The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1914-04-24
Disseminated:
A Pair OF Lovers Meet
After an Interval OF
Twenty Years
BY ESTHER VANDEVEER


Wheattield about the same age and in
innate friends Helen Porter and
were bosom friends, and Jim MacAles-
Ger and Edward Dudley were insepa-
come to see Helen and me always to-
| gether till time came when we paired
off, jim and | making one couple. Ned
and Helen the other
y don't know a better way to make
matches than for two girls, chums.
and two fellows. chuns. to form u
quartet for spending their leisure
hours. Almost always one of the
couples will get ~ lovemaking. and
the other will catch the infection. jim
and | caught it from Ned and Helen.
think it was their example that set
Jim and ME to thinking about mar
riage. At any rate, jim began to grow
| spOony, and |. thinking that j was not
| likely to do better, encouraged him.
| In due time he proposed. and accept
ed him. At this time Ned and Helen
had been engaged several months and
fore it came round Helen was taken
i'll, and it was put off. Helen recovered,
and another day was fixed. but this
time Ned fell sick. and there was an
other postpOnement.
When Ned improved his doctor order
ed him to the mountains. where he
would breathe dry air. He went out
to the Rockies. to be gone few
months. at the end of which time and
on his return the wedding day was to
be fixed for the third time. We all
went to the station to see him off. He
did not wish to go any more than
Helen wished to have him go. Jim
cOnsoled him till the train started, and
Helen went home in the carriage with
me, weeping on my shoulder as though
her heart would break.
Ned wrote that he was picking up
marvelously out in the mountains, and
when two months had elapsed he
wrote Helen to brush up her rousseau.
for he would be back in q few weeks
for the wedding. Poor Helen came
to Inc with Il ugubrious face about her
trousseau. for the fashions had chang
ed couple of times since it was first
made Articles that were cut shsrt
then had since been cut long: those
that had been made scant were now
made full. She had bought several ex-
pensive hats. very small. and the fash.
ion had bloomed ont to enormous pro.
portions.
| helped her prepare new trOus.
seau; but. alas. 1t. too. passed out of
fashion In closets and bureau drawers.
Ned. instead Of coming home. wrote
that he had bought gold mine and
was going TO make fortune He had
some property and put a portion Of 1t
into his gold mine and felt it necessary
that he should stay where he was till
the property had been placed on
paying basis.
When this next period had passed
Ned turned his property into cash and
put 1t all into his gold mine. He wrote
Helen that this was necessary. because
If he didn't he would lose what he had
invested.
Helen's trousseau had now been made |
over so many times that it would not |
bear any more altering, and it was
fortunate she didn't try to bring It |
down to date. for Ned was delayed in |
getting his mine into shape to leave. |
All was going on swimmingly when a |
flow Of water was struck. |
Inr In nVdn nd
when it arrived it was found not to be
large enough. Then there was a labor |
strike among the miners. And so 1t |
went on. first this trouble. then that.
ill finally all Ned's fortune had gone
down into the big hole in the ground.
Ned wrote Helen telling her what
had happened-that he had no income
md would remain where he was till |
he had recovered what ne had lost
He offered to release her from her en-
yagement. but So far as he was con-
,erned he would never marry any one
else. When he got his affairs In prop
err shape TO take wife. if Helen were
free. he would claim her. Meanwhile
he would not blame her IL she married
another.
Helen replied that she felt just as
Ned did about it. Her heart had been
given to him and she could not IL she
would give II to another. If at the end
Df FIVE. ten. seyen twenty years he
claimed her he would find her ready
TO give herself to him.
Meanwhile Jim and l were married
md getting on nicely. We regretted
hat our companion couples affair had
not turned out so well. l did my best
10 cheer Helen. and Jim wrote to en-
Ned. But the case looked
hopeless to us. Ned was a long while
lfter the collapse of his mine getting
my kind of start. and when he got
)ne it wasn't enough to marry on. Sew
,ral years passed. and he felt that he
Ind Helen had waited so long that he
lidn't care to marry without getting
MS affairs into excellent shape.
A dozen years passed. during which
Ned Dudley went up and down hill
lumber of times, never remaining on
, crest long enough to warrant-accord-
ng to his own ideas-his taking
wife He kept Hclcn's picture with
him and never failed for a single day
% look at It, for 1t was on his dressing