The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-06-13


 Admitted to her husband that she was twenty-five, out of deference to his boyish twenty-three, but, having all ways dattered herself that she was the eovery never made by anyone else on sarth-she had told him that only year and seven months had separated their respective advents into mundane existence, and devoutly hoped that no pne who knew her would see the mar riage license
 -Everyone.n she reflected, 'is al lowed to forget seven years bad luck I've had mine, and I'm ready to forget
 For Anastasia was one of the wo- men who are seriously disturbed if they find 1t imperative to retain the prefix Miss on their visiting cards after the age of twenty-one. Also, her Servent prayers that the hor1d laced Tommy Hayes would make her his bride had been poured forth to Heaven for exactly seven years before she had landed Freddie. Hence, she considered herself Justified in her ehronology.
 A bride, by average computation, IS supposed to be a happy creature, su- perlative1y so in the generality or eases. Anastasia, however, was not happy There had been a hitch in her plans. A hitch, aside from the mat rirnonial variety, was something that
 
 From the beginning she had eng1n- eered things so smoothly that Freddie Vervane, eldest son of man who had banked his million had never realized that February in 1sO4 nao contained twenty-nine days and that Anastasia Conroy regarded 1t as her mission in life to preface her name with Mrs and to provide a com 1ortabIe establishment for her aging parents
 The village swa1ns in the ha1f-buried Penusylvania town in which Anastas1a lived had failed rather signally to rec ognize or appreciate her charms The majority of them had been ambitious enough to seek brides in adjacent rnunicfpalfties, and Anastasia was. growing savagely tired of extending congratulations where ma1edictions would have been more to her taste NJ
 Tommy Hayes could not have af- forded to marry her even if he had wished to, but the part that she found it impossible to forgive was the very patent lack of such desire. She was beginning to hate Tommy as cordially as she had loved him and was in al binding rage with Fate when Freddie wandered over one Sunday for rural recreation with his family, who were spending the summer in the suburbs, ana was introduced to Anastasia, who saw to it that he was.
 And Anastasia marked him for her own
 Soon after, he had appeared again for relaxation, for Freddie was really devotinE great energy to business matters, and again the scheming vixen had sought him out. At the end of their third meeting she informed him that she had mastered the detailed his tory of Ereddie's life.
 However, Freddie hadn't told her. sverything-not quite
 Freddie was a man.
 Moreover. he had previously decided that he was never going to tell any body about Shirley. She represented all that was sweet and lovely and lost in his world and the memory was too sacred as we'll as too melancholy to be revived in speech. Additionally, An astasia was not the kind of woman to tmpel such a confidence by her per sona1fty. He could never bring him self to mention Shirley to her, he felt certain.
 For Shirley had been his dream ever since he was a little lad in knickerS and after a preliminary round of par ties and other festivities at which he had Invariably been her partner and inseparzble slave, he had decided to ask her to share his fortunes forever. He was twenty-tvo then. but he had been anticipating it for years. Shirley had declined and he believed that his heart was broken.
 't0ot that don't like you, boy dear,'' she had said, ''for I do. It is simply that you are too young-too more developed, if your judgment were more profound. if your soul were more than 8 chrysaliss it would be differ ent-"
 ture," Freddie had answered sadly.
 'Not butterfly, more nearly a grasshcpper. Your stick and the choice of your waistcoats engross you more than the important things. When you lived here in New Haven, will con- fess that I was exceedingly fond of you You possessed a sweetness and an indeanable dignity that rendered you wonderfully attractive However. when a woman confesses a thing it is because 1t is pretty well over, and I have only a reliable friendship for you since you identified yourself with Pennsylvania enterprises and associ- ates. You are different -diferent-and I don't want you that way. You couldn't hold me now, Freddie, unless you changed as radically as before. wish your fathers business had never called you all away"
 Freddie returned to Pennsylvania with a crushed heart and the gnaw- Ing suspicion that he might have con tracted supericia1ly in his adopted environment. He knew that Shirley had liked him when he was a kid1et; she was not the girl to kiss a fellow at all unless her emotions were aroused
 Accordingly, he proved his euperf1- l cfal status and defective judgment by determining to show her. It had not occurred to him to await the muta- tfons Of time and endeavor toward winning the one woman.
 It was while in this frame of mind that he had encountered Anastasia Conroy. adventures in general and husband-hunter in particular, and sur rendered to her artfuI and acciden- tai caresses while the fracture was fresh and the need of commiseration great He never mentioned Shirley, and Anastasia stupid in everything but intrigue, deduced that the worries of a millionaire were the weightiest 4-oubIes that Freddie had to bear And she was willing to share his bur