The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-06-07
lust A GIRL
By JANE PHELPS
NOODND1I II
CHAPTER Z.

When Kenneth Lawrence came to
say goodbye, mother of course went
down with me. really felt sorry he
was going, and of course showed it
rather plainly. He, too, seemed to
feel badly to leave me. He held my
hand quite long time-I didn't real
ize it until saw mother fidget. Then
knew. He said he would write-he
didn't say with mothers permission,
| as of course he should have done.
Then he asked me to write him.
| 1 never looked toward mother. L
didn't dare. 1 just said 1 would, and
he held my hand again. Then he said
| goodbye to mother.
| Mother gave me an awful talking
to after he left. She said shipper
ed" and acted silly with a young man
asked her if she would call it shipper
ing if it had been Jack Pryor or
Gregory Stuart. She flushed red as
could be and changed the subject.
| I wondered a lot what Kenneth
meant by that remark he made at my
birthday party-that he might say
things he had no right to say to
girl like me. I was just like the other
girls-Claudia, Rose and Edith. How
wished he had said what he wanted
to- wouldn't have spent so much
time thinking of him if he had!
|
| long walks with Kenneth Lawrence.
It really didn't make any difference,
because he had gone and / couldn't
go with him any more anyway. But
tmother gave be another talking TO.
| I cried little over some of the things
she said. I couldn't see that I had
done anything wrong, even after she
got thru telling me how dreadful 1t
was for me to run around unchap-
eroned with strange man.
you talk as if he were freak of
some kind!" I declared.
He isin't the kind of young man
I wish you to encourage"
But what's the matter with him
He's we'll born" That was one of
mothers pet expressions-that and
saying a place or thing had tone"
1T isn't his fault he hasn't any
money. Perhaps his father didn't leave
him any like Jack Pryor's father did.
1 think it Is wonderful for him to
strike out for himself in a new .coun-
try''-Kenneth's expression, that he
had used when talking to himself.
| well. he's gone and we'll forget
all about this. What shall you wear
to Claudia's party? Come, we'll look
over your wardrobe" and. generous
as always, mother insisted I should
have a new dress. I didn't need it
one bit, but I think she felt sorry she
had made me cry, and was trying to
make up.
But if va didn't talk of Kenneth,
if she stoi~5ed me doing that, she
couldn't stop my thinking of him.
Claudia had a brother who used to
talk of his "think-tank'- 1
worked my think-tank overtime.
Mother would have been. wiser to
/ have allowed me to talk of Kenneth.
Perhaps 1 wouldn't have thought so
much about him if she had.
| There are some things that even
| do r-1jr Ea
understand.
Dad was real nice when 1 asked
him what he and Kenneth talked
about. He didn't try to put me off
finished that mother wouldn't allow
me to speak of Kenneth; that she
had said we would forget him now
that he was gone. Dad looked kind
of sheepish when did tell him. Then
he had said:
| That fellow will get on. He was
! telling me of his ranch life. 1 think
he is about right in his ideas of liv-
| ing. One gets stale in cities. An out
door man is always more breezy. He
| is doing well, too, L judge-probabl bly,
will be a big man in that country
some day. He says a man has
chance to expand out there. I guess
he is right"
you like him. don't you. Dad?''
| Every muchi Nice wide-awake,
sensible fellow, well educated and well
read
| HE doesn't dance, Or
! at seems to me have heard little
| girl not so far away from me grumble
| because some mans brains were all in
his feet Loung Lawrence's aren't
so close to the floor"
/ I laughed, then told him about
mother, and he looked guilty. But he
didn't take back anything he had said
| about Kenneth.
(Tomorrow-A letter.