The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-06-07
EVENING STORY
Fringed Gentian.
BY GERTRUDE ROBINSON.

Hill. Knee-deep in the rust-red well
ter stood Rosemary Damarel. Behind
her Tawny creek curled about the
stepping stones on which the girl had
just crossed. Before her was a mass
of sky-blue flowers. Ten minutes be-
fore, Rosemary, on her way to the
village to mail letter to her father,
had noticed the blue note. Now, her
arms full of blue-fringed gentian, she
ruefully heard five booming strokes
| of the town clock. The mail would
close in fifteen minutes.
Rosemary tilted out on the stepping
stones. Midway a gust of wind smote
her in the face, tore her coil of gold
bronze hair loose and whipped 1t in
her eyes. A second, and the girl had
pitched headlong into the creek. She
struggled up, waist-deep in the swirl
ing water. Slowly, fighting the tug of
the water, she was sucked toward the
/ deep pool that eddied under the west
bank. AS the suction overwhelmed
her, her voice shrilled to the meadow
beyond, where young man was plow-
ing. In~a minute something grippeG
| her, gripped her first by the long
floating rope of hair, then by an arm,
and drew her forth from the sucking
maelstrom.
The moment Rosemary felt herself
dropped on the pasture land she sat
up, and hurriedly coiled her drenched
mop of hair in knot
"Oh," she complained, but you
nearly pulled it off my head, Lester
Fordham!"
The young man shuddered. ut was
the only way, Rosemary" he protest
ed. You know L can't swim a stroke"
Suddenly remembering her errand.
the girl sprang to her feet and handed
the man the letter.
"Skurry to the post with this. Les
ter" she begged. Father must have
it tomorrow"
Five minutes later she vaulted the
pasture bars into the road just as a
black car came ramping along.
Rosemary! Rosemary Damarell"
came an astounded voice. In twin
king she was wrapped in a heavy coat
and whisked home at breakneck
speed.
Half an hour later Rodney Du-
Quesne was waiting in a corner of the
porch for Rosemary. He was Junior
member of the law firm in which
Rosemary'S father was senior mem
Der He was not engaged to Rose
mary, tho he and her father were
agreed in the matter. Rosemary her
self had liked him in a friendly fash
ion ever since her fathers city inter-
ests brought them together a couple
of years before. Nevertheless some
instinct had impelled her to ask for
the summer to make her decision in.
Now the summer was gone, and the
man, as well as the girl, knew that
she was no nearer a knowledge of her
| own heart. Rodney DuQuesne re-
| solved upon a whirlwind wooing that
| should bring the girls feelings to
| focus, as he saw her come stepping
daintily thru the open porch door. A
| lavender-tinted muslin toned with the
! bronze-gold of her hair. Her brown
eyes were dancing with mischief. She
well knew her would-be fiance did not
approve of her recent escapade.
After dinner Rosemary went driv-
| ing with Mr.. DuQuesne. She drove
| her own high-spirited horse, and her
frank enjoyment of the exercise re-
vealed to the man that she was quite
unconscious of his own poorly con-
cealed delight in her girlish charm.
He decided that his only hope of sue
| cess was to get the girl away from
the atmosphere of her home. By the
time they returned he had persuaded
her to spend a fortnight with his sis
ter in their camp in the Berkshires.
But he took scant encouragement
from her consent T. the trip, for she
sprang from the carriage with cry
of delight. On the porch sat a great
blue bowl. full of wonderful flowers,
blue even thru the dusk of the fall
| evening.
MY fringed gentian," she cried.
Lester has fished them out of the
creek where I lost them"
Rodney DuQuesne, in spite of his
apparent adventure, left with a sense
of futility. He realized she cared
| more for the clump of wild flowers
than for the roses he had sent to her
from the city.
Rosemary was happy at the camp.
She was a girl of the open, and aban-
doned herself wholeheartedly to the
joy of mountain climbing, fishing and
riding along pleasant country byways
She developed an innocent camera
derie with the man almost too naive
to please him. Nevertheless, the day
before her return he put his position
with her to the test The girl listened
| to him quietly.
"Oh!" she cried remorsefully, ct
have just been thinking of you as
good comrade. Let me wait till 1
am home and away from you. Then
maybe I'll know. I'll write you-to
| morrow night
The man knew that her woman
| hood was at last awake in her and
that she would decide. but how he
| dared not think.
: The next day Rosemary went home.
! She felt strangely old and troubled.
| She dreaded writing to Rodney that
| evening, for she did not yet know how
! she would write. Finally she went to
the woods to think out her problem.
/
| miliar fragrance. Soon, in a damp
| corner she found the source of the
| sweet odor she had never before as
| ISOLATED with this place. Fringed
gentians were there, dozens of them,
| holding up their glorious heads brave
! " in the rich, damp, new soil In a
flash she understood. Lester had
| transplanted them for her. She threw
| herself on the ground and buried her
| face in their sweetness. Then she
! laughed. Under one of the plants lay
a little red-bound book-Lester's note
| book. Nobody in the whole country
! side but Rosemary knew that Lester
earned his living in the winter play
| ing in the symphony orchestra in the
city. and found his joy writing nature
poetry summers in the intervals of
| grubbing on his fathers old farm.
A relieved smile was cropping about
| the corners of Rosemary's trouble
mouth. She would take Lester. his
/ book and ask him to help her settle