The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-12-04
Eoening Story
The Red Hat.
BY FREDERICK HART.

in the mirror. And the dress-sh
didn't like it at all. Why oh, why, if
there must be girls on magazine cover1.
she thought, must they wear such
awful clothes? And yet they didn't
look so awful when they were trans
ferred to the artists canvas or printed
and smiling from thousands of news
stands.
But while she didn't at all mind
posing for these saccharine misses,
she did object to wearing clothes
which did not harmonic with her APP
pearance.
For Nellie knew particularly well
Just wha did harmonic. She was
pretty-there was no denying that
and she had studied herself in the
light of the examples she saw around
her every day on Fifth avenue and
other avenues, She knew-oh, she
knewi
But money was money, and she had
not gained her far-famed glory as the
model for all the pretty girls on the
magazine covers without making artis-
tic sacrifices that cut her to the core.
She Ioathed the hats and the gowns.
They were good looking enough, IN
their place, but their place was dis
tinctly not on Nellie. So she thought,
and her usually smiling face re-
Elected her thought as she stepped
from the dressing room into the big,
airy studio.
Arthur Warren was mixing colors
on his palette when she appeared, and
he merely looked up with a brief
Good morning, Miss Bates" as she
entered
AS impersonal as that! Heavens,
thought Nellie, how could he be any,
thing else with that hat in the fore
ground? Anybody would be imper-
sonal to a hat like that.
OF course, she didn't want him not
to be mpersonal-certainly notl He
was her employer, and she was to pose
for him SO that he could make thou
sands and thousands of dollars by
selling her counte1f felt presentment to
editors for the covers of their mid
summer numbers.
And he was a gentleman, even if he
did have nice eyes. No, that wasn't
what she meant; she meant that he
did have nice eyes, even if he was a
gentleman. What an awful hati She
swept to the models stand defiantly.
1t was set with a tea-wagon on which
was an enhancing outlay of glittering
china and silver. Teal 1t was the
fifth time that week she had posed at
a tea-wagon. eff all the tea I'm sup
posed to have drunk" thought Nellie,
were laid end to end it would fill the
Atlantic ocean and slop over on the
Rocky mountains!" From which it
may be deduced that NelIies ideas
were a trifle mixed
"Ah-Ahss Bates" Arthur War
ren's even voice broke in on her jan
gled thoughts, will you please move
that tea-WagOn over toward you a lit
tie? There-that's it. Now sit in that
Dig willow chair and offer me /. cup of
tea. want to get the position worked
out-there! that's good. Can you hold
that for a minute
Miss Bates could and would. She
held the tea out, smiling mechanically;
but her grin was grin of rage.
Just across the room was an ANTIQUE
pler-slass which had been acquired
by Arthur Warren at an auction, Nell
lie. free to let her eyes wander where
she would, happened to glance across
the studio, and for an instant saw her
self reflected in the depths of the clear
mirror. She stared at what she saw
Tor fulI minute Then suddenly she
draw back her arm and with a full
sweep sent the cup hurting thru the
air full at the image.
The fragile china struck the mirror
tulI fortunately the tea in il was
purely imaginary and smashed into a
million pieces. Warren looked up in
startled amazement, to see pretty Nell
lie Bates collapsed in a bundle of green
dress and red hat ca the understand.
sobbIng as tho her heart would break.
His wrath at the smashing of one of
ms favorite tea-cups quickly vanished
at sight of her tears, and he FASTENED
to give her comfort.
why, Miss Batesl What on earth's
the matter? You mustn't break down
like this. Here, here-pull yourself
together. Don't cry-for heayen's
sake! What is the matter with you %
But Nellie would have none of his
| comfort. The matter with her really
was that she was nervously exhausted ;
the strain of many trying days of hard
work, coupled with the repression of a
secret, had undermined her, and the
red hat was Just what was needed to
touch off the mine. The secret?
An. Nellie herself could hardly have
told you that; for she herself was at
times scarcely aware of its existence.
But 1t existed, as she was presently to
find out.
For as Arthur Warren, greatly dis
turbed in his mind, bent over her, his
nano Tor a moment rested on hers, and
In that moment she knew her secret
that she loved him and would love
him always. But the sudden knowl-
edge only made her sob the harder.
suddenly she lifted tear-Stained face
and threw her arms about his neck.
oh, Mr.. Warreni Please hold me.
wear that awful red hat again
Pleasei''
A man with less perspicuity than
Arthur Warren might well have put
down her words for the rawlings OF
hysterfa; but Arthur Warren was a
man of understanding. Also he was
no more proof than any of us would
have been against the girls pleadings
He held her in his arms, rocking her
to and fro as tho she were a tired
child, and murmured words of COM
fort in her ear. Presently she fell
asleep, and he laid her on the couch
while he rang up a doctor.
| Nervous breakdown" commented
the doctor crisply. Nothing serious
| but-snust be careful. Lots of rest
and outdoor exercise. No work for a
while. Diet" here he launched into
a highly technical discussion, to which
Warren paid no attention. He was
making a decision.
Four hours later little Nellie Bates
woke to find herself in a wonderful
pink room, pinker than any room she
had ever imagined. A white-capped