The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-06-07
EoeningS Story
The Turquoise Frame.
BY JESSIE DOUGLAS.

I last meeting him on the fourth land
ing he said Good morning!" and
passed on down the stairs. That was
] what he always did, pass
Nellie shook her head pertlyl and
said, Wen see!' But the strange part
of it was the man on the floor below
! continued to speak when he saw her.
!. and continued to pass her by.
/ 1t was puzzling. She was the pref
Hughes office. And she knew it AL
/ most without exception every clerk had
I made some kind of>advance to her.She
could go out every night if she chose
and even old Mr.. johnson himself had
/ given her theatre tickets.
The girls in the office envied her in
\ their quiet way. She had the palests
fluffiest hair, and she did" it in the
most elaborate style, so that anyone
would have stopped to admire its in
tricacies alone. She rouged, of course.
| Perhaps a little too much, but habit
| dulls the perception Her light blue
| eyes were the color of forget-me-nots,
| her lashes gold tipped, but Nellie
Dwight saw that they came out jetty
black.
Her lips were pretty and soft if
| slightly aided by art. She was pretty.
Startlingly pretty, and she would have
! been a foolish virgin if she had not
known ii. There was never the slight
est doubt in Nellie's mind about her
charm, and she played up to it every
second of her life. Her blouses were
the most elaborate, her stockings the
| sheerest she could buy.
So it was no wonder that she lifted
one plucked eyebrow a trifle and eyed
askance the girl who had just knocked
at her bedroom door.
According to Nellie'S standards. she
was worse than plain, a regular old
maid, not a bit of makeup and her
blouse of irreproachable cut was
opaque. Her hair, it was true. had a
beautiful luster, but it was arranged
so simply that any one could have
done tiff she had time and patience.
Il beg your pardon the girl at the
door said, q realize it's very queer
of me but my brother and Y have seen
you so often on the stairs that al
most feel know you! I'm going away
for two weeks and I'd be grateful if
you'd keep this picture for me-"
She held out a picture in a turquoise
it, laid 1t on her bureau and answered,
Glad to, I'm sure" and then con-
tinued to rouge her other cheek with
the greatest nonchalance.
Nellie did not really bother to look
at the picture until she came in from
the movies that night. She saw that
it was a photograph of a low stone
house, ivy-girdled, with a charming
view of garden and woodland behind
and she guessed shrewdly that it was
Tic 6lIl nOIIe- Inc little frame Oh
oddly cut fiat turquoises was fascinat-r
ing in itself; and then she realized
with a shock the girl had said. Her
brother" Why that must mean the
man on the stairs!
Nellie put the frame in the center
of her bureau and eyed it with fresh
interest. But something was the mat
ter 1t didn't seem somehow to go
with her bright pink bureau set nor
with the artificial geranium that she
had zFrr IN, p hot y oil
Slowly she removed the geranium
and still studied the effect. Some
thing was still wrong.
She had decided to buy herself one
-of those new green hair ornaments,
but THAT noon she found herself in
stead at the toilet goods counter. That
ivory set would go well with the tur-
Quoise frame-she hesitated and then
plunged-and she found herself wait
ing for the 5 o'clock whistle
1t did go welli Somehow the tur-
quoise frame seemed to rest against
that creamy background, and Nellie
eying the bureau critically realized
that something still was the matter.
The imitation lace cover, with the
pink sateen underbody, struck a wrong
note.
1t was queer what happened in the
next week; first Nellie had to get a
linen cover to suit her bureau, instead
of the green slipper buckles she had
saw the bureau stood out like an
island in her tawdry room. The pic
lures on the wall somehow did not fit;
that calendar with the black-eyed
cherub that advertised johnson &
Hughes, the chrome of roses and pan
sizes that was so gaily colored. seemed
to hurt the quiet bureau She took
down the pictures. But now the room
was too quiet.
Another noon found her purchasing
chintz with quaint pink blossoms on a
cream ground, and when she had
made a curtain for her window and
some cushions for her couch, even a
back for her wicker chair, she glanced
The right keynote had been struck.
How it looked as tho it belonged there.
She gave a pleased sigh of self sat
isfaction and went over to the bureau
to look in at her pretty face. She
could see reflected as well, her soft
gray walls with its gay back. Star
ing still at herself it almost seemed as
tho she did not belong-as tho
prised pretty face with the too-pink
cheeks.
What was the matter with herself?
Wasn't she just as pretty as she had
always been-she looked long and re-
sentfully about her, something was
either the matter with the room or
with her and it couldn't be with her.
Suddenly she saw it. She did not be-
long with the room, the room needed
quiet person like the girl with
smooth shining hair and the smooth
pale cheeks
Laughing a little, Nellie ran the
water into her basin and washed off
the rouge on her face, and then slow
" and painstakingly she took out the
forty-three hair pins that were neces-.
sary to her hair dress and began to put
it up very simply. very smoothly above
her white forehead.
What a funny sight you are!" she
said, making a queer little moue.
She flashed a. glance at the tur-
Quoise frame and knew that now she
could walk down those stone steps, out
into that hedged garden as tho