The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1876-07-20
A GIRLS FIRST LOVER,
BY HOWARD GLYNDON.

By HOW EAAb vi sNANAse
Others NAV come after him--others
usually 10 come after him, for seldom
Is It that a girl marries her FIRST love
but 10 none does she ever attach that
strange intangible interest, sacred with
never expressed pathos, which attaches
70 her first sweetheart. Her memory
Of him il like the faint, delicate per-
fume which still elings about that first
lid rose Of summer that he gave her
during the first tete-a-tete walk that
they ever took together in the woods.
How we'll he remembers it! 1t was the
first summer after she left school. 1t
was a little out-oEthe-way summer re-
sort where she was staying with a
party of friends, where he CHANGED to
come, too, and, after meeting her, lin
gered.
She was a little Auttered to find her
self walking alone with him, quite by
accident, of course, and both tried to
keep a lively and natural conversation,
and as a consequence 1t was perfectly
absurd, somewhat constrained and alto
gether fragmentary.
Then he saw this rose, the only one
upon a bush full Of buds that grew close
to the moss-grown trunk Of fallen tree
lust over the source of tiny stream Of
water that wound, like a tangled thread,
in and out among the trees. He gath
cred and gave II to her with a shy, half
laughing look-sO transParently con-
scious in its endcavor to be unconscious!
and with a remark intended to be
sPrightly.
And she took it; between blush and
a smile. with a swift up-lOok from eyes
that we're busiIy playing hide-and-seek
under the becoming shelter Of long
lRshes.
She tucked It in at the waistband Of
her dress, just as she would have done
any other rose, but how careful she was
not by any sudden movement to leftover
Il of its simple circIet of pale pink
leaves
He does not knOw--he will never
know--that a. soon as she was alone in
her room, with the door locked, she
drew It carefully from her belt and
kissed Il daintily, though with repressed
passion, before she exalted 1t to the
position of honor In her pet vase, bit
Of biiouterie, just big enough to hold
this one flower fitly, and In honor Of II
filled carefully with clear cold water by
her own pretty fresh fingers, as rOsily
tipped a. those Of Aurora In the act Of
drawing aside the curtains Of the dawn
What was the unspoken compact be,
tween them that caused her, standing
before her glass in her simple white dres'
that same evening, 10 pose the flower
shyly among the Furnished waves of hel
hair2
win she ever forget how his eye
thanked her9 win she ever forget thu
night ON which abe wore III Was ther,
ever another night like that? VIII
there ever be againG
For her: no. For every girl who ha
vet TO meet her first lover: yes. Their
win be just one such for each girl, bu
never another.
Was It the earth she trod on? HOY
beautiful everything was AS if tn
world we're just made new The lights
the music, the gay chatter, brigh
smiles, ringing laughter And whe
she danced with him she seemed I
have wings to her feet, Then at los
they were alone together In the COO
fragrant, dewy darkness outside, and
be together, to be arm in arm, 70 hes
each others voices, that was all the
cared for. There was no other werl
for them that night. They were sep
rated from our common earth by such
swift flowing tide Of deep but unspokC
delight. Unspokon, because young 3
lection is too sacred for words. Fir
love il born dumb, and learns speech b
slowly. Deep down in each heart W
the rapturoua consciousness Of lovil
and being loved by the other, which
worth life time Of 81 love your
1t brimmed each heart with sufieil