The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-04-12
EVENING STORY
The Man in the Photo.
BY r. RAY BAKER.

Il uC ludu HI tHC L nOLOe
BY r. RAY BAKER.
Hope Sheldon was not a heather;
yet she worshiped an idol. The idol
was the Photographic likeness of a
man. She had the picture, but SO
far as she knew she never had seen
the original; he might be dead for
all of her knowledge concerning him.
Yet to her he embodied all that man
ought to be.
This idol, or ideal. worshiped in Sc
cret, prevented Hope from saying the
made Henry Wadsworth walk on air,
save money, pay an installment on
,furniture, and hunt a flat.
Hope was fond of Henry. She
would have uttered that longed-for
word if it had not been for the photo
graph. She admitted this to herself
but to him she said:
81 can't do it. Please don't ask me
again. have a secret that prevents
my accepting you"
That was all the satisfaction he
could obtain. Every time he proposed,
which was once week regularly. he
got the same story in different words
but with the same meaning. Only
once did he fail to get in his weekly
proposal, and that was because a rail-
road wreck delayed his special de-
livery letter while he was out of the
city on business.
But Henry was persistence itself
Nothing daunted him, not even the
reference to the Secret" At first he
conceived wild thoughts concerning it.
and lost many hours of sleep on ac-
count of it, but it failed to vanquish
him. Instead, he came back stronger.
with a determination to override her
mysterious objections, whatever they
might be.
Hope was a sentimenta1ist. When
she was a little girl she got decided
notions about princes, and resolved to
marry one when she grew up. In her
more mature years she still had am
billions to wed a prince. Not the kind
they had in Europe before the war;
oh. no. they were not for Hope. She
wanted an American husband, but he
must be a "prince of a fellow and
the picture showed her ideal to be the
one that filled the bill. She would
wait for this prince to put in an ap-
pearance, and if he was dead she
would never marry.
The picture came into her possession
in somewhat peculiar manner. When
Hope arrived in the city to "stenog'
she was obliged to rent a room that
was a long ways from being desirable
but which was in a respectable house
in an equally respectable neighbour
hood. In the top dresser drawer was
the photograph. She bounced upon
it with deep satisfaction for she recog-
nized the face looking up at her as be-
longing to the prince of her dreams
The man in the picture was middle
aged, but that did not deter Hope. He
had heavy mustache. but that was
no barrier. It was the kindly eyes and
the benevolent forehead that caught
her fancy. Just what kind of forehead
is of the benevolent variety I cannot
tell you; but Hope could. She had
read up on such things.
Every night that photograph went
under her pillow after she had wor-
SHIPPED it with her eyes and perhaps
talked to it little. Yes, she was a
foolish little girl, was Hope-foolish
along those lines but otherwise very
sensible. She did not consider that a
man of middle-age, with kindly eyes
and a benevolent forehead. might be
married already. He simply couldn't
be, according to her mind, because he
was made JUST for her.
As time passed and the ideal per-
sisted in refusing to present himself
in flesh and blood her determination
did not wane; instead. it became
stronger. Then a better job permitted
her to move into a more comfortable
room in a less poverty-stricken part
of the city, and that is where the
trouble began. That is where she be-
gan a fight with herself to avoid
faithlessness to her ideal. For across
the hall from her in the new place
lived Henry Wadsworth. who held
some kind of job at a theater. He
at once fell in love with Hope and
launched himself on a program of
persistent wooing. She occasionally
accepted an invitation to a dance or
dinner, but in the, main she declined
his social attentions, which was the
only proper course in line with her
refusal of his matrimonial offers.
But Hope wavered several times,
in private of, course. The urge was
very strong and she had to fight to
keep from yielding to Henry's persua-
sions. He never knew this, tho. All
the battles took place in the privacy
of her room. where she would stand