Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1908-04-17
A WOMAN OF TO-DAY.

/ " tdiehteu; poSsesseu OF independent
means, and still in the early thirties.
was accounted by her friends and she
had many of both sex--a most fortu-
nate woman. Many men had desired to
marry her Several still cherished that
wish, 70 her indIlgent and rather won
dering amusement. and their own sor-
row.. Her fiends would have told Won
that every sort of man. from cabinet
minister to a boyish subaltern, and a
millionaire to a needy curate, had tried
their luck, with The same unvarying re-
suit. Virginia preferred to 90 her own
way through ife-alone.
Her well-appointed home in Park
street was the rendezvous of many bril-
liant and distinguished men and women,
for she had the art of gathering round
her OF the best, both in humanity as in
everything else. Her house was perfec-
ton in coloring, in arrangement, in size;
her dinners-literary rather than smart
were feature of the season; her invi-
tations eagerly sought for, and her many
absences deplored, for she had an incura-
bic habit Of leaving the swim of fashion
without rhyme or reason and departing
in her motor to some out the-way
place, there to breathe fresh air and GET
rid of the cobwebs engendered by Lon
don season
Yet there was sometimes a thorn in
the rose of her happiness. 1t would be
difficult 70 define its nature, but She felt
now and again that she had missed
something in life. 1t was not in the least
that she dreaded the term ''old maid" be-
ing applied to ner, Though she had heard
it whispered once by a young and unso-
| ~, 49, R,l 1,s,J q II.
would haNe dreamed of attaching that
generally considered term of opprobrium
to Miss Liddlc. She was merely that
product of the age-a woman free, I'M
fe5tered, distinguished and self reliant
in short, woman OF today.
1t was only when memories of the past
assailed her that she recognized her lin
itations and found the bitter drop in her
cup of fortune. These she was accus-
toned to Danish at once; but she found
it impossible to dismiss with decision the
flood of memories that swept upon her
one July day when chance, more or less,
suddenly took her to an out the way
spot in the south of Ireland, which she
had once thought never to revisit will
ingly
"A little knot presumably tourists
approaching from the village, did not
interest her in the least. and she barely
glanced at them in passing. AS she
passed, however, Miss Liddle shifted her
parasol little, and in so doing managed
to drop her book Before she could pick
it up, someone else had done so for her.
She looked up to see one OF the little
party-the Others had stroled slowly on
standing before her-a tall, loosely
built man, with a tanned face and brown
eyes.
Then she saw the color fade from his
face as if it had been wiped away by
| sponge. In that moment she knew Jim
Percival had recognized her.
Virginia." he said ineredulously.
She extended a friendly hand The
evidence of emotion in his eyes and
voice gave her an odd calm 1t is, after
all. the woman who is generally mistress
of the situation.
Thank YOU" she said Il have never
lost my habit of letting things fall about,
you see. How are you, Jim? Though
needn't ask, for you look in the rudest
health
ITO think of seeing you--here!" be
said, disregarding her light words and
devouring her with his eyes. Have you
sprung out of the earth or the sky?"
in the very latest thing in motors. A
holiday among old haunts is very pleas
ant. What delightful weather we are
havingl"
He did not reply. How could he dis
euss anything so banal as weather with
Virginia? The idea was grotesque, and
he stood tongue-tied before her
Are you going back to the hotel?n he
asked tentatively
Yes. One must eat--even in this de.
lightful place"
May I walk with YOU? The Others
are only going for a walk. came down
for the day. It's nice little place this
To sit on the veranda fronting the
blue sea, beside the woman he had lost
for ten years; to listen to her pleasant
voice, talking easily, lightly of things
present and future, not often of the past;
TO look at her, and feast his eyes on
her expressive face, was the subtest
form OF happiness to the man. He was
primitive enough in his emotions, and
little given 20 self analysis or introspee-
ton; but he was conscious that never
before or since-never, either, in the flu
ture-could there be another Virginia in
his life.
Silence fell between them for awhile
| teTciNai saJ ana smoked, MS eyes on
the dancing sea, while she drew patterns
on the gravel with the tip of her parasol
With a pereeptible effort the man turned
to her
Virginia perhaps l oughtn't to call
you that now, but you won't be angry
Il couldn't call you anything else
You've been Virginia in my thoughts
too long for that--ten years is a Slice
in mans life and it's been a hard
thing now and then to try to put You
out of my life II feel / can't do it
altogether Let me speak this once. /
never thought I'd see you again, and /
did think I'd got over it-more or less
but ! was wrong l knew il the min
ute saw you on the sandhill there. FIN
not saying you weren't right, ten years
ago, to say no on second thoughts. ii
can see things from your point of view
| WRIl nc frDua ~ Z