The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-09-22
EDening Story
CarIotta's Second Love.
nv n LOUIS RAYBOLD.

! BY II. LOUIS RA BOLD.
Its out of the question. Mark" and
CarIotta's voice was very determined.
I'VE are too utterly different in tenn
= permanent, and besides. have a theory
that no girl should marry her first
love"
Rats" Marks explosive utterance
matched the disgust in his look Car
lotta wasn't at all the sort of person
from whom to expect theories. being
plumply. prettily feminine, with visit
full eyes and a dimpIe in the chinward
corner of her cheek.
The girl drew her brows together in
! a little frown of displeasure. Il sup
pose that seems silly to you she said,
but, conceding that 1 am somewhat
fond of you, am afraid it is proba bly,
a case of being in love with love
liking the candy you brsGe me, the
orchestra seats for the best shows and
little attentions generally. A girl
ought not to marry until she's had an
opportunity to make comparisons"
And by the same token,H came
back the man promptly, Il suppose I'd
feel surer loved you if you were the
ninth or tenth on my list of lady loves,
instead of being the first and only!''
Nonsense" Carlotta lightly re-
pudiated the compliment. No man
ever marries his first love, who was
probably his Sunday school teacher
And, anyway, what proof have 1 that
you really and truly do love me?" and
she smiled tcasingly.
Possibly it was that smile that did
it.-At any rate, Mark rose from his
chair, speaking coldly, deliberately:
'Carlotta, you've often accused me of
not approaching your work. Heaven
knows that if you really were that rare
bird, genius, I hope I would not have
the nerve to propose marriage to you
But it seems to me you were destined
Tor other things than mussing up can
vases with pictures that look to me
IKE Italian scenes laid in Russia with
Oriental fairgrounds.
However. 1 daresay that's where /
snow my Ignorance. But as to this
business OF whether I really love you
ana this tommyrot about marrying
your first love-weH, here's hoping
your second love has better luck than
l did! and with a bow intended to be
Doth Slightly ironic and extremely dig
nl1led, Mark opened the door and went
out.
Carlotta, astonished, looked after.
mn niI1 ooubtfu!Iy. Was he really accept
ing his dismissal with so little protest
Mark.
So completely lacking any tiniest bit
OF creative genius which would help
MIN understand her own intense
safely unromantic that he could not
comprehend her desire to be sure that
IL was love with a capital L he Of
Tered, before surrendering to it!
A month later Carlotta sold her first
picture, at a price far less than she
expected-but then, to sell one at all
was something. And the girl regu-
larly took a roundabout way home to
look at it-in the window of the small
novelty shop where it was displayed
along with crochetted outfits for in
rants and hand-painted place cards.
Evidently Mary had also seen the
picture, with the artists name plainly
sprawled in the corner, for one night
when he and Carlotta found them
selves adjacent strap-hangers in the
subway, he extended his congratulate
tons And Carlotta, frankly pleased.
added to her thanks the little remark
that she had missed his calls.
Same here" had answered Mark,
but by Jupiter. he had been working
his darned head off lately, and had
had to let all social duties go hang
If Carlotta felt touch of chagrin that
she had become merely one of Mark
Tasting social duties" her extreme
" sweet smile at parting successfully
concealed it from him.
For Mark had a rival. A few days
after the sale of her picture, the post
man had brought Carlotta a letter
whose writer, on delic9tely perfumed
paper, begged her, in a flowing hand,
to pardon his effrontery in addressing
her, and to permit him to express his
JOY in her picture, which touched
within him, SO he wrote, a responsive
chord. He signed himself, briefly.
Gustave.%
Other letters followed, Of increasing
bulk, whose contents took the entire
world of art for their own, interpreted
here and there with casual personal
illusions calculated to arouse in Car
lotta an inevitable interest in the
writer. And Carlotta, recent graduate
of a small town art school," sat rev.
erently at the feet of this authority
and drank in his dissertations on pig
ments and shading and tricks of fore
shortening and anecdotes of the great
masters.
Often she meditated on the utter
dissimilarfty of the two men. The
very difference in their letter writing
methods was significant Carlotta,
lingering in her coat pocket one of
Gustave's wen-filled envelopes, com
pared it with the thin epistles she had
received from Mark, away on a brief
vacation,
II simply can't express my thoughts
on paper" he had apologized. i've
got EN-, but they aren't trained to go
thru a fountain pen.''
ct dIter InaC SUBWAY meeting with
Mark, she sometimes wondered if it
were possible to be in love with two
men at once. Certainly she had felt a
very great thrill of pleasure when she
saw Mark, thrill as genuine as it was
unexpected. And equally ppignant
had been the pang when he calmly
told her he was too busy to call. On
the other hand, wasn't she little in
trigued with this strange correspond
ent who so ably interpreted his-and
her-soll in terms of art?
On the very day that Carlotta, with
mingled expectancy and misgiving s
had decided to yield to Gustave's plea
that she meet him in a Unlicensed
room of the Art museum. Carlotta met
a friend who worked in the same
building where Mark had his office as
claim agent for the Interstate trolley