The Washington herald., 1913-05-03
INTERESTING PAGE FOR WOMAN AND THE HOME Nam
Hop the Early Lone Dream
Of Dickens Was Shattered
Nv FRANCES sHAFFER.

When Charles Dickens was newspaper
reporter, dreaming great dreams, but I'M
able to point to even fair prospects, he
went ardently a-wooing at the shrine OF
young woman, who encouraged him Tor
a while then coldly cast him aside. The
young sutton was very much in earnest.
but he was poor, her family protested.
and the girl turned needless ears to all
his appeals.
His pride was aroused, and he put all
his heart in his work, determined to
prove that though his love quest might
be failure he still could succeed in other
ways.
Two years went by, and the discarded
sutton became a benedict, but he still
kept that first love well up on a pedestal,
where she remained for a long. long
while. Seventeen years after the parting
he idealized his early love dream in "Da-
vid Copperfield," and the memory of his
youthful vision of one fair woman was
brought TO life in Dora"
And doubtless he would have gone or
to the end of time with a little corner in
his heart reserved for her If she had not
unwisely, but quite unwittingly, broken
the spell.
Recalled Friendship.
When the young woman had reached
the comfortable port of middle age. mar
Ileu, Out sui Wltn a nina ana n nedTt
for sentiment, she wrote to Dickens and
recalled their early friendship. The nov
elist cordially responded, and several let
tiers passed back and forth, from which 1t
was quite apparent that the passing years
had not effaced the lovely dreams OF
youth.
III only the fair charmer had been con-
tent to remain in the background But
she longed to cast her spell upon her one
III nfnd
Of the dream.
They met. And Dickens tells all about
il in Little Dorritt.'
The charmer i'm those early days was
''divinely tall" but with the passing of
each new year she had grown a bit
broader, and when she dawned upon his
middle-aeed vision she was undivinely
broad and unromantically short of breath.
But that was not sufficient to dislodge
her from her firm pedestal
The old love was most divinely fair"
and the later vision had grown quite
ford. But not even that dismayed him.
In the days of long ago the young wom-
an, with her piquancy, her artlessness,
and pretty little airs, was very enchant-
ing, and all that she said and did went
straight to his youthful heart. But, alas
for the fitness of things, the years that
had robbed her Of her grace and beauty.
the years that had persistently stolen her
early charm, had left not a thing in
recompense. For the young woman, bit
airy and silly in the days when she wove
her girlish spell about him, was airy and
silly still, the same as of old, in spite of
the twenty years more that had passed
over her head
An that was toe much. So down she
tumhled from the pedestal upon which he
had enthroned her. and the poor lady
never found her old place again.
And who was at fault-the lady of
Dickens?
Cannot Tell What Time VIII Do.
In a world where grace and beauty have
always been rated pretty high among men
and women, il seems a bit hard that the
fast-speeding years relentlessly take their
toll, and that in time the grace and beauty
slip away with the years. But il is not
so hard if in place of those royal assets
OF youth there are the gracious compen-
sations that the years ought to bring.
One never knows how young folk will
develop, and cannot guess when Father
Time comes stealing along with his tell
tale marks whether there will be some
thing to show as a pleasant offset or
whether the years will have taken all
and have given nothing in return.
1t always has seemed something of a
tragedy for men and women to be pre-