The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1909-01-13
Romance Versus Reality
4
By Martha S. BensIey
By Martha S. BensIey


little shoulders under his specklesH
uniform were padded to almost Her.
culean proportions; the chest was
held stiffiy inflated, that no crease
should disturb the parallel rows Of
frogs upon the military jacket; hia
cavalry trousers bagged to an unbe.
lievable extent above his shiny put
ties. and the points OF his crisp little
mustache slanted upward at exactly
the proper angle.
In the eyes OF Miss Mildred Fair
child of ST. Louis he looked the EN-
bodiment Of the conventions; an am
bulatory manikin; a model officer OF
the army OF Italy; a bit of machinery
able to take his part In the stereo-
typed small talk OF society. She knew
that he danced In as perfect time as
though his propelling machinery were
run by the same clockwork as the
band; on his horseback he became
merely an attachment to the larger
mechanism Of his horse. She was GER
tain that his emotions we're as invol-
untary and automatic as his digestive
processes; that he made love as me
chanically as he drilled. and that an
impassioned epistle rom his pen
might serve as Model No. 4-The
Ready Letter Writer"
Her aunt, Mrs. Darcy, with whom
she was passing the winter, spent her
time drifting from one European coun-
try TO another, and Mildreds mother
hoped, by entrusting her daughter to
her care, to conventionalize her still
further, like a motif In decoration, and
so increase her chances Of good
marriage" abroad.
Young Count La Frezio liked the
cosmopolitan flavor Of Mrs. Darcy's
salon. II had all the charms OF
a potpourri-now you tasted bit
OF German philosophy. again the
perfume Of an English rose filed the
air, or French spice gave bite to the
dish. The whole room seemed to take
on a new flavor however. when one
day a tall girl rose from beside the tea
table and he was presented to my
niece, Miss Fairchild."
She was an American from her
boots TO the parting Of her blue-black
hair, though there might be hint of
an Irish ancestor in the laugh in the
corners of her brilliant blue eyes.
Mrs. Darcy regretted this uncompro-
missing Americaness. fearing that IL
would repel Lieut. La Frezio. who
was In every way so eligible. But to
her delight. after his presentation to
her niece, he had called regularly
every afternoon at the hour when she
was accustomed to receive guests, and
on his fifth call he had detained her In
the blue salon and asked her for her
niece in marriage.
But my dear lieutenant" broke in
Mrs. Darcy at last, q cannot give Mil
tred TO you or to any one else. Mar
riages are not arranged so in America.
and, as you have doubtless noticed.
Mildred is intensely American. She
IS the one to decide whom she will
marry, not mot even her father or
mother in America. can speak to
ier about 1t, certainly. but think you
had better ask her yourself"
I'll ask Miss Fairehild myself? |
Nhy-I-I could not-I should have
ihame-fear-be. what you call it?-
,e embarrassed. It was what I |
hought the American custom for me.
myself, to request her of you-not for
ny mother or my father to speak for
ne, as it would have been in Italy.
Ind now-now-for me, myself. TO re-
Iuest Miss Fairehild-oh. cannot!s
The poor lieutenant had gone away
n despair. To think that he must aak
diss Fairchild himself reduced him to /
state of panic.
This had occurred two weeks be-
ore, and every morning since then he
ad dismounted at the gate Of the
lila Campanari. strutted up the gravel
ath past the lex hedge, and across
be terrace under Mildred's windows.
lis punctilious training would not al
Nv him to call before the late after
oon. and though he had not yet ac-
uired sufficient courage to ask her
marry him. he could not bear to be
Arther from her than was necessary
any hour of the "a, Therefore. he
araded like a peacock on the terrace.
r watched from garden seat while
IS military servant walked his horse
and down before the gate.
Mildred had watched this visible
gn Of devotion first with amazement
Id then with laughter. and now II
led her with a sort Of helpless rage.
be had at first considered the little
as bit Of bric-a- brac in her
lnfs salon. He was of finish SO
'rfect; there was such painstak- |
g attention to detail In the outer !
an that she hardly realized that there /
as anything human about him. Her
hole training and temperament made :
hard for her to understand how real s
could express itself 90 ex-
avagantly. She felt as though It \
ere a pose OF the lieutenant,s. almost i
though he was laughing at her. and h
'uld think her very foolish If she
lieved him. All the time. however /,
e could not help thinking how aa | i,