The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-03-30
Eoening Story
A Grub Worm and Butterflies.
A. MARIA CRAWFORD

and rich young cousin at Chestnut
Lodge, q 1uxuriousK furnished place
in the. Chilhowee mountains. Jane
knew we'll enough that she would II
into the crowd Alma would invite
about as successfully as a square peg
been finishing her education/ at Sc
4 lect school for fashionable young girls,
4 Jane had been earning livelihood Tor
1 herself and her widowed mother Dy
:. the unromantic route of stenography.
She did not give herself any airs
and call herself Mr.. Mathews private
;secretary, altho her duties embraced
everything from office boy to general
manager of the big marble quarry, of
which Mr.. Mathews was president.
The war had hit the marble industry
pretty hard blow and Jane had gem
erously given her youthful strength.
energy and enthusiasm to keeping
dows expenses until the quarry began
to pay again. Labor was nigh.
A man operating q derrick demand
ed $3.50 per day. and even the water
boy, a half-witted lad of thirteen.
dtew s2.5o Machinery, long idle. had
rusted and had to be replaced But
the market had suddenly opened with
q bang and Jane dreamed wonderful
dreams of helping poor old Mr.. Math-
ews get back on his feet in the finan-
cla1 world. 1t was a sort of debt of,
gratitude.
Mrs Mathews had been the very
first person to go to their aid when
James father had died suddenly, leav-
| ing his widow and daughter only a
modest little home and no means with
which to keep it. It~had been Mrs.
Mathews who suggested business col
lege and place later in her husbands
office.
When the invitation to visit her
pretty, frivolous cousin in the noun
tains had come. Mrs. Mathews had
Joined with James mother IN urging
the girl to go.
She had not been in the house
more than six hours before she real
ICED with a real pang of heart hunger
that she was an outsider and that all
the cousin1y tact in the world could
not make her enjoy herself A grub
a butterfly.\ The small talk of the
girls consisted of clothes. boredom
and gossip. The men frankly. made
love to all the girls and wefe too
free. jane thought. with their care
fully mahicured hands. T..
Jane never knew how she man
aged TO get thru those first try
ing days She was perfectly miser-
able and she tried to hide -its- Alma
insisted on lending her exquisite
demurred at the idea of borrowed
finery. So she wore the simple. in
expensive things and regarded her.
self as a drab-colored grub worm
among brilliantly hued butterflies
Saturday morning came and the
entire party motored down to the
station to meet several men who had
been slured from business by the
hunting Alma's game preserve of
fered. When the train pulled in
else. Jane alone remained an out
slider. And then a big jolly fellow,
whose brown hair 4 wae already
streaked becomingly with gray, came
UP TO her, cap IN hand = = s-s2izsI
They. gre too busy@to notice. That
we do not know each other" he
said smilingfy. Il am Phil Mars
den.' L
He managed to sit beside her on
the waXato the lodge and for the
first time since her arrival, Jane felt
herself one of the party. Alma
told me all about you," he said,
and 1 have been keen ever since 4
then to know you. 1 do admire a
girl Who can hold her own against
Jane felt real relief at that. He
knew then that she did not belong
to that crowd! She was not sailing
under false icolors. She laughed SO
heartily at one of his stories later
brows and inquired in his drawing
fashion, "Oh, 1 say, Miss Jane.
you're positively lovely when you
laugh laugh; Why hsyen't-you done it be-
Phil asked her to walk around thei
lake before luncheon and it was with
d fast beating heart that Jane pre-
pared to dress for her first real en-t
gagement- there. She had laid ouk
little blue serge SO skillfully embroid-1
cred by her own nimb1e fingers that
it looked as if it might be anybody's |
expensive model. She was just getting |
into it with rather trembling hands |
when the bright sun of her happiness
was promptly obscured by the remark 4
of the sophisticated little mink who |
was rooming with her.
81 knew that Phil would be nice to |
you. He's engaged to Alma, you know.
and OF course he wants to make a good
impression on his new cousin to be-"
Jane hurried downstairs and fairly |
invited Tony Gaines to go walking with |
her. Then she asked Alma to tell Phil /
that she had already gone.
when she came back, glowing from |
her brisk walk and also from the |
knowledge that she found herself able /
to gain the interest OF the inimitableJ
Tony to such an extent that he hadl
straightway made an engagement with |
her for the afternoon, she set herself |
the pleasant, womaniy task of showing
her biack-haired little roommate that I
she did not need Phil Marsdeh's kind |
ness. 1t was as ID a witch had given |
her D charm to ensnare men. She had /
flattered Tony. 1t had worked mar |
velously. She proceeded to try the |
same method on the others-alI but |
Phil. BY nightfal1 the girls began to Il
regard her curious1y. Then they grew 7
exceedingly friendly. When they were |
dressing for dinner Alma came into |
James room and again offered her a
beautiful evening dress. this time a
reslda green one with iridescentt
spangles like star dust:
Jane accepted it eagerly. For the |
first time in her wholesome young life
she longed for az look of admiration
in one mans eyes. whether she had a
right to- it or not, She had always
known that it wopld happen to her
like that, that when love came it [
would come blindingly. When Phil T
Marsdep smiled at her she felt her
thudding heart drawn right up to mir
ror itself In her happy eyes.
.1-sr it,, H.