The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-06-25
Euening Story
Stuff o. Dreams.
BY CRAWFORD LUTTRELl


She unfolded the scrap of yellewed
paper. punctuated with pin holes, and
read again, after a lapse of eighteen
years, the words that had accompanied
fraternity emblem sent her in the
PARKWAY days of youth. las this
Star and Crescent binds thousands of
hearts together in the United States, SO
may it bind our eternal friendship
NJ. NJ" He had underscored the
words 'hearts" and our
She had gone back heme on a visit
ana following the preverbial rule of
rummaging the attic on a rainy day in
search of entertainment had found by
chance a packet of old letters that she
thought had been burned ~before she
married and went away. The little
fraternity pin that had graced her
schoolgirl blouses had been fastened
thru that scrap of paper.
At the thought, memory turned the
tide of time backward and she saw
herself. a iong-legged, big-eyed girl
standing timidly- at a window in the
pestoffice, asking for a package. She
recalled how the long, lean face of the
ugly clerk had warmed into smile as
he handed the little square box to her
Glare looked thru the little dormer
window at the gentle, soaking summer
rain. Mechanically she opened one of
the old letters, still brayely Haunting
the crimson and black of his college
colors. He had written with the ardent
insistence of twenty-one that he could
never love anybody else and that her
influence would mold his life. She
! could make of him what she willed
| Age had its compensation, she re-
Elected. She could never blindly trust
again, never be hurt with the sharp
blade of establishment whose keen
edge only time could wholly dull She
looked at life thru the fading eyes of
thirty-five. They were too worldly
wise 10 glimpse visions of such stuff as
dreams are made of!
1t was when she Yves passing thru
the hall below on her way to her room
! to freshen up hit before dinner that
she heard deep, musical voice in
| curing for her at the front door
thinking that it was an old-time
neighbor. she went quickly down stairs.
She recognized him Immediately,
aitho the slimness of youth had given
place to the rotundity of middle age
His black hair was thinning. Only
mis- eyes and his voice were the same.
How very much like a fairy story
this is" she laughed when they were
seated in the candle lighted old par
| Tor. Il have been in the attic all the
afternoon. 1 found some of your old
4
OF paper which still bears the pin
holes of the fraternity emblem you
sent me long ago."
Il still have that PIN" he said and
looked at her without smiling. 1T is
locked in a little black box in my
desk"
She laughed. altho her lips were not
quite steady in her mirth. 1T has
been so long since those far days
when we flirted and pretended to
know all about love. oh, well, 1 rode
for a hard fall and the tumble was
sufficiently painful to guard against
another one
you aren't bitter?'' He leaned for
ward. his disconcerting brown eyes
never wavering from her face "You
wouldn't be you, if you were!"
! You don't believe, surely, that this
aging shell covers the girl you used to
know. Milton? She died, ever so long
ago"
"She couldn't die" he corrected her.
and his eyes smiled as they had
smiled. warming and waking her heart
years before. TELL me about your
self everything" he urged.
She twisted the narrow gold band
ing to tell. I've had quite an average
life"
"Ybu married-let me see-how
long ago." he questioned.
Fifteen years"
She was wholly unprepared for
what followed. "Clare, 1 am sure that
you and your husband. too. will UNI
derstand what I am about to say to
you 1t would be foolish not to refer
to my love for yo..-it has played too
| important a part upon my life. Your
abiding faith made me what I am.
and today I stopped off here. in your
little home town, to try to get your
| present address in order to write to
you and gratefully acknowledge all
that have been privileged to tell
you"
your wife"
81 told her before she died, just
what / am telling you"
| Il hadn't heard, Milton. I'm sorry
you must know
She wondered what to say to him,
and. finding no words. sat silent,
clasped tense hands in her lap. He