The Press., 1915-08-18
His Fiancee He Had Intended to Be a Father to
 to Her.
By ESTHER vANDERvEER

q may not see you again for years. Will you be true to me?"
 Rather ask yourself whether you
 will be true to me. You are at an age
 when mans fancy is liable to great
 changes"
 II shall not change in my feelings to-
 ward you"
 We shall see. Now, come and kiss
 baby; then you must be off,"
 Hugh Edgerton, twenty years old had become enamored of young wid
 ow, Mrs. Clara Pomeroy, two years his
 senior with child, girl in her third year. He had been offered a position
 in banking house in Hongkong, Chi
 na, and was about to proceed there
 Full of the hope of youth, he was in
 tent upon making a fortune and return
 ing to spend what remained to him of life with Clara Pomeroy for his wife.
 He followed her into an adjoining room where the child lay asleep in hel crib. Bending down, he kissed her. | LIGHT IlLJle luluS! He SdIu. !" ueD return I will be a father to her"
 He took the childs hand in his, and so soft, so dear was 1t that he could hardly bear to release it, but the moth. CT admonished him that his time was limited, and drew him away.
 "Goodby," she said; whatever is ir store for you and me i'll the future'-
 And baby"
 "Yes, and baby. 1 will say this, you are Il fine fellow and deserving of 6 good wife,
 she gave him lacked the fervOr of a woman deeply ill love. But 1t had always been so between them. The widow, though but few years his se nior, had far wider range of ex- rericnce than he, and woman of twenty-two is usually much more ma ture than q man of twenty. When he regretted this lack of fervor she all ways said to him, When ten or twen- ty years have passed it will be whG will have cause to reproach you for in difference
 l While on his voyage to China Edger- ton spent the most of his time writ | ing letters to his fiancee. If an anal ysis of his feelings were possible it might show more distaste for leaving home and friends for q foreign land than love, but no one has yet been able to isolate lOve-as they say of germs-and, after all, our affections are largely q matter of association. Never theless Edgerton pined for his widow and the time when he would be united with her, and the dear child he had seen sleeping so peaceful and innocent in her crib was ever present in his l mind.
 Edgerton on arriving in Hongkong was given a position of some impor- tance, for he had had several years experience as subordinate in busi- ness and was advanced rapidly. But unfortunately when he reached status in which he might begin to accumulate the house he was with made some i'm portant losses and wound up their business. Edgerton joined forces with others and formed an independent house. They made money for time, but one of the partners proved dis honest, and after getting him out of it they had a considerable deficiency to make up.
 Meanwhile Edgerton wrote regularly to his fancee and received letters from her. It was due to her encour- agement that he was able to stand by what he had undertaken, for when i'll luck befell him he was sorely tempted to give up and go home. He had with him a likeness of his fiancee, and, though the years were passing and each year added to her age, he con- tinued to think of her as she had ap- peared when he parted from her. He always referred to her little girl as ''the baby'' and forgot that while her mother had passed the climax of youth and beauty the daughter was ap- preaching 1t.
 Years passed before Hugh Edgerton came to a status wherein he could close out his business i'll China and return to America with the fortune he had set out to win. Indeed, 1t was due to fortunate rise ill an article in which he had made an investment that at last enabled him to do so. 1t was a happy day that he announced to Mrs. Pomeroy that he was independent of the world and in few weeks would return to claim her as his bride.
 Sixteen years had passed since Ed gerton had left his native land. He had been so cngrossed in business that they did not seem to him more than six. Nevertheless he realized that there must be some change, especially in baby" He pictured her as a girl playing with her doll, but nearing an age when she would lay it aside. Her mother doubtless would not have ,hanged so much. True, she would be to Edgerton himself he was now thir ty-six, an age wherein d man is sup posed to be in his prime. His associ- ations with women in China had been thus far with those who had not yet passed out of young ladyhood. Indeed the mothers of some of his women friends were but little older than he. One young woman of nineteen, an English girl. was hoping to win him when she was disappointed by the an nouncemenk that he was about to re- turn to America.
 The return voyage seemed endless to Edgerton, so eager was he to meet his fancee and the little girl to whom he was to be father. He pictured him. self taking his ease in his own house. surrounded by his family. The loneli- ness of a bachelor life in foreign country was now to be thing of the past.
 Edgerton was the first passenger to step ashore at San Francisco, and within an hour after landing he was speeding eastward on railway train. The day and hour of his arrival was known to Mrs. Pomeroy, and Edger- ton expected that she would meet him at tho sta fion Hic imna tionoo fo GOO