Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 56, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 March 1911 — JUST LOVE [ARTICLE]

JUST LOVE

By JOANNA SINGLE

(Copyright, ISU, by Associated Literary Frees.)

! Prom the first It had been foolish, an explosive combination of youth, summer, moonlight and the propinqcitles of a vacation house party, jack and Angle met in June, loved in July, ■confessed In September, and by Gbristptnfce had coaxed her parents to consent to a February wedding. The Alliens were reluctant, for Angle was [ridiculously young, but they had no [objection to Jack. j The course of true love ran, for a time, most smoothly. Holland, Sr., gave his eon an adorable little cottage; the Allens produced a check to cover furnishings. There was much shopping, much trousseau making, merry parties, and vows and kisses hardly as surreptitious as they should have been. There was peace—a treacherous peace. Jack had made one blunder —he had not “told her all.” The experience of his elders seems never to make a young man see that when he puts bis heart for life into a girl’s soft hand, he is thereafter in a tight place. She will be supreme; she wants to be not merely first, but all. She Is jealous iof his mother and sisters, his friends, Ihls bull dog, his pipe, anything whatever that before her time loved him or gave him aid or comfort. No occasion had so far arisen for jealousy, and Jack forgot the weak place in bis jarmor. He was oft guard, j Angie had come upon his consciousness like oblivion of all that had gone before. Like all lovers, he said he ;had never loved any one else —and [thought he spoke the truth. It was |a secret, unconscious disappointment to the girl that Jack had no “past” whatever. She would have liked to forgive him, to have consoled him for sorrows —deep wounds of a cruel fate from which her love would henceforth protect him. She would have liked details of past unhappiness offered up to her like incense, i ‘'Tell her before somebody else [does,” Is the first commandment to an ■engaged man. Jack disobeyed—and [suffered. At first, to do him justice, jhe had really forgotten to tell Angie [about Tessie Burton. He had been engaged to Tessie at college. The affair was brief, ending in trouble as the sparks fly upward. Tessie broko it because she saw another man. Her methods were prompt, at least. He bad told Tessie he would always be [true to her, and wait for her until he died, and other familiar quotations. When he did remember this, he know that if he told Angie now, she would ask vfhy he had not told her [before? It would have seemed serious, worth having hidden until he jwas more sure of her. No; it was too late. Jack trusted to luck, and to the [fact that Tessie was In the East and lived in another town. He thought himself safe. Early in January that fatuous young man took his bride-to-be on one of their many shopping tours, which .ended with tea or chocolate and a lovers 'tete-a-tete before going back to the family circle where everything was a bustle, despite the fact that the wedding was to be strictly a family-and-intimate-friends affair. The gift season, Just past, had broken Into prfiyraitnns. and dressmakers possessed the house. Now Jack and Angie were chopsing the last of the furniture—a sewing chair and table for Angle, who was hesitating between Ojiahogany, Circassian walnut or a perfectly cqnniijp arrangement in a [wicker. j Enamored of the wicker, Angie [stood with a dainty gloved finger to jher lip and considered. Jack was [loving every look of her, the brown hair and eyes, the fjpmure, bird-like [plumage of brown cloth and fur. Ab-. ject adotsUpJ? from his eyes. Then a light laugh beside him made him jump—it was a laugh he knew. A cold vt*ve scurried down bis spine, as he turned and knew that his sin had found him out. He lifted his hat and took Tessie’s offered hand rwitli what pace he might. - j Jack shamefully. Had he Immediately and delightedly presentled Angle tp his “old college friend, [Miss Burton, of whom he had so often spoken," It would have been all right, [instead, he presented “Miss Burton” {to Angle as he might have any mere acquaintance. Angie’s perfectly courteous but indifferent manner showed [that she had never heard Tessie Burkon’s name before. i Tessie, hardly believing her own senses, took characteristically prompt revenge—she never waited. Chatting lightly, she said she had come for a week with Cora Chandler, and was out shopping. Her manner to Jack was irtlpßily familiar. She called him by his first name, and several times by a college ojcfcnama, as if unconsciously. Also she let her hand rest a moment on his sleeve. “Cora told mq of your good fortune,” she remarked, settling her veil over her shining fair curls. “It makes me very happy for you. Mias Allen, lam delighted Jack had fallen into such charming hands! New I shall never rggsogeh myself about him again- he was so young and tragic, you know” Here she laughed. ‘1 forgive the oreature for having forgotten me. It’s fortunate men can forget so soon. Isn’t It? 80 -comfortable for them! So pleased to have pet you, and wish you all happiness! Good-by!” She flitted out, and Jack stood daasd. He wished dully that Tessie were

