The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1910-01-14
pnth Bentley's Dream Lover
ooNTrNUED FROM PAGE TWO

MI Given to one man. y" She
a AT up her hand tn the h n i, gold-
en- there IS only one man | can
salr' Iove-look This is he !''
e'I Y despair Josslyn turned his
4 II the miniature case that she
e!r r exposed to view. 10 his sur
nU% so Ne saw that it did not contain
hi ao1ored miniature as he supposed,
~ rV nrint. the face Of man, evi-
g gun+Iv cut out Of some illustrated
u uoner, As he looked, she turn
ID away her eyes.
60 Don't you know it 2" she said
IN a low voice.
IL II. =" i possible-is it-dear, what
1oos This mean - he asked wonder
; a He would have taken her
! lis arms. but she rose quickly
and leaned against tree nearby.
Che stood like prisoner self Az
crspd who found agony and yet re-
lief in confession.
DsTisten. ''she said,'I have some
thing to tell you-a confession to
make.
IT don't want he began i'm
petuously.
But she hushed him with such ma
snnpal in her eyes that he desisted.
For a moment there was silence
while the woman recovered her self
control. .,.
1T is the story Of dream, " said
the woman at length in a low voice,
"a foolish sentimental dream. |
think it began almost as soon as L
could speak, when I wore little
white frocks and blue tie-ups.
Even then I had a passionate long
inc to be loved. My mother used
TO tell me how / would ask people at
whose knee I stood do you love me
very much 2 and if they leased me
or failed to show any affection for
me [ would creep away to the wood
shed and be unhappy for hours.
At first, like all children, I took
love as my right, then as I began
to grow to womanhood l became
doubtful. I spent many hours be-
fore my glass wondering If anyone
would ever love me, plain little mite
that | was. [ compared myself
with other girls that / knew, and
found [ was not attractive. ! be-
came absurdly sensitive can see
it now-self conscious and intro
spective beyond my years; [ i'm
agined sights that never were IN
tended. [ was too miserably self
conscious to attract friends, they
thought I was cold and naughty,
vet I was passionateIy anxious that
they should like me. After a bit 7
crept into my little shell and
dreamt, while other girls Of my age,
my companions at school, became
engaged married mothers. l
was left in my little shell to dream
Of these things
why do you tell me this, dear?'
he asked gently.
Because / want to ease my con-
science, to throw off the. weight OF
my deceit for it has amounted to
that. | have been playing part
for years, part that easily be-
came second nature to me. | loved
it Rugged it to me-I deliber-
ately chose to play it. Her
bosom heaved tempestuously in the
thin white frock.
My twenty eighth birthday was
marked by two things. 1t was the
day of my mothers funeral-my
father died when 7 was child
and it was the day that saw the be
ginning Of my dream. When |
came back from the graveyard |
sat in the still darkened room that
had been her favorite sitting-room,
amid the books that we had both
loved, the flowers that she had al
ways tended, and reviewed my life
| knew myself as an unloved old
maid. I had read that in the faces
Of my friends for sometime previ-
Gus. I bitterly thought Of the hap
piness that had passed me by, OF
the emptiness Of my life, Of the
desolate future that lay stretched
before my unwilling feet. L
thought of all the other girls who
had married and found love. !
felt I could no longer bear their
plying looks and contemptuous Is
marks. 7 took UP istlessly book
off the table, volume Of Ella and
it fell open at his beautiful fancy,
Dream Children. AS I sat in
that darkened room still fragrant
with the living presence OF one l.
had just buried, my lover was born
my dream lover. He was almost
a tangible presence to me-a real
personality. Ny loneliness was
enlivened, my desolation softened
by his presence. 7 never thought
Of my foolishness-T was 10 love.
Shortly after that | went to
dwell with an aunt who lived I'D the
same n1aca wv Ena Spencer. an aunt