The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-01-14
Eoening Story
A Pair of GRAY Ewes.
BY JESSIE DOUGLAS


Pauline Graydon was too tired to go
out for her dinner. She crept up the
stairs and felt her way across the hall.
which was unlighted. She fumbled at
a knob and pushed the door open.
The familiar bulk of her couch stood
beneath the window and she crumpled
down on it. wondering for moment at
the roughness of the cover and the
hardness of the pillow.
She had thought how delicious it
would be to slip down with the pillows
about her and sleep! But now as she
lay there she found she was too tired
to sleep. Too tired to do anything but
think.
This everlasting thinking - where
was it leading? Loneliness and weari-
ness and a daily round of duties in this
cold, hard city.
How gayly she had started out from
home! She could remember the bright
crisp morning when she had said good
by to her mother, blowing last kisses
as she turned down the village street:
Now she could never return to the viii
lage again and the white house that
stood a the crossroads.
Her sister Margaret was married and
her mother had gone to live with her
in California.
She did not know how long she slept.
she stretched out 1uxuriously and then
lay shifting the air
What was it? Enthusiastically the
odor of tobacco came to her nostrlls;
she thought she could almost see the
blue cloud and she Strengthened up on
the couch and gave a faint "ohy of
fear. For there across the room in her
chair sat some one-and spark
showed where his ripe must be
What are you doing here?" she
asked. and her voice sounded very
queer. because she tried to make 1t
sound even.
The man stumbled to his feet and
struck a match and held it to the gas
jet. Then he looked across at her
with as much surprise as she stared
back at him.
"If ybu'u go at once." Pauline said,
flushing
She saw that he was not a person
to be afraid of. His face was kind and
plain, and tho his hair was ruffled
where he had passed his hand thru it.
he did not look in the least like bur-
glar.
Where would you like me to go?"
he asked her.
Pauline looked back at him with all
her dignity aroused. She could not
know that her cheeks were flushed
from sleep and her hair had slipped
down and that it gave her altogether
the look of little girl.
you see. a man is usually master
in his own kingdom" he explained,
"a1tho it is pretty dingy principal
ity."
Pauline, rubbing her eyes. stood up
and saw with dismay and chagrin that
she was in a strangers room, She
stammered something indistinctly and
knocked into a violin case that lay on
the table.
st was so tired-and I just came in
and lay down and thought it was my
room, in the dark you know she
said. meetin" those friendly gray eyes.
$50 other people feel like that, too2"
he asked IT was so sick OF it all, the
loneliness and the wretchedness, that
I came in without any dinner and sat
down in the dark here-just to think"
She backed toward the door, and
then the impulse was stronger than
her reason.
SCI have a tiny stove in my room, and
I might make you something to eat"
But the man with the gray eyes
shook his head.
"Oh. no, our landlady would never
allow that. But if you would just have
dinner with me tonight? I know it
isn't done, but just for that reason
because we are both so lonely and so
much alike
Pauline nodded.
But when she stood in her room,
she saw what an utterly mad thing
to dinner with man she had never
seen before! She wasn't even very
sure how he looked. His eyes were
gray and his hair was brown and ruff
fled. She thought he had worn a blue
serge suit-but what could one tell of
a man from that?
Why, thousands of men had gray
eyes and wore blue serge suits. And
she had just said, yes" because she
was lonely and tired of herself for
company.
She wouldn't go
But she stood before her mirror and
began to brush her brown hair and do
it up in that becoming way that she
had learned last week She inspected
her best gloves and took out a fresh
pocket handkerchief: she even looked
at her new hat with a question.
Then she sat down. OF course. she
wouldn't go! What had she been
thinking of? She would just tell him.
Politely of course. that she had
changed her mind.
When a few minutes later a timid
knock sounded on her door. she an
swered with her mind all made up.
But Miss Sweeney. the little spinster
who lived on the first floor, stood
there smiling.
81 want to introduce you to Mr..
Peter Holland, Miss Graydon." Miss
Sweeney said in her cracked high
voice. ''He used to live where I did
in Hackettstown, and he would like us
both to have dinner with him.
An hour later, as Pauline caught
the eyes of Peter Holland on her, she
smiled back at him across the table.
Between them Miss Sweeney kept up
a continual chatter, but words meant
nothing to Pauline when she saw in
a pair of gray eyes message of
friendship, a growing admiration.
warning of something that was to
blot all these out and make life some
thing happier than she had ever
known 1t.
Copyright 1921, by the Mcclure News
paper Syndicate)