The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-11-30
Eoening Story
Garrett Hume's Opportunity.
BY WILL T. AMES!

the gate and hurried up the gravel
walk. He fairly radiated optimism.
The very gesture with which he waved
his hat with one hand, while the other
busted itself with the gate latch, was
significant of a spirit OF triumph. His
smile was a sunbufst.
Joyce could not help thinking that
there was that about Hume, some
times, which suggested a prep school
boy lost in the sanguine excitement of
| the days football match, rather than
! a veteran of a hundred CHASTITY days
/ in the forest" and a man with his
face set to the serious business of max
ling a way and a place for himself
tious smile was reflected in the serious
gray eyes Of the girl as she greeted
him.
Somebody leave you a million. Gar
rett pa she called to him before he
reached the veranda steps; "or did you
| win set of tennis? Something's hap
tpened, I know, you're bubbling like a
tgeyser."
Hume threw himself down on the
top step, tossed his hat down beside
him. leaned his back against the
wooden column that thanked the steps
and clasped both hands around a
knee
"Nobody's left me a nickel-and I
don't want anybody to; 1 don't need
that kind of softly luck. And I'm thru
with tennis-and all the rest of the
lfoolishness. JOY. But something has
happened.
"Joyce''-the young mans face took
on suddenly an expression of great
earnestness, an earnestness in which
there was just suggestion of awe
Joyce, L. fancy there's something to
that saying about opportunity coming
-
has come"
An observer less influenced by the
equation of personal interest than Gar
rett Hume might have read more than
he did in the abrupt flash of concern
that came into the gray eyes All that
she said. however, was, Tell me-
Garry"
you've heard me talk about
Neville, our major, Joy-'Mad Hal
they called him-the chap who took
our battalion a mile farther than his
orders-and pried a Hun division
apart by doing it. Well, he's in on a
big deal in China, a railroad conces-
sion, and he has offered me rafting
good position out there and a tiny in
terest in the syndicate-gratis, of
course, for he knows 1 haven't any
money. The salary is three times as
much as I've ever had. to say nothing
about the ultimate profit and the get
fairs"
There was eager expectancy in
Hume's manner of looking at the girl
as he told his big news. But Joyce
had drawn a spray of the honeysuckle
to her and her head was bent over it
feet and coming close to her as he
spoke,
Joyce, dear" he said. this means
success-it is success You know 1
have only waited for the justification
of assured position, of decent income,
o ask you to marry me. 1t has come.
You wfIl-won't you, Joyce7 And go
out to China with me? I have ac-
cepted, of course-Pd be crazy not to-
But it would spoil it all if you didn't
go with me-
Joyce's cheeks were a little pale, but
her voice was cool and firm as she re-
piled after an instant's pause: Garry,
Esft down here and let me talk to you.
Laddie, 1 care for you more than any
one else in the world; but I am not
going out to China with you. 1 am
not going to promise to marry you. I
do not agree with you that this chance
of yours is in itself a success And I
cannot marry you unless you succeed.
Wait-it will do no good to insist. This
life. I must make my own decision,
and make it out of my own heart and
my own mind. I have made it,
Joyce. don't say that it is moi"
mo. Garrett, will not say that. 1t
would be as unfair to me as to you.
My decision is this: You must take
two yearS-two full years. While you
are out there. you may write and L
will answer; but there must be no re-
newai of this subject during that time.
Then, Garrett, if you have really and
truly succeeded, if you can show me
that you are a man in whose hands I
can safely entrust my life, and that
you are beyond the possibility of fall
ure. it shall be as you wish if you still
want me for your wife"
That was in August. In September,
two years later, the Asiatic mail
brought to Joyce Allerton the most
| tragic epistle she had ever received in
her life. 1t was dated at Shanghai, on
the anniversary of the day when Hume
so joyously announced the arrival of
his greatest opportunity. Joce read:
'This is the last day. In the face of
every misfortune, of each bitter dis
| appointment, 1 have fought down
| despair and chung desperately to hope
| until now. 1t Is the end, of course.
Instead of having made the success
you so rightfully demanded, instead of
having attained to position and for
tune and the assured capacity for pro-
! lection which a girl like you has every
| logical reason to expect in her hus-
band, have to confess myself not
only failure, but a failure so COM
! plete and disastrous as to present, In
contrast to my cocksure Dragging on
that last day at home with you, a
| spectacle of sprawling comicality like
one of those slapstick clowns that
everybody used to buffet in the
movies.
I've told you a good deal in my
letters, Joyce-how poor Neville
concessions turned out to be only half
baked after all and how his luck didn't
stick to him as it did in the Argonne
and how his fine New York friends
stood out from under when the Japs
| diplomatized his railroad into their
own hands and left him flat broke;
how he offered to send me home with
his last five hundred-and his wife
sick unto death at Chicago; how OBJ
| tanned a position in Hong Kong and
| how hoped for something better very
soon and all that kind of thing But