The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1909-08-04
CUPID AT SORRENTO,
BY E. a. MlTchEL.

BY e. A. mitchell.
lCOpyright. 1909. by American Press Assoc
ciation.
II will tell you.' said the archaeol-
Ogist. why the ancients represented
love by little boy. There is no liv-
ing being SO delicately organized. You
may say a girl is more SO: but, grant,
ing that you are right, the female is
not supposed to be the aggressor in
love. 1t is the male who makes the
advance and is rightly represented by
! the boy who shoots the arrow.
| The young spring together like two
opposite electric currents, though even
Sin this case Cupid sends the shaft
shooting at random. 1t is only when
he fires at older people that it is es-
sential that he carefully adjust and
| FIRE IL with delicate aim. j have
case in my mind. !.
"A few years ago l was planning for
a trip to Europe. A man going abroad
is not likely to trouble himself as to
the hostelries at which he will stop,
but a woman before sailing writes to
I oil her friends who have Travelled her
proposed route, inquiring for the most
desirable boarding places and making;n
long list Of them from their replies.
My. wife wrote her cronies. among 9TH
l.eSssNrs. Catherine De- Witt. widow of
an admiral in the United States navy.
and asked me to write my OLD chum,
General Polndexter. u retired army Of:
ficer. who had horror of ever being
led into what he called a matrimonial
guardhouse' Both recommended very
/ highly the Hotel c. ut Sorrento. Italy.
Now, we archaeologists are accus-
toned to look for relationships among
tine remotest buried antiquities For
| instance, when we find fish painted
on an italian urn of the first century
we know that it belonged to a Chris
\ tian. No sooner did read the rec
concentrations Of the Hotel e. ut Sor-
rento, written by both the general and
the widow. than formed an infer
ence.
cit is situated said the widow, in
an orange grove. hundreds Of the mel
low fruit on every tree. A few steps
from the house is q marble terrace on
the edge of a cliff overlooking the bay
Il Of Naples. Below is the water, light
blue or pale green; to the north the
hazy isle Of Capri, to the west the cone
of Vesuvius. emitting faint smoke,
which mingles with the feecy clouds
hanging over its summit
II was impressed said the general.
with the strength Of the position from
military point Of view. From the sum.
NIT of the cliff shells could be dropped
on the@decks Of a besieging war feet,
the only part left unprotected. AS
stood on the terrace overlooking the
bay felt that IL Igwere there COM
manding the towns defense could
sink the allied fleets of the world
ITO one used to hunting for records
written in bit of broken pottery, a
mosaic picture or a heather god 1t was
an easy matter to trace in the valor
excited in the man and the overflow of
ideality in the woman the fact that
! they had sat on that balustrade to-
getber-not only in the sunlight. but
under the influence of the queen Of
the highland that as she caused the
tides to ebb and flow so had she
II
drawn their hearts to pulsate in uni
y son.
"Since neither the general nor the
!, widow was fixture, my wife invited
4 the former to go with us on Mediter-
ranean trip to Naples. and wrote the
former, who was in Paris, to meet us
at the Hotel C. at Sorrento. The wild
ow was only too glad to attach her
self to our party, and the genera
agreed to be in Sorrento at specified
date
I've reached Sorrento on one Of
, those afternoons when the heavens
and the Mediterranean look down and
up at each other like the blue eyed an
gels. The widow took us out on the
terrace to show us the view. She was
as enthusiastic us she had been in he
written description, but her eye was
sad. In the evening the moon shone
and the general, arriving as the orl
was chasing the twilight, must needs
take me to his imaginary fertilization
!. was not surprised to see on his face
a look of disappointment. The posi-
tion,' he said, doesn't look as strong
as it did. There is something wanting
in a defensive point of view, and ]
can't tell what 1t is.'