The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-09-23
EDening Story
Vi0let-and the Voice
BY RUBY DOUGLAS.

Violet Sherwood had fallen in love
/ with voice. She was a telephone
operator in a village exchange and she
| listened all day to various kinds of
voices.
ITS just spring. VIZ said her chum
when Violet confided to her that she
had become enamoured of voice.
! Violet shook her head. mo. Grace;
I'm really and truly in love with him"
| she confessed.
! But you don't know who he is. He
may be married-or older homely."
He may be-but his voice is the
most wonderful thing in the world to
me-"
Violet learned, in the course of a
| few weeks, that the voice belonged to
village board. 1t came continually
from that office and at last she learned
the identity of the man.
| Unlike the modern girl, Violet was
| shy about men. She had never been
thrown with them and she had never
cared even slightly for any of the boys
whom she had met in business or at
school. Now she dreamed of this man
with the wonderfully rich, gentle voice,
but she dared not try to see him.
"Oh, vi" cried her chum one day,
bouncing into the exchange office and
coming close to where Violet sat at
the switchboard, 81 have seen your
Voice.''
Violet blushed. Really, Grace?
WHAT
| He's a widower, middle aged, not
| bad to look at. 1 had to go for my
dog license and got into his office by
mistake. He was very kind but-well,
I'm not crazy about him. His name is
| Valentine, tooi"
Eyes, know his name, George VAL
| entine. He comes of Quaker stock and
is very well thought of in the village"
| said Violet.
Grace laughed "Oh, no, so you
/ have been looking him up?"
| Just casually Violet admitted. 81
wish-I wish he wouldn't use the
phone when I am on. His voice up
sets me for the whole day. IL Won
der if love always does that?"
Grace slipped the instrument over
her carefully arranged hair. "Oh'
sure it does; specially in April, kid"
Violet sighed. IT'S just like me to
fall in love so foolishly. My mother
calls me esthetie because I am so
much affected by tones, colors. voices
''Nutty. I'd say" laughed Grace.
| Number, please?"
Violet went off duty that day won
dering why it had been her fate to
| fall in love with a widower cid enough
| to be her father and one whom she
| had never seen. And yet in love she
| knew she was.
The following Sunday she decided
| to get out into the woods to look for
| spring flowers. Another sign of be-
| ing in love" her chum had told her.
She walked along the highway I'M
| til she came to a hillside where she
knew there would be an abundance of
/ spring blossoms. She did not wander
| far from the edge of the woods for
she had told her mother rot to worry.
why is it that I love the flowers
| SO much more this spring? she asked
! herself as she gathered sprays of ar
butus and here and there an anemone.
! ''They are so wonderfully sweet" She
| buried her nose in the dewy depths of
the pink blossoms.
Suddenly she looked up. She had
| heard a voice-the voice.
A little car had stopped at the
woods edge and a young man had
| jumped out. Yep, Dad; it's flati"
! Violet observed that the owner of
the voice was young-too young to be
widower. She wondered if Grace
could have been deliberately playing
with her. But no, she remembered,
| the commissioner of finance whose
voice she knew she was in love with
was a widower and middle-aged. But
this lad had the same voice.
| Violet stood still in the woods. The
trees partly hid her from the street.
"Wait, I'll give you a hand" said a
man in the same voice.
| Violet moved so as to see the two
men who were in the little roadster.
A middIe-aged man had aighted and
was taking off his coat preparatory
to removing the flat tire.
| 1.-TWO of Them" said Violet to her
| self. She heard the men talking and
| she knew that the son had inherited
the rich, mellow tones of his father.
| She stirred and the two working on
the tire looked up.
The young fellow stared almost.
| Then, in low tone. he said some
thing to his father.
AS Violet came toward them to
reach the highway again. her hands
full of flowers, the young man raised
his cap and came toward her.
Aren't you Violet Sherwood who
used to be in my class in the Glen
Ridge schoel?" he asked.
Violet blushed pinker than the
went to Glen Ridge school butt
don't remember you. I'm sorry
The young man laughed. 81 can't
( tell you why 1 remember you, either
but 1 did. My mother died and
| they sent me off to boarding school
Dad-oh. I beg pGrdon-my father,
Mr.. Valentine, Miss SherWood-rny
dad doesn't like to be bothered with
me about the place"
his sons shoulders. Miss Sherwood
does not believe that, I'm sure
Violet thrilled at the voice she had
| been cherishing as her romance. mo
| Il don't, quite, Mr.. Valentine" she
| heard herself saying stupidity. TT
think I know you, over the telephone,
| do I not?' she asked the father.
I The man hesitated for an instant
Then a smile came to his lips. smile
| that had in it as much of personality,
| of magnetism as his voice. "Oh, are
| you the little operator who so quickly
and courteously gets me my numbers
in the n1orning?" he asked, looking
at her intently.
Violet nodded. at do get YOUR
/ numbers every morning, Mr.. Valen-
| tine and when 1 heard your sons
voice moment ago. was startled
1 thought it was you"
The younger man was busy replac-
ing tire on the wheel. He was anx-