The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-09-02
EUening Story
Engaged.
BY JESSIE DOUGLAS.

bI JESSIE DOOG44Acs
well. Martha" Mrs. Kent said
plaintiveIy. MEL dropped in to tell
me he was engaged"
"Engagedlr Martha whispered.
The color Redeemed her fine wni-e
skin, and then she was as white as a
pear blossom. She held up her head
very high and walked out of the room.
But when she had crossed the thres-
holo, and was sure she was out Of her
| mothers sight, she reached up fur
lively and wiped away the tears that
were trimming her ayes.
Mei-engaged.
To Della, of course-Della, with her
bobbed hair and her swinging ear
rings and pretty painted lips ana her
naughty dark eyes. Martha had seen
it all along; she<knew that he only
Swallowed porch because it was SO
near by. She knew that it was the
tinkIe of her iced tea in tall glasses,
ard her mothers cream cake. that he
enjoyed better than all their CONVEX
sation.
Her mother had told her over and
over again that she must talk and
laugh the way Della did. But some
thing in Martha raised a high stone
wall across which she gazed at any
young man with frightened, paipitant
heart.
If the man were ever so old, or
homely, or forsaken, Martha was
charming. Her blue eyes danced. and
the dimples in hiding came out to
help her smile.
But that was just the trouble with
Mel Hall. He was not old or homely
or forsaken. All the girls in town
were interested in him, and let him
see it. too. Som etimes Martha thought
he chose their shadowy, fragrant
porch because he could take a little
1--+u Hon
and the following glances of admir-
ing eyes.
She couldn't talk to him. She could
listen to him. She loved the sound of
his deep voice with its velvet drawl.
She loved to see him bend over his
cigaret in the darkness while the
lighted match showed her his clear
cut features-the boyisk mouth, the
straight nose. the teasing, laughing
eyes she loved.
Loved. She came to that word and
her heart seemed to drop away. She
couldn't go on loving him in secret
any more. Not when Della, with her
provocative glances and her cigaret-
stained fingers. claimed him. Martha
could almost fancy Della laughing at
her secretly all this time, and calling
her, poor old maidI" for that was
You'll be an old maid. Martha. with
your stiff ways; that's not the way to
treat men. Look at Della!"
Oh, yes; her mother was right; but
now, at least, she wouldn't spend any
more of those times in which she told
herself that she would try to copy
Della. She could just go on being her
self and not letting any one know that
her heart was breaking under her pale
organdie frock.
Yet she remembered how she had
stolen up to her own room at night
M in a
the shy blue eyes, color of peri-winkles
and at the shining hair that she I'M
wound from the banded coils about
her head, and thought he might grow
to love her.
She wasn't the kind of girl who
could laugh and play and tease, like
the other girls. She was horribly old
fashioned and she knew it.
Sometimes Martha had slipped to
her knees and said a very short, very
childish prayer, and after it was over
and she lay IN her narrow white bed,
she could almost believe that Mel Hail
would come to care for her sometime
Yet every word that her mother said
was true, she was just like little
frozen statue of a girl, a picture of
a girl when Mel dropped in at the
Kent's shady porch and smoked a
cigaret for a moment before he swung
on down the street.
And now he was engaged. All her
tiny hopes were frustrated and Martha
knew that now nothing mattered:- that
she could settle back and be an old
maid in peace and even endure in ST.
lence the daily iteration of her moth
er's plant.
Now she walked down Sthe porch
steps and down the street with the
armful of blue iris that she was TAX
ing crippled Miss Davey.
Here she was calmly going on about
hay nd lie aE hn ut
breaking within her!
Hi, Martial"
She lifted her head from the even
squares of her pavement to See that
Mel Hall was waving to her. All of a
sudden she knew she wasn't afraid of
ineligibles; the men who were almost
as easy to talk to as women.
'1 want to congratulate you'll"
Martha said, quietly.
Thanks" he said briefly, and
rather shyly. you know 1 was just
looking at this house on the old Saun-
ders place-it's to leland wondering
what could be done with it,"
ST love old houses; let me explore
it with you" Martha said calmly.
She knew very well he was looking
at it for Della Summers, but she
didn't care. She did like old houses,
and always planned how she would
paint and paper and hang curtains.
Mel thrust up window and pulled
Martha in after him. She came in
tumb1ing and rose checked, and
laughed with feigned gayety when she
saw the blackness of his hands and
her own dusty marks.
Like the living roomi" he asked, !
suddenly.
why, it's darlingI You can paint
the woodwork ivory white and put up
orange curtains and get that lovely |
old mahogany down at Henderson's. J
Here's a hearth and space between the |
windows for bookshelves," she ram |
bled on delightedly, until she saw him
watching her. and remembered, with
hot-cheeked dismay, that it was his |
house and Della's she was planning. |
go on" he said. do the dining |
room!" as they strolled into the lang |
bay-wipdowed room
Its your turp," she said. |
He told her~fhat he'd like it in blue; |
he'd always wanted a dining room in |
blue, but would she like it?