The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-02-27
EVENING STORY
The Intentions of Olga.
BY INES MACDONALD.

II
BY birth Olga Mivchlakoff was half
American, but in looks and tempera-
ment. all Russian. When she was six
years old her American mother had
brought her back to Indiana. never
again to return to the old, tumble
down estate of her Russian father. At
the time she had no understanding of
the reason for this, and tho she, never
missed to any exte mt her gruff, rough
bearded father, she did dream of the
old half-ruined castle in which she
was born and the sturdy, kindly peas
ants who were so like children all
grown up.
BY the time she was sixteen, the
fine thread of her dreams had woven
itself into the fabric of desire-the de-
sire to be an artist. and her American
mother, being an intelligent as well as
a practical person, saw to it that Olga
should get the best art training OBJ
tainable in the locality il which they
lived. But when she was twenty Olga
had outgrown the possibilities of that
locality, and with a little sigh her
mother sent her to New York.
IF you only weren't so intense, my
DEAR said the good lady anxiously.
IF you were only level-headed and
practical, 1 wouldn't SO much mind
your going away"
But Olga only smiled fearlessly out
of her clear young eyes. ''Ill study
year or two and then get into the COM
mercial field" she said. There arc
big opportunities for girl in COM
mercial art"
But her mother was much surprised
little more than a year later when
Olga wrote that she was working in
commercial studio at thirty-five
dollars a week, for she herself had
been teaching school for fifteen years
and had only reached twelve hundred
year. However. two years later Mrs.
| Mivchlakoff married again-an old
sweetheart of her youth and Olga
breathed with new feeling of free
dom.
In spite of the fact that in Monon,
Indiana, Olga would have been looked
upon a terrible young person. she
was demure, conventional, little
| thing deep down inside. Her mother
was immeasurab bly, Mortified on her
| last visit to Olga in New York to find
| that young woman with fluffy shorn
| hair after the style of New York's
Bohemia.
But the conventional Olga went
| blythely on her unconventional way.
| She was making sixty dollars a week
now, and she and Clara Sommers, the
! newspaper woman Wit whom she
| lived, put their savings together and
| found, to their joy, that they had
| enough for a modest little home in the
country. So the summer Olga was
| twenty-seven they chose a pretty little
place within committing distance of
New York. That same summer Olga's
| salary was raised to seventy-five dol
| lars a week, and she decided to get
| a small car. The car neeessitated a
garage, and the garage needed
| builder, so the village carpenter was
| called into consultation and given the
| job.
| At two o'clock the following Satur-
| day afternoon, Olga arrived from the
| city, hot and eager for the cool bath
| that awaited her. She slipped into
fresh clothes and pulled a bright-col-
| ored smeck over her pretty bobbed
head, then skipped out into the garden
4 to watch the progress of the garage
| builfing which was half completed.
| Stephen Niles. the village capenter,
saw her coming. He was mailing the
sheeting on the roofs and he stared
| in surprise as she scfa mb1ed up the
ladder and slid along the slanting roof
| twoard him.
| You're getting along beautifully.
aren't you?" she smiled, boyishly
| friendly.
"Oh, fair" conceded Stephen Niles.
The mother of Stephen Niles was
notorious turnout the neighborhood as
| a nagging, ugly-tempered, old woman,
| and Stephen, with a strange wisdom,
had known it would be impossible to
take girl of any spirit into that home
of discord-so he had not married, for
he could not afford to support two
households. And year by year the
\ waves of his mothers temper ham
\ mered against his sturdy heart and
left it still unembittered. He had lit
| tie education and no vision nor ambi-
ton, but he had a finc-hearted, self
| imposed cleanliness of spirit that re-
! vealed itself in his steady eyes and the
charm of his slow smile. In another
I environment, with the advantage of a
bit of culture and education, Stephen
4 ~
| have brought question to many a
| woman's eye, but here, he would never
be more than the village carpenter.
He had given women but little
| thought until he saw Olga Mivchlakoff
but he thought her the strangest crea-
ture of them all. and at the same time
the most wonderful. She was so I'M
consciously careless in exposing her
slim legs, so -boyishly intimate and
personal, in an impersonal sort of a
way. To him she was as q creature
from another world.
When they descended from the roof
that afternoon she sat on a sawhorse
in the shade and nonchalantly watched
him measuring and saving some
boards.
You don't quite approve of me, dc
you. Stephen?''
He laid down his saw deliberately
Most people don't approve of what
they don't understand" he said, look
, ing at Sher thoughtfully.
You blessed mani" she laughed
| Did you know that you were a phil
osopher?'
II know this much" he said slow
, ly. Il can't do any work when you
are around. 1 haven't done dollars
worth since you came this afternoon
oh" she threw up her hands in
mock despair. hes temperamental
. too. Steve, the temperamentaI car
penter," and she danced off toward
! the house while he stood there Iookin 6
, latter her, for the first time in his life
dissatisfied with himself and his lot
And it all happened just as he
feared it would. The next afternoon
he came over just to look over the
: Iynrk-he never worked ON Sunday a