Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-07-15
Nydia..

A T 20 NydiA was commanded By
~ fate 10 live UP to her name,
Thus was her father, Welsh,
u romantic, in twenty years haY.
ing read THE Last Days Of
Rompeiir twenty times, justified In
the name he had given her. Nydia
had never read the book. She did
not know. that her namesake was
heroic. 4s
Nyiia had never had time to be
romDntic. The only daughter, she
had seen to" her mother. an aunt.
her father. two uncles, and at last
an aunt come to Bucktown quite I'M
anticipated out of the West. She had
lighted the dusk for each of these
until the seyening star of another
world had risen for them. She had
fumbled through twilight of her
own then. Her evening star, in!
explicahiy, did not rise. She recov-
cred. Whether her breakdown" was
due to the fifty thousand unexpectedly
left her by the last aunt, the aunt
from the West, or TO the sudden stark
emptiness of her hands after this
last aunt had followed the others Of
her family to the couch more mag
indecent. none knew The old doctor
who had watched her for twenty
+ y
tarium. There q nurse, mighty
miracle woman, transformed her from
a limp trembler of so into a healthy
fresh skinned woman ready for some
living at 40. looking not 80.
What didn't that nurse know
about beauty. Baths and exercise.
jars and jars of cold cream, play and
books and people and above all,
holiness, that nurse recommended.
And Nydia came to be almost bold.
And she came TO be strong and hope
full, interested in people, and, inevi-
tably. interesting. @
She came little before the "rush"
to the ocean resort the nurse di-
rected her to. She was to spend the
Summer there. She could not go
back to Bucktowp.. The, nurse would
not let her. Indeed, the nurse hardly
knew what to do with her just then.
She knew Nydia must map out her
own course, must learn to. She sent
her alone to the gayest seaside city
in the world to learn, but she thought
Nydia would not be lonely. Would
there not be clothes to see? And had
not Nydia yielded to a latent irresist-
IDLE passion for beauty?
Nydia fell in love on her first day
beside the sea with the first violinist
In the orchestra that played on the
pier across from her hotel. She fell
in love sitting by an open window of
the sun parlor. Passionate green
waves rolled shoreward by winds
from strange far shores and sea.
The music of the saving, blowing
beating orchestra was at moments
inaudible, became delicately audible,
whispered, laughed, moaned, an
ewered the lovecall of the sea. Nydia.
still, wide-eyed, wistful, turned from
of the sea curve was the same as the
of the seacurve was the same as the
essence of beauty in pair of eyes
somberly devouring her face over a
moving bow in the orchestra. For
the hour OF the concert she tried to
look at the sea, but. without will
ing to. she turned and met the gaze
of the eyes over the wailing violin.
She felt something she had never
8 felt before. Excitement made her
hands tremble, made her throat swell.
hurt her ears. She felt arms around
her moving her to the rhythm of a
seductive waltz.
For two weeks she came every
day to the same chair. sat during
the daily concerts, looked. trembled,
would have sold her soul for love.