Bisbee daily review., 1911-04-08

Nuo Just lN6lNt ears DtLoft- IL uaQ been addressed to me at the college and forwarded The handwriting was that of a lady. but unfamiliar to me.
 l opened it without any thought whatever as 10 who had written it; but, looking first at the signature. saw it was Leona Whitney It was a reply to my proposal of marriage.
 It is singular to be transported by some Incident backward in time. Hold ing that letter in my hand, was again a youngster of twenty, ID love with woman l considered far above me. Then 1t occurred to me that Miss Whitney must now be within few years of forty, while I was thirty two, and old at that.
 IYEile these thoughts were flashing through me l began to read the letter It told me that the lady had been touched at the expression of the ten der feelings I had avowed for her and considered my proposal, 10 say the least, an honor. But there were req sons why she should hesitate While I was far more matured than most men of my age. it must be remembered that in ten or a dozen years l would still be young man. while she would be past middle age. She confessed that this was her only reason for not returning q favorable reply to my pro posal She suggested that I was just at the beginning of my career and if as time passed 1 felt the same she would be pleased 10 hear from me again.
 While 1 was reading this letter l was l sensible of having passed from my | youth to that period where q man be l gins to feel that young girls consider ! him old 1 had been much fiattered l that my recent attentions to a girl of l eighteen had been looked upon with favor. l had taken her out number ] of times and persuaded myself that the tender passion was stealing into my aging breast. But was not and ! never had been anything of a butter fly. I was and always had been a | serious man I found it somewhat irksome to go about as an escort to a | young girl to amusements in which l took no interest. The very night be | fore l received the epistle from a | distant past l had attended my little girl to ball where she had kept me for just on more dance" till 3 o'clock in the morning.
 It is not strange that l was affected by Miss Whitney's reply to a PSopOsi- 1 ton made twelve years before. The dozen years she had spoken of had ! passed and while l was still on the | lower side of middle age she had pass ed beyond it Nevertheless my interest | in bachelor Iife-if I ever had any had dled down until it's pleasures had 1 turaed to gall My recent attendance i upon a society bud during the small | hours of the morning was still fresh in 1 my memory while the insipid nothings I had been obliged to say and listen to nauseated me. 1 wrote at once 10 relative of Miss | Whitney asking what had become of her, and received a reply that she lived | in the house in which she had always lived, and in which I had so often i called upon her while I was a student. She was beloved and respected by all who knew her and my correspondent wondered that though she had receiv- l ed many offers she had accepted none
 A few days after the receipt of this 1 information I was in Miss Whitney's home aud sent up my card with the letter I had so recently received. hay ing underscored on the envelope the postmark showing the day it was mail cd and another giving the day 1t was i received.
 When Miss Whitney came down to receive me. with considerable embar- rassment in her manner and telltale blush on her cheek. l was surprised that she did not show her years by half dozen, and there was not gray hair in her head She looked much younger for q woman than I for q man.
 However. I had not come to see her for beauty, but in the hope of a re- newal of that companionship I had enjoyed decade before. She told me
 that she had been at a loss to under stand my silence, for since her letter had not been returned to her through
 the dead letter office she could not doubt that l had received if.
 During an hours conversation with
 her the fact became impressed upon
 my mind that was not the man to
 marry a chit of a girl and that
 would find the companionship I needed
 in Miss Whitney l received promise that she would correspond with me and since my home was not a long
 journey from hers l made her a mum
 Der of visits But ny own mind was
 made up at our reunion. and fortunate
 ly had only to wait for the lady to
 be satisfied that would not be likely
 to regret the step l was bent upon
 taking
 That regrettinE is one of the most
 improbable things in the world is
 manifest in the fact that we have been
 married twenty years and are more
 conpanionabIe by far than at the fine
 of the wedding More than this. ouI
 affection has increased steadily. and il
 seems to me that with us the period oi
 romance has been inverted, coming as
 1t has in our old age. Indeed, not a
 year passes but we find ourselves more
 dependent upon each other.
 l never go by a certain building iI
 the town in which we live without re ! sbof Inc old fraD ff TO