The leader-enterprise. [volume] (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1912-1915, 1913-10-31

am blonde and l have been 60
ing with a young gentleman for a
year. We love each other dearly. He
calls to see me every Wednesday and
on Saturday nights we go to the
heater. He has told me that he is
not going with any other young ladies'
at present but he has never asked me
| to marry him. Would it be wrong
for me to tell him love him? I am
nineteen and am considered rather
| good-looking."
Something Of Miss Mayhew's
| adamantine resolution nerved Miss
Kent's right hand.
mo woman ever tells man that
she loves him until he has asked her
to marry him." she wrote. THAT is
| exclusively gentleman's prerogative.
You can only be patient, and suffer in
silence. Can you not encourage him
| to make a declaration by not confin-
| ing your attentions to him exclus-
| ively?" 3D.
II wonder" she reflected, as she
laid her pen aside, whether Miss
Mayhem was writing from experience
when she penned Form A."
Her task was over at last and she
rose up and went to the wardrobe for
her hat. She hoped Miss Mayhew's
mother would make an amazingly
rapid recovery. The agony column
exhausted every atom of her vitality.
1T is good discipline to be sponsor
for all the love-struck idiots in town."
she reflected.
Il beg your pardon?" inquired Mr..
Mclaughlin.
Il beg your pardon?" he repeated.
Did you say something, Miss Kent?"
20, dear no, 1 was just soliloquiz-
| ing" she answered, giving her hat
final pat to straighten it.
Mclaughlin paused irresolutely.
you look quite Jagged" he said.
Say, Miss Kent, won't you'll mean
would you mind having dinner with
me tonight, somewhere? 1 haven't
thing to do and have found the fin
est little place where you can get
Scandinavian dinner and imported
beer. It's just opening, so it's bound
to be good. And then maybe we can
take in a show afterward-yes?"
Il don't know that ought to-" Miss
Kent answered, but her smile was dis
tinctly affirmative. So they set out to-
gether and soon they had left the
grimy working life far behind and
were riding on a street car through
the city. And then they got off and
turned down a little side street Of
which Miss Kent had never even
heard, and he was plotting her into
real Scandinavian restaurant. They
sat down at q table which had been
made for two exclusively, and there
the lights and the music and the
merry conversation of the other diners
made Miss Kent forget all about Miss
Mayhem and her miserable CORE
spondents. ~. e...e.<,s,
AS she watched Mclaughlin she
could not help thinking that he was
the incest young fellow. she knew. He
carried himself so we'll and looked SO
frank and kind, and he had always
+ treated her with such courtesy. And
Mclaughlin; looking at her until their
eyes met. and each turned away in en-
barrassment, was thinking something
that had often disturbed him when
| he was seated at the copy desk-that
Alice Kent was different from any
girl he had ever known, and. what
luck it was that nobody had come
along and snapped her UP while he
! was idly dreaming about, her: 81
He bent over the table toward her.
+ 4Do you know" he said, Il feel as if
had known you all my life. instead
Of barely a couple Of months. How
did we ever get to speak to each
other? Why, don't believe, that we
! have even been introduced to each
/ other, and now feel as though we
ought to be sitting next to each other
at dinner every night. Gee, that
would be some dinner, wouldn't it,"
81 guess it would" answered Miss
Kent happily.
And then they fell to chatting and
fingered over the meal so long that
neither knew whether the fish had
been served or whether it was the
salad they were waiting for. Indeed,
when at last they looked up they
found that everybody In the restau-
rant had left, and the band was 60
ing home, and they two we're alone
together there with the proprietor and
the walters, who we're standing round
and looking at them with smiles that
betrayed an admixture OF Impotence.
So they went out and strolled through
paradise Of dirty streets until they
came to a clean little park, and they
sat down on bench and their con-
versation became quite personal and
absorbing.
When at last Mclaughlin left Miss
Kent at the door Of her apartment he
hesitated, and, as he looked back
over his shoulder at her, fumbling
with the key which somehow would
not fit the lock of the door, he sud-
denly came back again and took her
in his arms and kissed her.
Miss Kent had often dreamed Of
such a possibility and Of the just rep
rimand that she would impose upon