The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1911-02-10
BY CLEO LAUTZENHISER

When the good people of the placid
town of Westerville awoke to the
knowledge that John Haywood was
In love, their tongues wagged indus
triously The very fact that sober,
practical Bachelor John-so-called to
dsJ guish him from a cousin OF the
same name who had been long since
married-should presume, at As, to
fall in love at all, was, in itself, pre-.
posterous But, when it became
known that it was 19-year-old Eliza
beth Congdon, just home from school,
from whose eyes had flashed the
shaft that had penetrated this hither
to impervious heart, then a torrent OF
disaprroval swept from neighbor to
neigbbor, until the very limits OF the
village had been reached That the
girl was extraordinarily pretty all
the men avowed, and the women
grudgingly admitted; but even this
did not suffice to eXonerate poor
Bachelor John from their censure.
At the death of his father, rs years
before, Haywood, though little more
than a boy, had taken on himself the
burden of the general dry goods and
grocery store of which his father had
been proprietor. AS a child, he had
displayed a remarkably serious turn
of mind All through his youth, he
had seldom been known to indulge
in any sort of frolic 1t was not
strange, then, that, with the assump,
tion of the oversight of the store, he
had settled into a premature man
hood from which he had never
emerged
Only two women had played any
important part in his life. One was
his mother, about whom all his power
of loving had centered After she,
like the father, had gone out on the
last long journey, it had been the sup.
position of many persons that John
Haywood would marry but, as the
years had gone on, their conjectures
had changed into doubts, which, in
turn, had merged into the popular
conviction that it would be Bachelor
John with him to the end of time
The other woman was one with
whom his interests were perforce as.
sociated This was Elizabeth Cong
don's maiden sister, Mary, who, IL
years before, had gone into Heywood's
store as bookkeeper and cashier, but
who had become virtually his business
partner AS a commercial asset, she
was indispensable to her employer,
and was fully appreciated by him as
such. She was a slim, timid little
woman of 38, whose sweet, plain face,
bending faithfully over her accounts,
had never, through all the years, re-
vealed a trace of the homage that her
heart involuntarily rendered to Bache-
lor John
AS to winning him, she had hardly
thought of that; but, if she had it
would have seemed the natural thing
that she should relinquish all claim in
Elizabeth's favor, if that young lady
wanted him For 10 years she had
been giving up things to Elizabeth.
and was entirely reconcile to doing
so. Consequently, when she observed
with the others, Heywoods infatua-
tion for her pretty sister, she felt no
bitterness, no heartache, no unwilling.
ness. 1t was merely another link in
the chain that bound her to the realm
of unconscious self-sacrifice.
With the advent of Elizabeth into
Westerville society, Bachelor John be-
gan warfare against the encroach-
ments of the advancing years-a war
fare that furnished endless amusement
to his fellow townsmen; for the OBJ
viousness Of his motive made even the
most charitable smile The mustache
that he had worn for so long that it
had come to seem a part of his per
sonality, disappeared over night. His
old-fashioned spectacles were replaced
by a pair of rimless nose glasses, held
in place by gold chain. The interest
! CONTINUED on. eighth page.