The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-01-16
Evening Story
Loves Old Dream.
~ MARTHA MEG. WILLIAMS

achieved that impOSSibility. Certainly
she awoke feeling horribly en-
/ barrassed, full of hot shame and self
disgust. But as she sat up, rubbing
an eye, glancing about her fine, order
| ly, room, her mood changed utterly
/ she fell back upon the pillow with a
gurgling laugh as she realized that
/ her troubling was a dream-nothing
more.
She lived alone and self-snfficient-
had done II all the thirty years since
her young husband mad died when
they were hardly past the honeymoon.
No recruse; rather a Lady Beneficerk,
helping here. there, everywhere, In
sickness or health, at funerals or fes-
t1vals The neighborhood, whole and
several, swore by her. Some units of
| it swore at her-deep down.
On the surface it would have been
dangerous even for a man who had
wooed and wooed, only to be laughed
away, not withsscorn, but in the kind
lest fashion Nobody had ever been
rejected outright-Mrs. Betty was too
wise, exc too kind, for that. She gave
hearty approval to second marriages.
for other people.
Yet she did not plead devotion to a
memory-rather a PERSONAL shrinking
from any renewal of the double estate.
From the height of a serene maturity
she saw clearly such changes in her
self, as might have made existence
with poor, dead Dudley not a way Of
roses. But never by any chance did
she name such things outside. Indeed.
they remained inarticulate even to her
inner consciousness.
And she had walked from dream
wholly incredible-that PRESLEY Dam
bridge, whom she barely knew, had
driven to her doorstep, asked her out
of hand to marry him-that she had
consented on the spot, filled with
sudden curious heart-warmings toward
him-that when she had gone for her
hat so as to drive away with him to
a minister. she had come back to a
space empty of all but a small, grin
ming black lad, who had piped cheer
lily: Dat are gentemun he told me
ter take an tell you he amt never
comm back, no mo-"
Matter enough for bushes, even by
a widow of fifty, you will admit. Mrs.
Betty's sense of humor was of the
liveliest-as the situation cleared she
laughed on till she was weak.
The joke was too good to keep all
to herself. AS soon as she had her
bath she called up her nearest neigh
Dor and hear gossip, Nanny stowe,
told her all about it. AS she talked
she heard gurgles and explosions of
laughter over the wire-then, stop
page as of a hand over the transmitter
which made her certain Nanny was
retelling the story.
But she did not mind until as sound
murmurs began again she caught
among them a word or two in the
growing bass that could belong to
nobody but Nanny's Uncle Jimmy.
That wouldn't have mattered in the
least except for the fact that Uncle
Il
sworn comrades. Also, that men were
notorious gossips; hence Mr.. Dan
bridge, a widower just feeling his free
dom, would be sure to hear the whole
mess-thus Mrs. Betty mentally char
acterized it, But she called shrilly,
please, please, Uncle Jim, shake your
niece Nanny good and hard for be-
traying my confidence, and then give
your whole mind to forgetting you
heard what she said.'
agreed. Provided YOU won't for
get what you dreamed" Uncle Jim
said with a huge, signing chuckles
Lord! To think of your wasting that
on a dream man-'specially such as
Old Press More'n a dozen of US old
bald coots. sighin' widderers and
mossbacked bachelors, matches to me,
have been ready and anxious to have
you even loek at us, ever since you
took off black Why, any of US d
give his best smile, and his hopes of
heaven for even half a chance ter
spark you. I call it right down I'M
Christian, this dreamin' stunt"
''Wait till l see you. Wire won't
carry what you deserve Mrs. Betty
flung back, slamming the receiver on
the hook. Uncle Jim shook his head,
really achieving a creditable sigh.
"Betty's the best of all women" he
said judicially to Niece Nanny, noy
ing ponderously IN her wake to the
waiting breakfast table.
He looked over it With APPROVAL
was so neat, so pretty, the smell of
everything enough to drive a hungry
man crazy. And he might have it all
the time instead of only when he stay
ed all night somewhere If only he had
wife-the right sort. n
Betty was the right sort-no better
housekeeper in the county-easy to
look at, as the boys said, trim and light
on her feet if she was close on fifty.
OF course shed never really look at
man who had no looks to speak Of
nor much else besides land and money,
and livestock-things for which he
had paid with his youth, his middle
age Work had absorbed him, been
the antidote to heartbreak back in the
early twentieS when a jilt had played
with him. Suppose he had had the
sense, the luck, to try for Betty then?
But she had held fellows off So
never shy, but just SO friendly 1t
smothered all chances of love-making.
He had lived with and for himself.
save for the comradery of his work
ing men and his creatures. She had
been luckier some ways-every child
in the neighborhood loved her-and
the old and poor folk se0ned to feel
she brought sunshine with her, no
matter what the weather.
He had loved driving, striving, thriv-
ing, never taking advantage of ex-
tremity, but joying in good bargains
and ware of making any others. In
cidentally he had been a good neigh
Dor. open-handed to real need, but not
lavish of himself as Betty had been.
Plague on it! They ought to have run
in double harness. Too late now of
course for anything like that-but o!
It was aggravating to think how much
better all things might have been.
Mrs. Betty must have took your ap-
petite, Unc' jim Johnny Stowe said,
trying to heap a third helping of fried
chicken upOn Uncle Tins Mate Tocu-