Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 April 1912 — Perfect Love [ARTICLE]

Perfect Love

By Charles Wilshin

What la that perfect love that sometimes unites two people and continues undimmed through old age 7 For 40 years Mme. Versale and her husband had remained in this state. Their children had departed and many old friends had dropped away. But the vicissitudes of life had left their devotion unsullied and they -still sat in their little garden with its high walls and, screened from the inquisitive world, held hands in that sweet companionship that comes alone to two hearts in perfect accord. Yet Mme. Versale, it must be confessed, carried within her true woman's soul a disturbing thought that grew with contemplation and brooding. There were times when she would look in her mirror and sigh, and then she would say to her husband: o “I am not -so good looking as I was.” And he would invariably reply: “Tut, Tut! You are always the same. How can you be anything else than beautiful?” : : . . -f-.- . ...... • "I know that you say that to make me feel better.” They had many friends and some of these were new ones and young in their ways. Whqn a particularly handsome young woman would visit them, Mme. Versale fancied that her husband’s face would brighten. The thought of this made her sad. “It is always the same with men,” she would say to herself. “Freshness, •youth these are what they demand.” Then her mind would revert to her own youth, when she was so beautiful and when around her always there was a circle of admirers. And how beautiful Bhe was then! Even now .the mbnaory of it had not died away. She conceived the idea that her husf band only paid her compliments out of the goodness of his heart. She thought that his adoration was much of it assumed, and that out of gallantry he stiff paid his court. Sometime* she would say to him briskly: “You know you don’t mean that!” ' His protestations were of no avalLA thought like this, in the heart of a woman, will often grow to an absurdity; to protest against it only seems to strengthen it Young Dr. Van Kale, a physician who attended them and occasionally dropped in to pay them a visit —for they Interested him supremely had already achieved a world-wide reputation by virtue of some of his discoveries in applied science. His laboratory was the center of much that was speculative and much that was revotionary; but his opinion always commanded respect He had already done things. One morning he called upon Mme. Versale, whose husband, having read his paper, was nodding on a bench in a corner of the garden. “You look tired,” she said, her keen eye accustomed to notice changes- in physiognomy. Dr. Van Kale’s face lighted up. ; “1 am tired —but I have done what I conceive to be a wonderful experi-ment—-If it turns out as I hope. I have not slept for 30 hours. It is .the crisis of a long toll.” “Something intricate —that I cannot understand?” ; “Not at aIL In plain, untechnlcal language, it Involves a change in the human tissue. I can restore lost youth." Mme Versale started. “Impossible!" “Nothing is Impossible to modern science After all, the difficulty I had to surmount Is actually less than any one might suppose. What are we? A combination of molecules which, arranged in a certain manner, produce an individual Disintegration is constantly going on, produced by dynamic changes. The problem has been to counterbalance it —to make it work backward, so to speak. For years many of us have been on the veflEa of this great discovery/ A certain solution of salts came near it If hag. really been a question of mathematicA At last I have discowed the combination, and by wegj& pt my inpsformer 1 can mak^MKg||gftoji!n.” Mme. VedfIHKMHSMm with related mKlmrT'ilM her with compiste astonishment. Yet, as the doctor aEgJFscnnt f ' * J2B.Q palUi ilvl t ,y " t . ' w&vi ft** • •In the laboratory, but not so fully is I wonM tike." .

“Is It harmless?” “Absolutely.” “How long does it take?” W66k “Will you try it on me?” “That is what I desire —supremely. You have made It easy for me; you have taken the words out of my mouth. Can you absent yourself for this length of time?” “I must! I will!” she exclaimed. ‘Yes. There are times when I visit a relative. He will not suspect. Consider the matter settled.” The next day she told her husband that she was going away, and made a thousand trivial arrangements for his comfort He was not to go beyond the garden. He must be sure and place his muffler across his chest when the wind was.east; and he must put the rug at night under the bottom of the door as usual to prevent a draught—these and many more. The following day she presented herself to the doctor. Think of what it would mean to retain the same mind, the same will, the same experience, and yet to go back — back to those days when the skin was smooth and the flesh firm and the glorious impulses of youth swelled within!Thus a week later stood Mme. Versale in the garden. She had opened the latch and walked in quietly. Like Eve, she had come, once more to tempt her lover. Forty years had* dropped away from her. Her full figure, erect and seductive, with the feminine charm of youth, and her red lips, inviting caresses—her soft, rounded cheeks! What a marvel of modern science! And, best of all, she felt, standing there, that Bhe still loved him, loved him Just the same; for long ago, in the ancient forge of Cupid, their hearts had been welded together, and now what could make her feel differently toward him? She advanced. Her husband had straightened up, and now, as .she drew near, he eagerly arose. “Welcome!” he exclaimed, holding out tys arms, hla old chivalrous manner TinehahgecL' “Ahl You are home again! How I have missed you!” “And how do you like me?” laughed Mme. Versale, “as I am now, compared with what I was? Look at me closely! See! lam young again. lam the sweetheart you courted so long 40 years ago.” “Of course," he replied, taking her hands. “And why not? Haven’t you always been my sweetheart?" “But,” Mme. Versale impatiently exclaimed. “Do you not see the change in me? Look! Look again!” Her husband smiled at her. He drew her face close to bis and looked Into her eyes. His own, somewhat dimmed by the years, were yet keen, and now they remained undisturbed by his scrutiny. / “Why, no, my dear!” he replied, with a quiet smile, as he folded her In his arms and kissed her softly. "I cannot see that you have changed. Why should you? Have you not always been the same to me?” —Life.