Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 February 1915 — VOWS and VALENTINES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

VOWS and VALENTINES

OOD morning,” said the floor- ? ' walker, leaning over the coun1 T ter in order to be better able \]l to talk to the girl behind it. “How do you feel on this lov"A/ ers’ day, eh?” p Y She looked up with a start, C)| and hastily hid her hands behind her. “My, how you star-

tled me! Why, I feel all right—” “What’s that you’ve got behind you?” the floorwalker interrupted. “That? Oh, that’s nothing. Just an exchange slip to be signed,” she replied glibly, bringing her right hand forward as proof of her assertion. “Let me see the other hand,” suggested the floorwalker. "Won’t one hand do?” she parried.

“No, must see them both,” he said firmly. “Well, there, then,” and she thrust forward an empty hand. "You dropped something behind you,” cried the floorwalker, triumphantly. “You have too many eyes,” she pouted, stooping to pick up what > she had valentine, and the floorwalker snickered. “Jove! I thought that by the time a girl got to be twenty plus she was over that kind of foolishness.” “A girl is never too old to enjoy being made love to,” she retorted, “and, in fact, the older she gets the more she likes it.” “Regardless of who does the lovemaking, I suppose?” "Oh, no, she has her preferences, of course, and after awhile, perhaps, she gets to have a preference —” She paused and glanced at the floorwalker, but he was absorbed in the valentine. 'And she always enjoys a well-put compliment—” “Always? Now, I have known girls to snap you off. and tell you not to be silly, and to declare that they hated ‘soft fellows.’” “That’s because you didn’t pay your compliment at the right time, at the psychological moment, so to speak,” she replied. “You probably told them how pretty they looked when they were rigged out in their oldest clothes, preparatory to doing some housecleaning. Now, you should never try to jolly a girl unless she can really flatter herself that there may be some truth in what you say, after all. Never miss an; opportunity like the first wearing of a* new dress to tell her what a charmer she is, and don’t let the occasion slip by on_which she . wears that favorite pink waist others. In other, words, catch her in the mood.” “I thought you just said that a girl always liked to be made love to,” the floorwalker objected. She withered him with a glance, once in ,awhfle? silly, except being made love to. Once a year, you know, In Dent she getd very religious, and centers her mind on things not of he world. As you value her affec-

tlon, don’t attempt to make love to her in the penitential season. But you may start in again bright and early Waster morning. Also, don’t make love to her just after she has decided upon her ‘career.’ She’ll get over that in time, but you must let the malady run its course.” “I suppose these times you have been telling me about are just exceptions to the rule?” ‘ “The exceptions which prove the rule, you mean,” she corrected. “A girl enjoys being made love to, but her moods are never to be depended on.” "Except on St Valentine’s day," he put in. "Except on St. Valentine’s day,” she echoed, gazing sentimentally at the valentine. "Such a beautiful sentiment — " ‘All day long, sweet Valentine, I sing to tell this love of mine; Accept this heart, a token, dear. Of love that lives from year to year.’ ” “Rubbish!” pronounced the floorwalker. “And. you mean to tell me that that is the kind of stuff girls like?” “Why not?” she asked, with a touch of defiance. "It’s not so much the way in which it is expressed, as it is in the thought which lies behind it” “Thought, fiddlesticks! Probably came from some kind of a vapid mind that never knew any real thoughts. Why, don’t you know what this kind of stuff is worth?” “How should I know?” flippantly. “I don’t run a magazine.”

He paid no attention to this remark, continuing his discourse as if nothing had happened. "It’s nothing but conventional rubbish, and doesn’t mean any more than the things a young fellow is expected to say and does say between the dances. It doesn't mean any more than what a man says under the influence of music and moonlight, or, for that matter, any more than what 4 girl insinuates with her eyes when she knows she is looking" particularly well. It’s bred in the bone to be foolish and sen* timental at certain stages of the game, and we just can’t help it.” “I think you are perfectly horrible,” she murmured, her eyes still on the valentine. “Don’t people ever mean what they say?” “Yes, but even after he has proposed you mustn’t expect him to keep to the same state of ardent wooing all the time. Before you are married he will tell you that when you dance you are as light as a feather, but afterward he will tell you that you are like a ton of coal. He will swear that your every wish shall be his, and you will find the cold reality to be the necessity of cringing to him. For awhile nothing will be too good for you, and then you will suddenly wake up to the fact that be is the head of the house, and that you are merely a part of the funilture, as it were. I tell you, a girl is foolish if she pays any particular attention to these valentines, or to the vows that lovers make before marriage.” The girl behind the counter set her lips in an obstinate line. “You are jealous, that’s what’s the matter with you,” she declared. “If you weren’t.

you wouldn’t think of talking like that. And I still say that the expression doesn't matter; it’s the thought behind it that counts. And even if a man ceases to pay you compliments, that doesn’t go to prove that he doesn’t still care for you. Still waThe floorwalker shrugged his shoulders. “I always said there was no arguing with a woman. A woman convinced against her will—you know the rest.”

"Let’s See the Other Hand.!"

“How Should I Know?"