The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-03-18
THE GIRL
ACROSS
THE STREET

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Polly sat on the other side of the
table making tea. She wore ridicu-
ious little apron (for nothing but show
about the size of a handkerchief and
a housewifely expression that she al
ways dons ON such occasions. Sudden
ly she glances up.
Look! Quick! Out of the window,
Jack. No, the other way. There she
goes.
by Jove, what pretty grill" ex-
claimed. who is she?"
but you were looking the wrong
way said Polly, land that wasn't the
girl meant"
Il was looking at the girl across the
street." | said, land she was quite the
prettiest girl l have ever seen--except
one" l added dutifully.
Polly set the kettle down with a
thump that Jared the teacups.
"Of course she was!" she exclaimed.
''The girl across the street always is.
There isn't man living who doesn't
worship some girl across the street.
She's like the girl you couldn't get, the
fish you didn't catch and the cake you
didn't eat"
"But that girl! Why, Polly, she was
Titan"
q "Per-oxide!"
and Gibson
"Conceited!"
And Burne-Jones-"
Loud"
ALL in one!"
Polly sighed as she turned to put
light under the kettle.
"It's always that way" she said re-
signedly THE girl across the street,
like the girl he didn't get, always is
mans ideal. If he never marrles, he
carries her image about in his heart or
her photograph about in his pocket and
uses it for standard with which to
compare all the other women he may
meet. If he does marry somebody else
she becomes a sweet memory that rises
every time his wife burns the biscuits
or forgets to take her hair out or curl
papers. Why it is?" and Polly tilted
her little nose upward until she looked
almost dignified, chat the mere fact
that a girl doesn't want to marry a
man makes him wild to get her?''
"Polly" said l, edo you remember
when you were very little girl how
YOU used to lie awake nights trying to
catch Santa Claus? Do you recollect
how the jam on the top shelf was al
WAYS the kind you liked best? Did you
never long to see the other side OF the
moon, or eat what wasn't good for you,
or play with the naughty little girl
whom you were forbidden to speak to?
It's human nature The Elusive, the
unattainable, the thing we cannot gel
ALWAYS has been and always will be the
thing we want"
Polly pushed back little curl that
will get into her eyes, and began cut
ting lemon meditatively.
eyes" she agreed, "but it's differ
ent with a woman. She always feels
a sort of resentment toward the mar
who won't fall in love with her, while
a man rather respects woman for re
fusing him, and admires her for snub
bling him. The longer she remains OF
the other side of the street
s'That is it, | broke in, 1.-The longe
she remains on the other side of tn
street. But have observed that it i
generally very easy to cross over your
self, and them
"And then she is no longer the CIR
across the street." broke in Polly, wav
inp half a lemon triumphantly. "Thel
che loses her Illusion, her attraction.
10 as if you had turned the limeligh
off of the leading lady in the play lie
Titan hair becomes red; you obserV
that her nose turns up at the end; ne
diamonds are only paste, and her hgur
Is nothing more nor less than the resuI
of wearing a straight front corset. In
stock market falls and you are gla
to sell out your interest in the girl
tbe very lowest figure. The very fa'
that she has succumbed to your Ell
treaties or your destinations. the yer
fact that she loves you, or is Wiling
flirt with you
"Polly, will you put down that len
on. It's taking the color out OF me a
ready"
Polly subsidized.
TLet me ask you," went on, seriou