any longer
couldn't meet the two-eighteen. When
the phone man hooked up the bunga-
low he told me that this big white
house and that stone one down below
were the only other subscribers on the
line. My number was three.
4 Just as 1 was passing here I heard
the ring. Gollyi What was going to
do? II stopped to be polite they'd
calmly say. 'Party's hung up; excuse
1t. please! by the time I got the re-
ceiver down. know 1t was rotten
manners, but you've got to make al
1 lowances for fellow. sometimes. now
haven't you? My names Grey-Les-
ter Grey; 1 scribDle foolish things that
Il foolish people print sometimes. I
hope you'll pardon my headlong in
trusion."
4 Miss Eleanor Hanford, with all her
dignity and all her responsibility as a
woman of position and not a little
wealth. was as q matter of fact, just
a mere girl. And this big utterly nat
ural. laundering boy with the marks
Of overseas still on him. was good to
look upon. Somehow II wasn't the
ingenious impropriety-quite shock
- ~
sweetheart in a lonely bachelor bunga-
low that made Eleanor feel a new and
, different kind of indignation toward
him. Anyway down In her secret
hart she knew that It was because
/. there was a sweetheart at all
"Oh. very WELL" she laughsd-for,
of course, under this new circum-
stance, being q woman, she could no
: longer show indignation OF any sort
lest it be construed in a certain way