The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-11-14
EDening Story
Starlight.
By JESSIE DOUGLAS

! susan AdWTSHC6 was SldIAAS AlllO
| the mirror above her wash-bowl and
| pitcher when she made this barely
| audible remark. No one else was in
/ the room. 1t was not the kind of room
that Mrs. Tuppit allowed her boarders
to entertain in. If they wished to
| have visitors, she explained, they must
have them II the parlor. But Mrs.
Tuppit's parlor-a rubber plant, with
dusty leaves blocked the window. and
the chairs in ugly tapestry creaked
loudly when Susy sank into their
depths.
She had had only one visitor in Mrs.
Tuppit's parlor, and he had not come
back.
So now Susy kept to her room in
1.-the evenings and could sit in the
straight chair beside the bureau or
on her own cot. Her company was
| limited to one colored print on the
wall and a little row of books on the
window ledge.
Now she had Just thrown her book
down on the cot and gone over to
stare at herself with critical eyes. 1t
was quite true, she did look like an
old maid. Not a hair of her smooth
brown head escaped her hair net, and
her white blouse was so Immediately
clean that it was tiresome. Her brown
ewes had lost their sparkle. She was
neat-oh, wonderfully neat-but that
was all.
what have you got to. complain
OFF" Susy went on harshly to the
ent, your work isn't disagreeable and
you're in New York, where you have
all the advantages
But a little voice on the other side
of her mind interrupted, IF you can
afford EN-
She sat down suddenly on the little
cot. She remembered the small town
she had come from, where any one
could tafford' the cool evening air,
and the white stars. Where any one
could afford the walks thru green
hedgerows, to daisy fields, and where
the air, soft with meadow-sweet and
honey-rich with buckwheat flowers,
was free air.
"Oh, I'd like to go back just once
and see it," she whispered.
Her cheeks -glowed suddenly and
she caught her breath. She made
tumble of handkerchiefs and gloves
and collars as she searched out
time table. Tomorrow was Friday and
perhaps Mr.. Hopkins would let her
have the whole week end!
Mr.. Hopkins did. AS Susy wandered
up the village street to the house with
it's green blinds and old-fashioned
flower garden where she knew she
could have room for the night, the
drowsy peace seemed to flow into her
very SOUL
After she had dipped her face into
the cold spring water and answered all
the questions of Aunt Name" as the
village called her. Susy wandered
down the quiet street.
1t was evening" a little breeze
played Vagrantly with her brown hair
and in a sudden longing for freedom
she reached up and pulled off the
combining hair net. How deliciously
cold was the night air; she turned
back her long sleeves so that her
smooth arms were bare.
There was not a single farmhouse
in sight, just a long gray road with a
white-topped buckwheats field on one
side and the trickle of a brook on the
other side. She wasn't an old maid
any longer, but just girl sitting at
the roadside humming over and over
a few-lines which began:
ooh, the Raggle-Taggle Gypsies, oh!''
She slipped off her shoes and stock
ings and buried her toes in the dewy
grass. Then she heard footsteps beat
ing along the road. If she shrank
back here in the shadow and scarcely
breathed he might not see her. But
he did. He stopped short and wills
tied and then laughed. $50, Polly, you
thought you could hide from meg"
'Pm-Im not Polly" she answered.
He peered down at her closer and
then both of them stared back. The
last time he had, seen her was in Mrs.
Tuppit's parlor, and the last time she
had seen him his broad back was dis
appearing down the steps of the
brownstone house as she looked visit
fully from between the Nottingham
curtains.
He glanced down at her in surprise;
little wisps of her hair blew about
her cheeks and her bare white arms
clasped her knees.
''Why. Susan Lawrence, how you've
changedp he exclaimed, trying to
reconcile this picture with the prim
girl in stiff blouse and SITTER manner
he had seen last.
"And how you've changed. Petite
Harris!" she gibed. with milk pail
on one arm. and"
And you want to be off with the |
raggIe-taggle gypsies, do you?" he
chuckled.
Susy stood up suddenly, poised on
bare feet, and clutching her shoes in |
one hand she made a little break down |
the road. 1t was starlight; there was
something provocative in the way she |
laughed back over her shoulder, and |
Peter Harris forgot everything but
that she was a fleet white thing who |
was teasing him. He set his milk pail |
down, and in a few strides he had |
caught her, and looking down into her |
hooking face he said sternly: ST
came into the city to see you, and /
when you sat across the room from
me L couldn't talk to you, and the /
way you had-so stiff and cityfied-t
put me Off never dared to go
Then very suddenly he leaned down
and kissed her.
She broke away from his arms, and
this time she did not take a few fleet
steps, but she ran breathless, with
humping heart, thru the meadow
grass that cut her feet, stumbled into
a rabbit hole. was up again with a
sobbing breath and down the back
road to Aunt Names white cottage.
The screen door snapped behind her,
and she reached the white fastnesS of
her room, still unseen
She. Susy Lawrence. had been
kissed under the stars by a man she
hadn't seen for a year! She knew
all of a sudden why she had come
back to the village. 1t was not the
green hedgerows nor the daisy fields
1t was not the white stars nor the
meadow-sweet, but just Petite Harris,
with his brown skin and his clear
and voice and strong