The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-07-24
Erening Story
Tilted.
By CRAWFORD LUTTRELL.

She felt as If all the blood in her
slim young body were pounding in
her ears. you mean-you mean that
you don't love me any more?" she
found voice to question.
II didn't say that" he defended
sternly. What I did say was that 1
think it would be better to postpone
the wedding for a few months"
She nervously jerked his ring from
her finger with a cold little hand that
shook no harder than her heart. II
hate you" she said stormily. She
tossed his ring on a little table that
stood between them.
Think it over, Annesi' he said, ig-
noring the glistening circlet that he
had slipped on her Quivering finger
one enchanted night. He picked up
or two when we have had time intelli-
gently to think the matter over and
your anger has cooled"
LAS If it ever COULD" she calculated
scathingly. Il never want to see you
again as long as I live"
She ran up the steps, her sharp lit
tie heels clicking ominously on the pol
ished stairs.
Bob Raymond shook his head sadly
and opened and closed the screen door
with a hand that was not quite steady.
He fingered for a moment, then, head
up. waldo briskly down the scrub
lined driveway.
Upstairs, prone on her dimity COW
cred bed, lay a huddled little figure,
choking back dry sobs.
When at last the tears came. warm
and merciful, they seemed to SUBJ
merge her intolerably aching l-eart I'M
til it grew numb, insensible to the
waves of pain that rolled thru her tor
tured body. Bob had Tilted her. She
would never be able to hold up her
head again. Everybody would talk.
Even when she was a placid, sour old
maid, people would remember and tell
their children and their children's
children all about her humiliating ex-
perience.
Suddenly her wandering thoughts
focused into a resolution. She would
not tell anybody about it for two days.
[ At the end of that time, she would
have assem- bled her trousseau which
was about complete, and she would
leave a letter announcing that it was
impossible for her to marry Bob, that
she was going away and that they
would hear from her again soon. She
would draw enough money out of the
bank to go away-to work somewhere.
OF course, she did not know how to
do thing in the world but girls in
stories frequently went away from
home and made great successes in
! business. What had been done could
be done. Bob would be left to an
/ swer all embarrassing questions.
Accordingly she appeared at the
luncheon table in such high spirits
that her family grew suspicious. Bob
must have brought good news this
morning when he came over here so
early" said her mother curiously.
Anne's heart missed a beat at that.
Bob always brings good news" she
said, and tried to make it sound as If
she meant it. And the news he
brought had broken her heart!
IN
that afternoon at the Country club.
Bob was one of the star players. So
Anne opened her closet door and took
from its shrouding wrappings one Of
the handsomest of her trousseau
gowns of filmy white organdie. With
| it she wore a wide brimmed, dropping
white georgette hat that made her
! look sixteen instead of twenty-five.
To her inquiring mother she ex-
planned that SO many visitors were
expected at the club that day, she had
| decided to wear something especially
pretty.
Out to the court went Anne, her
pretty face glowing and dimpling un-
der a four-cornereds rose-colored para
sol that made a distracting bit of
beauty against the green grass.
She was with a crowd of girls who
were to have been her bridesmaids,
and when by chance they encountered
Bob with an out of town man Anne
was SO much the engaged girl that
nobody could have suspected the truth
about that distressing scene that had
been staged only that morning.
Introductions over, the out of town
man eagerly took the parasol from
her hand. Passing on with him, she
looked over her shoulder to say to the
bewildered vision in white duck and
you will win the match. Don't get
overheated, Bob. dear!" She took care
that only Bob saw the little blue flame
that danced in her hooking eyes.
Then the match was on in which
Bob was to play, and, altho he had
been in fine form only the afternoon
before. he made a poor showing. and
after a few minutes play, even his
devoted admirers conceded that a
prospective bridegroom was in no con-
dition to uphold the honor of the local
men. Five minutes after he had run
out on the smoothly rolled court, the
rose parasol had disappeared from
sight.
Anne had believed herself so brave.
she had been so feverishly certain
that she could see the staggering thing
that had come to her thru without the
flicker of. an eyelash, but she had gam
bled without knowledge of that sensi-
| tive, all-deciding little organ of the
heart.
The sight of Bob doing the usual
| thing in the usual way, with no
thought of the corroding acid of his
suggestion that they postpone the we'd
| ding eating at the root of all her
earthly happiness, had been too much
for her.
Anne stepped into her car and or
dered the chauffeur to drive to the
wonder house that she and Bob had
built and had just finished furnish
ing, in readiness for that great day
when he would lift her bodily and
4 oar n he nj hot 70
their home forever after.
She dismissed her car and, glanc-
| ing back furtively, she went up the
| newly concerted walk for the last
time.
She opened the front door and
/ closed IL nuicklY behind her She