The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1904-12-30
LOVE AND
YOUTH
By
MARJORIE HENDRICKS

Anna Whelan woke up with start
to the realization that as summer
girl she was not in the running,
For some time after the young peo-
sple had tripped down the steps and
: across the lawn to the inn, where the
musicians were already tuning up for
the hop, she sat alone gazing unblink-
fngly out into the moonlit grove. Then
a faint perfume stole over her shoulder
and well known voice sounded be-
hind her.
"Oh, Miss Whelap, 1 am so glad to
find you! We are trying to make up
game Of bridge. You will play, won't
your
II am awfully sorry" said Anna, ris-
Ing, "but am wretched player and
always rouse the ire of my partner.
Besides. 1 have wee headache to-
night, which would make me more than
ordinarily stupid at the game Some
other time
Il hope you will feel better tomor,
row. Is there anything / can do for
you? Some salts
Nothing, thank you," said Miss
Whelan, with a smile.
She wished she might have been
more obliging. The invitation had
come from one of the most popular
women in the hotel, popular, but mid
die aged, and Anna Whelan was not
ready to be middle aged. Alone again,
she dropped back In her chair, leaned
her head against the high wicker back
and closed her eyes. And for this-to
be left alone on the piazza-she had
saved part Of her salary all winter,
had invested part Of her savings in
the quaintest of summer finery, had
counted the days until her vacation
began.
She recalled the enthusiasm with
which she had heard the other girls
plan for the stay ut Wisconset. There
were six Of them in all who lived in
bachelor maids apartment in town,
and for month or more the one topic
Of conversation had been the sailing
parties, the daily bath in the sea, the
clambakes and the nightly hops for
which Wisconset was famous. The
girls had insisted that Miss Whelan
come with them, and she now realized
that they had done everything to make
her one of them since their arrival ut
the shore. They had always dragged
her into their merrymaking plans. She
was with them, yet not Of them, and
she knew wherein lay the fault. 1t
was in her years.
- Her checks somehow had retained
the delicate pink flush of girlhood, but
the soft gray hair waved above her
forehead told the bald truth of her
years. Her pretty frocks were more
dainty, more costly, than those worn
by the girls around her, but Miss Whc-
lan's taste in dress had always been
good, and with advancing years she
had adopted the more subdued color
ings and simpler styles. Her summer
wardrobe was that of chaperon rath-
er than that of debutante. Yet at
heart she was q summer girl. She felt
as young and took as keen an interest
In youthful pleasures as any eighteen
year-old girl. Sitting there i'll the moon
light, she realized that, once robbed of
youth, a woman could not buy the lost
treasure back at any price.
Her childhood had been narrow, pen
ned In by poverty and an invalid moth
er pettish and eXacting. Death had
carried away one burden, that of un-
appreciated nursing, only to lay upon
her shoulders another, that of part
housekeeper, part breadwinner. She
had gone into a shop as cash girl and
had attended to the household duties
night and morning. When she was
sixteen years old she sat up until near
ly daybreak three nights in succession
to set stitches in her sisters confirma-
tiOn dress. The sister went through
the high school, as did the younger
brother, and while they studied Anna
was, steadily advancing in the store
When she became buyer for her de-
partment and took her first trip abroad
1t brought back the pink in her cheeks
that fed before her tenth birthday, but
Anna was now three times ten.
On her return from Europe she found
that the same disease which had wreck
ed her childhood and carried away her
mother had again entered her home.
This time it carried away in quick sue
cession brother and sister. Anna found
herself alone and lonesome. She fled
to the bachelor maids apartments for
companionshtp and was made well
come by these girls ten years or more
her Junior. With them she had grown
young again. She had almost forgot
ten the gray hair. 1t had taken the
fthoughtless boys I'm blue serge and
white duck to drive the iron into her
heart. They were nice to her because
they knew that the girls would not for
give them If they were otherwise. But
that was not youth and the right to be
young and Joyous and silly. Anna sat
up very straight. She had become pos
Ssessed Of q sudden desire to giggle, yet