The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-11-14
The Romance of a Young Man.

As a rule, John Smith had dallied along
the primrose path of daIliance, because he
was an emotional coward says a writer
in the Louisville Courier-Journal. Woman
10 him was the most delightful and de-
srable Of all created beings, but the ro
nance and poetry of his associations had
always served to surround her with what
seemed to him to be barriers which were
impossible, save when the acquaintance
of years had made him brave and strong.
The reader may recall these well-known
lines: None but the brave deserve the
fair, and none but the brave can live with
some of them" Our hero was the author
of these lines.
It was thus that he had so rarely found
the courage to pop the question to any
one of the many dozens of girls he had
thought he would die If he did not sue,
coed in winning.
But the time had come at last when Mr..
Smith was no longer a coward. At least
not the kind he had been He was as
much afraid as ever, but now 1t was the
other way. He had youth and beauty,
and the woman in the case did not, and,
being determined that, having seen what
she wanted, she would ask for it, John
was rendered most uncomfortable
For, be it known, John had been carry
ing on what he thought was only an ac-
the spirits of the lady.
When he discovered what was lying In
wait for him, he became possessed of
great fear. and began to diplomatize to
beat the band. But 1t is a long lane that
doesn't go through a gate at the side of
the road some day, and Mr.. Smith had al
last come face to face with destiny.
1t was evening, and as he sat near the
young lady in the dim and desperate light
of a lamp that only made night more
hideous he felt as if the next thing on the
programme would be the dentist, who
would gently pry his mouth open with the
handle of a mallet, and insist upon his
looking pleasant.
Even those who have never been in love
know what that feeling is, and Mr.. Smith
was now experiencing it in forty places
a t once.
AT this moment, when he could feel the
earth slowly, but surely, sliding right out
from under him, and he was wondering
where he would light, the door bell pealed
forth a ringing peal.
In his wild desire to escape the impend-
ing doom, he started, impulsively, as If he
would go and open it, but the lady had an
other object in view and told him the
hired girl would attend to that better than
he.
He fell back with gasp, and, presently
the servant entered the library, where the
TWO were watching each other, and pre-
scented a card, saying the gentleman was
in the drawing room.
The lady turned the steely glitter of her
deep dark eye on the shrinking form of the
man who was trying to conceal himself
in the copious folds of the upholstery and
cushions upon the sofa.
Tell the gentleman in the drawing
ROOM" she said, addressing the servant,
and never for a moment letting her eyes
Inca tI1a Of navs cit
gagged, and'-she waited until the servant
had gone-"the gentleman in the library
will do the rest.
She laughed in a harsh ha-ha tone of
voice, and Mr.. Smith, with a smothered
shrek, attempted to climb up the wall
paper and escape through the rose-pink,
Cupid-decked border, but it was too late.