not so confoundedly pretty. Would explanations help him? Angle did not look at him, but in a cool little voice spoke to the sales-j man. She was somehow dignified and! remote—out of reach. “I think I will not decide about the< chair today,” she said. Then she turned to the door, which Jack opened, and turned homeward. Jack saw that there would be no; tea together, no coxy tete-a-tete. He floundered about for words, and dldi the clumsiest thing possible. “Tessie Burton —I knew her at ool; lege " “One would—judge as much,” she; replied. ‘Don’t you think it’s gettting colder?” Her polite tone was down! to about zero. Jack agreed with her.. Nothing else was left him. He knew, he would have to explain pretty quickly and convincingly. “Angie, dear, let me explain” Angie lifted her pretty brows. “Explain—what?” “About Tessie—Miss Burton —she — “Anything that needs explanation should have been explained before.” “It was only a foolish college engagement ” “And you said you had never loved anybody but me ” ‘Angle—l haven’t. That wasn’t love, it was a silly—lt didn’t last long, and ’’ She Interrupted. Being spotless, too young to have been in love before herself, she was'merciless. “If it wasn't love, It was wicked to be engaged to her —a horrid girl like that, too! I knew happiness like mine —could not last! Your engagements don’t seem to last long—doubtless you will be as easily oonsoled this time as you were the first —or have there been still others?” ‘Angle,” he said sternly, “do you, know what you are saying?” You can’t mean to ” she had drawn off her} left glove, and was taking off her ring, which she handed him. She had; not, in fact, meant at first to do anything, but being angry, hurt, nervous from overwoork and waiting, she was hardly nerself. “Angle—you know I love you truly —this has gone too far ’’ “Altogether too far!” she assented, turning at the gate. “You can come in and tell mother it is all over. Tell her I would like to go to Florida for a month —if some one can go with me. As for you—perhaps ‘Tessie’ will have you back?*’ They were in the hall by this time, and she fled upstairs. She had taken him at a disadvantage—on the street, where he could cot forcibly take her into his arms and make her listen to him. ■ As for the Allens, they listened to Jack; then they went up and talked with Angie. She simply said it was all over, and she didn’t want to hear about it, and would not see Jack. Thinking her too young, anyhow, they did the easiest thing—postponed tjm wedding indefinitely because of their daughter’s health and called the family doctor, who obediently prescribed the southern trip. Then they waited to see what would happen. This happened: Angle, sorry for what she did, even while she was doing It, worked herself Into a fever and was really ill. Gloom settled over Jack, who sent flowers and letters. He persisted, but she would not give him a chance —she brooded over his “untrustworthiness” until it became a crime to her, and very real. Folly surely was with her, but she denied her own heart. Jack suddenly did the unexpected. She had grown used to his persistence, when it ceased without warning. He closed the little cottage, returned what goods would be taken back, settled all bills himself, and sent the house key to Angie by her father. He himself went on a bunting trip, a fact that the papers chronicled, and which Angie saw. He accepted her decision. This came to the girl like a shock. She dressed, and in a few days came downstairs to sew by the fire. Suddenly she refused to go South at all, and kept the family in hot water with her moods. She knew she had been a fool; she wished ab« were dead. Her young, terrified soul saw a long, unloved, unloving life before her. He had gone, and she had sent him —and for nothing—absolutely nothing! It all ended in a way as simple as It began. ‘One raw February twilight Angle chanced to be alone at the fire. She heard the bell ring. A queer terror seized her —was It a telgram? She actually was expecting any calamity at any moment. She hid her face In her hands. The door opened, and Jack walked in. He had meant to be Impersonal, to hope she was feeling better, to make no allusion to the past But when she lifted a pale, tear-stained face and gave a little cry of joy at seeing him, he took two long steps and gathered her into bis arms. It was as foolish as any of the rest of it. She had her face against his and Implored him not to explain—she did not care, anyway. Nevertheless, he made a clean breast of everything. It seemed about three minutes later when the family arrived to interrupt things. The family bad been haring a hard time through no fault or its asm. and was glad to have an end of the trouble.