The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-04-16
Euening Story
Josephine's Poet.
BIZ RAY LEWIS.

| to repair the damage done to her hair
during the long ride on the train.
4 you don't know how good it is to
get home, mother even if it is only
for a week." she said taking out her
! combs and letting down a flood of
| chestnut hair.
Her mother. watching her was
thinking that at any rate Josephine's
sojourn for nearly a year just off
Washington square hadn't caused her
to bob her hair like the other viii
! layers. But aloud she merely said,
| Were all glad to have you home,
dear, and the time will go all too
| quickly"
BY the way said Josephine, as
one to whom something has just &C.
CURED, the last day of my stay 1 am
expecting down to meet you all the
man who wants to marry me-"
| ."josephine!" gasped her mother,
sinking weakly down upon the bed.
Josephine! And | suppose it is one
| of those dreadful men you have been
seeing with long hair and soft collars,
and-and, oh, 1 wish you had never,
never gone down there!"
Come, mother" urged Josephine
briskly, hes sensible. He isn't as bad
as all that3"
HE doesn't paint or write or-or
/ anything like that, does he?" asked
! her mother, pleading for a negative
reply
Josephine appeared to mediate, her
head on one side, her brush poised
over her streaming locks. YES" she
said, shortly, The writes
And with that her mother tried to
| be satisfied for the time being
! Not so the other members of the
family. JOS 14-year-ol brother and
| 6-year-old sister and nice middle
aged father were consumed with Curl
oslty over the possibly prospective new
member of the family
| II always knew 10 wouldn't pick
out anybody in this slow old town"
said Billy with utter frankness. land
IT'S Just like her to go in for some
queer duck
Where did you meet him ?" asked
her father
We'll said Josephine. after a mo-
ment's hesitation. II met him at Daisy
Cassell's studio tea
Her father groaned inwardly. The
| kind of a man he would have, well
com ed as a son-in -faw he felt sure
would rather starve than be caught al
tea, let alone a studio tea, which he
vaguely supposed consisted of queerly
gowned women, curly haired men and
anarchistfc conversation. What a pity
Josephine hadn't seen her way clear
to encouraging Dick Borden, the
sood-looking son of his old business
associated There was a coming man
| for you! And, by Jove, there was an
idea! And Mr.. Webster put that same
| idea in his pipe, as the saying goes,
and smoked it good and hard
The first mixing that any one got of
Josephine's near fiance's name was
when Sally sauntered into her sisters.
room and picked up a postal lying
conspicuously on the latters dresser.
Portraying one of the very new stars
in the Russian ballet, it bore in scrawl-
ing letters at the bottom the words:
Until i see you. my soul mate. r.
Nedrobsky.'
The very noon of Josephine's last
day home and of the day of Mr. Ne
drobskys arrival, Mr.. webster COM
| ing home for lunch. sought out his
| wife. ''Helen,' he said what do you
| think? I met Dick Burden downtown.
He asked most kindly after 10 and I
! invited him up to dinner tonight. 10
has been down in that bohemian place
so long she has forgotten what a real
man looks like. Just give her a
chance to see fellow like young Bur-
den alongside of her poet creature and
she'll turn him down-or else be more
Of an idiot than I want to think of
my own daughter"
+, "Well, maybe said his wife, not
without hope herself, but I'm afraid
Josephone won't like it."
AS matter of fact, Josephine was
quite decent about it. She did say
that she supposed it was somewhat
unusual to ask an old sutton to meet
his successor. but if she. could stand
it, she guessed he could and she knew
| her poet was very good sport.
In the late afternoon as the time
| drew near when the invited guest
might be expected to arrive, the Web
ster family found itself disposed on
the front veranda. A general feeling
of excitement was in the air. OF them
| all, the least concerned was Josephine
herself, sitting in the couch hammock
reading, her feet tucked comfortably
beneath her.
Presently a tall figure appeared on
the elm-shaded street, paused at the
gate, and swung in up the path.
| Hello, Dick" shouted Billy.
'How do, Borden said Mr.. Web
ster. advancing with cordially out
| stretched hand.
Hello. there called Josephine
herself, flushing prettily as she drop
ped her magazine and went into the
arms of the newcomer. to the conster-
nation of her open mouthed family.
Did I play the game, 10 dear?" he
asked.
You certainly did," cried. jose
phine, and Selling his hand she faced
her mystified family ALLOW me-"
! she said with a sweeping regal ges-
ture, ito introduce Richard Borden,
| my intended husband
! But = how about this Nedbrobsky
| fellow?" cried Billy. giving utterance
to what all the rest were thinking.
"Why-that old name is only my
| future surname spelled backwards,
with the sky added to give it the
touch you all seemed to demand L
intended to give you just little sur
prise. but when you all insisted on
ascribing to my friends all sorts of
| queer chara cteristics I decided to play
| the game for all it was worth. I just
let your thought run away with you.
| And wrote to Dick about il and that
is why he sent the postal and why he
did not give himself away when father
asked him up here tonight"
But you said you met him at
tea" reproached Sally.
II did, said Josephine promptly,
but I didn't say that was the first
| time 1 had met him. And I told the
truth when I said he writes, for isn't
he the sporting editor of the New
! York Clarfon?"
After supper when Josephine and