Arizona republican., 1903-09-27
ROnANCES GONE WRONG
Incidents in the Lives of Three Mar
 ried Women.

Do you see that couple over there ?
 asked the woman with the silk shirt waist suit, pointing with her salad fork to a nearby table. Aren't they dear, both of them? See how he looks at her and see how her color comes and goes and how she dimples every time she looks at him. There is noth ing in the world so sweet as youth full romance, is there?'
 The other woman looked in the direc-
 tion of the salad fork. They were all three married obviously, and likewise contentedly married.
 Yet, that is very sweet" comment ed the woman in white linen, but, on
 the other hand. there is nothing so awful as romance gone wrong. Now, I never tried to be romantic but once in my life, and it was the most dismal thing you can imagine
 And L. remarked the woman in Pongee. always jeered at romance, and Haunted my matter-of-factness at everybody, and yet I had a romance fairly forced on me-
 well, I had a little difficulty my
 self,'' admitted the first woman, flor I was always so romantic it kept me awake nights, and l never have been able really to be romantic to save my life"
 Story, story" cried the woman in linen, and the woman in pongee be- gan:
 You all have known me so long that I do not need to tell you what practical, matter of-fact person I have always been. When I was a youngs- ter 1 never would read love stories, and anything sentimental always en- barrassed me frightfully. I didn't get over it. either, and as l grew up and came to know men my affairs with them were always of the most unsenti- mental description. l effectually froze everything else. Then I met Percy. That was enough, you know, that I should actually like, and like exceed ingly a man with name like that. But I did, and I liked him more and more, even though he would perist in doing such foolish things-send me a single rose, and asking me to have picture of my hand and forearm taken for him. and things of that sort. Of course, that was all very silly. and realized it perfectly but I did like Per- cy so well. One night my sister and I were going to a dance, I went with father and she was going with her if ance. We got there first, but just as she was leaving the dressing room she came in and gave me a note-she said it had come just as I was leaving the house-and with it was a single long stemmed white rose. She said she brought the note, but left the rose be- cause she knew I never carried flowers and above all, single flowers. I opened the note. It was from Percy, and the sweetest proposal a girl ever got. But what fantastic scheme do you think he had concocted? He said that he would be watching for me when l came from the dressing room, and if l carried his rose he would know that he might come to me, but if I did not l would not know that he had been there at all. Now just fancy my feelings with that note in my hand. Percy out in the ball room somewhere, and not a white rose within two miles. For the thought of not carrying that rose if I had it never occurred to me. 'The only thing to do was to find him before he left the place and eX- plain to him that the note had come too late. But he wasn't in sight any where in the ball room. though half dozen people said they had seen him lIltIe d IIlOlllt Tt DtlOlG Was SO cN- cited that without wrap of any kind I dashed out to the street entrance, and there, half ablock up the street, 1 saw him swing along with his head down. I gathered up by skirts and bolted after him. but I am not a swift runner and he is a fast walker, so we were almost two blocks from the ball room before I got near enough to call him. He turned around and-it wasn't Percy. Well, came back to my senses right quick then. To think of me, who scorned romance and all things TO- mantle, racing along the streets on q winter night in a ball dress trying to find a man to tell him I would marry him. I started back. and in spite of myself I cried little. 1 was so cold and unhappy. And do you know right at the door I met Percy coming out and-well. you were both bridesmaids, and you know the rest
 The woman in linen put down her coffee cup and began:
 My dear. that was nothing at all a man who hasn't a shred of romance in his whole system. I was always fond of nice little touching romantic things. a single flower. for instance
 would have won my heart then and there. Well, you know when the Span ish war came on, Fred was about the first to volunteer, and he and his com pany were ordered right off to Cuba.
 Now, Fred and l were not engaged at