The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-08-30
Eoening Story
The Wretched Deceiver.
BY r. RAY FABER.

traverse nay CdISSSG0 IleT DIOW
She was speaking to Leonard Brock
welb who sat on the hotel veranda
beside her, striking imaginary flies
on the railing with his dainty cane.
Leonard was not dainty. He was
more than six feet tall and the mus
cfes of a perfect physique rippled I'M
der his Palm Beach suit. He was a
good-looking blond young man.
Winnie was the dainty one, being
fashionabIy slim and only five feet
three in height. She was q pro-
nounced brunette, and a summer-white
frock with a tilted pink hat made her
look exquisite.
Yes. it's So" replied Leonard, stiff
ling a yawn and watching a lake
steamer loaf into Petoskey harbor.
But do you know what appeals to me
most is to get away from driving the
everlasting motor cars. I've had so
much of it was glad to leave the cars
in the garage and be able to stretch
my legs without depending on gaso-
line"
You're right" Winnie agreed
Driving motors bores me to dealth."
Poor, pretending Winnie Her social
obligations consisted of an. occasional
visit to a dancing assembly back in
Chicago, when she was not too tired
lSI 8CLlVlIleS DenlnQ the SILK
counter. And all The motor she had
ever driven was the relic that did serv-
i've on Aunt Martha's farm in central
Ohio, where she spent last years va
cation.
For four years Winnie had saved
money. and il would have remained in
the bank where it was put If 1t had
not been for Phoebe williams
All Phoebe had done was to go and
get married. In some manner she
had caught a rich man, and now when
she strutted into the store she left an
electric out in front.
That had set Winnie thinking. and
she had come to the conclusion the
only way to enjoy life was to have all
the money one wanted; and It seemed
the only way to such an attainment
was by means OF a matrimonial knot.
Her roommate had agreed, in so far
as the latter part of Winnie's phil
osophy was concerned.
ITS done lots and lots of times"
the chUm declared. and the rich men
are hooked the easiest at summer re-
sorts All you need is enough dough
to live in style for a few weeks at one
of those places. and the first thing
you know some son of the idle rich is
proposing to you It's easy, they say.
but for me, III stick to Jim Wilson,
even if he is just a truck driver"
That looked good-not the truck
driver. but the summer resort idea
so when vacation time came Winnie
drew her seven hundred from the
bank, invested a considerable portion
of it in clothing and took a steamer
for nothern Michigan. At Petoskey
she took a room in a hotel close to
the shore of the bay and began her
campaign.
Winnie had the looks and PERSONAL
ity to win. and at the start the young
men staying at the hotel paid homage
to her. One of them, a frail anemic
youth who never drew a breath un-
favored with cigarette smoke, pro-
posed the second night she was there:
but somehow. for all of his evident
wealth, Winnie could not bring her
self to accept. She still retained girl
hood ideas in which marriage minus
love did not fit.
In the first week Winnie had three
proposals to her credit and five hun
bred dollars on the other side of the
ledger. She was progressing famously,
but she was not satisfied. All the
men who had placed themselves in
her marriage market were wealthy, no
doubt; but they were insipid parasites
cljnging for life to the riches their
more ambitious fathers had accumu-
lated.
Then along came Leonard Brock
WELL and she fell in love with him.
To be sure the wealth that was evil
dent in his dress and bearing attracted
her as much as his handsome appear
ance; but before she had known him
twenty-four hours, the money question
faded into insignificance before the
mans wonderful personality.
She feared she would lose him, so
she felt obliged to continue the pre-
tense she had begun, which accounted
for her reference now and then to her
a Grn1 III
On the fourth night the climax
came. They walked along the beach,
in the light of a full moon which
turned the blue of the water to bur-
nished silver. They sat in an arbor
of trees and there he proposed, and
she accepted.
The only girl ever could begin
TO love- he breathed, and she told
him similar things; and they were
the truth.
But Winnie had a conscience. and
it began to intrude itself. She tossed
all night in bed. unable to reconcile
herself to the idea of having won a
husband by deception. Here was this
man, rich in his own right, asking
her to be his wife under the belief
she was his social and financial equal.
She began TO wish he was not rich.
that he was common plodder like
herself.
Early in the morning Winnie arose
and dressed, her mind made up. She
loved Leonard. but she never could
accept him under the circumstances.
She still had q week of vacation left.
and she decided to spend it with Aunt
Martha in Ohio.
Before leaving the hotel she penned
a note and left 1t with the clerk
Dear Leonard" 1t said. IT am leav-
ing and will never see you again. I
love you, but have been a wretched
deceiver. and cannot bear to look YOU
in the face"
Thirty-six hours later she leaped
from the train and into Aunt Martha
arms. Aunt Martha escorted her to
the relic that had once been an auto
mobile ard they drove to the farm
It was lonesome there. but Winnie
made the best of it. She felt that she
was atoning for her sin by shutting
herself away from the world. She was
pensive and moody. but she roamed
the fields and woods and tried TO for