Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1905-03-25
LOVE AND
YOUTH
Ey
MARJORIE HENDRICKS

Anna Whelnn woke up with start
/ to tn" realization that as Il summer
/ k,vI sine was not in the running
|or some time after the Young peo-
/ pie had trippcd down the steps and
/ across the lawn To the inn. where the
/ musicians We're already tuning up for
/ tn" hop. she sat alone gazing unbllnk-
| iug!y ont into the moonlIt grove Then
faint perfume stole over her shoulder
and we'll known voice sounded be
| hind her.
"Oh, Miss WhcIan, | am SO glad to
/ find You. We are trying to make up a
gam" of bridge. You will play. won't
/ YOU"
/ Il AIN awfully sorry" said Anna, ris-
| inG but | am a wretchcd player and
/ always rouse the ire of my partner.
| Besides, | have IL 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 smile.
She wished she might have been
more ohliginG, 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 uuaintest of summer tinery, had
counted the days until her vacation
began.
She recalled the enthusiasm with
which she had heard the other girls
| plan for the stay at WIsconsct. 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 Suilin"
parties. the daily bath in the sea, the
clamhakes and the nightly hops for
! " lll' II w lS'DllStl NuS ltlllDuS. ne
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 at
the shore. They had always dragged
her into their mcrrymaking 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. ner pretty frocks We're more
dainty, more costly, than those worn
by the girls around her, but Miss Whc-
| lanS taste in dress had always been
good, and with advancing years she
had adopted the more subducd color
ings and simpler styles. Her summer
wardrobe was that of Il chaperon rath-
er than that of a debutante. Yet at
heart she was n summer girl. She felt
as Young and took as keen an interest
In youthful pleasures as any eighteen
year old girl Sitting there in the moon
LIGHT, she realized that, once robbed Of
youth, a woman could not buy the lost
Treasure back at any price.
Her childhood hnd been narrow, pen
ned in by poverty and an invalid moth
er prttish and eXncting. Death had
carried away one burden. that of un-
appreciated nursing, only to lay upon
her shoulders another, that of part
| houSekeepcr, part breadwinncr. She
had gone into shop MS 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 contirma-
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
partmcnt nd took her first trip abroad
1t brought back the pink in her cheeks
that fled 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
ccSSion brother ana sister Anna found
herself alone and lonesome She fled
to the bachelor maids apartments for
companionship and was made vel
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. II had taken the
thoughtless boys in blue serge and
white duck to drive the iron into her
heart They We're 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
scSSed of n sudden desire to Giggle, yet
many Il tine and oft she had reproach-
ed the little cash girls in her own de
partmcnt for giggling.
Laughter and music tioated across
the lawn. They hurt. She rose abrupt
~ and fled to her room. The headache
now was real. She tore off her pretty
bed and slipped into an easy flowing
kimOnO. Then she sat down by the
window, think ing bitterly that fate had
cheated her out of the greatest thing,
the joy of being young Suddenly,
rs she sat in the quiet, the sound of