The Irish standard., 1912-11-09
"And You Aren't Afraid to Admit ri"

''And You Aren't Afraid to Admit ft7s
are capricious, irritable, temperament.
al, selfish, and usually demand all the
attention"
The little vocal stream died up
again, and once more they listened to
the magic sounds Of the night. She
stopped abruptly to look over the para
pet, and his shoulder met hers; after
that the world to him was never 60
ing to be the same again.
Moonlight and poetry; not tho
safest channels to sail uncharted. The
girl was lonely, and George was lone
ly, too. His longing had now assumed
definite form; hers moved from this
to that, still indefinitely. The quick
ness with which this definition had
come to George rather startled him.
His first sight of Fortune Chedsoye
had been but yesterday; yet, here he
was. not desperately but consciously
In love with her. The situation bore
against all precepts; it ripped up his
preconceived ideas Of romance as q
gale at sea shreds canvas. He felt
D bit panicky. He had always planned
courtship of a year or SO, meetings,
separations, and remeetings, pleasur-
able expectations, little junkets to the.
aters and country places; in brief, to
witness the rose grow and unfold.
Somewhere he had read or heard that
courtship was the plummet which
I'D fh4 ne tn
He knew nothing of Fortune Ched-
soye, save that she was beautiful to
his eyes, and that she was as different
from the ordinary run Of girls as yon-
der moon was from the stars. Here
his knowledge ended. But instinct
went on. appraising and delving and
winnowing, and instinct told him what
knowledge could not, that she was all
his heart desired.
When a man finally decides that he
is in love, his troubles begin, the
imaginary ones. Is he worthy? Can
he always provide for her? Is It pos
sible for such a marvellous creature
to love an Insignificant chap like him
self? And that worst of mental
poisons, is she in love with any one
else? What to do to win her? The
feats of Hercules, of Perseus, OF
Jason; what mad piece Of heroism can
he lay his hand to that he may wake
the slumbering fires, and having
reused them, continue to feed them?
Manhood, meaning that decade be-
tween thirty and forty, looks upon
this phase, abashed. After all, it
wasn't so terrible; there were vaster
emotions, vaster achievements in life
to which in comparison love was as
a candle held to the sun.
Again she stopped, leaning over the
parapet and staring down at the wa
ter swirling past the stone embank-
ment. He did likewise, resting upon
his folded arms. Suddenly his tongue
became alive; and quietly, without
hesitancy or embarrassment, he began
to tell her of his school life, his life
at home. And the manner in which
he spoke Of his mother warmed her;
and she was strangely and wonder
ingly attracted.
"Of course, the mother meant the
best in the world when she gave me
Percival Algernon; and because she
meant the best, I have rarely tried to
hide them. What was good enough for
her to give was good enough for me
to keep. 1t is simply that have been
foolish about it. supersensitive. I
should have laughed and accepted the
thing as Joke; instead, I made the
fatal move of trying to run away and
hide. But, taking the name in full"
lightly. 1T sounds as incongruous a.