The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1916-09-26
By BARBARA PHIPPS

SlIlOu CuaC LnOSe OUTSIDE their own Ivy
clad college walls were mere pinheads
In the intellectual world
Tymerson was a fair representative
of his alma mater, and this is a prime
reason why Miss Swift was first at
tracted to him. At the time he was In
troduced to her there were several
persons in the group, including a
young man whose intellect had just
been Matched under the ordinary cole
gate method at a one horse college
containing a mere bagatelle of a thou
sand students and which dated back
not more than $50 years. This young
man ventured the statement that Mr..
Dickens would outline Mr.. Thackeray
Miss Swift noticed the look Tymerson
gave the speaker and the delicacy with
which he turned the subject without
even deigning a reply.
An elaborate lecture on literature
could not have given so marked an i'm
preston Of the superior literary judg-
ment of Mr.. Tymerson as this quiet
squelching Of the person who had ven
tured an opinion in his presence. But
there was an especial reason why it
impressed Miss Swift. She, too, was a
college graduate and during her col
lege career had contributed to the pc
riodicals issued at her alma mater
More than this, emboldened by her lit
erary prominence while in college she
had soon after being graduated aspired
to the writing Of a story. or, rather,
novel
The literary atmosphere she had
breathed was, like that found in high
attitudes, rare. In the school she had
been taught to admire cultured fami-
lies The imagination was tabooed
Dramatic situations were considered
as pertaining only to yellow literature
Some writers of this school had at
tanned an elevation where the atmos-
phere was so rare that only readers
with lungs especially prepared for it
could breathe at all.
One of the first requirements-or fan
cied requirements-of literary begin
ners is criticism. AS soon as Miss
Swift had become impressed with Mr..
Tymerson's literary judgment she was
DESTROYS of submitting her work to
him to secure his opinion of its merits
But the young authoress knew that
when a man of the world is given
something to read which has been
written by one of his lady friends it is
with the expectation that he will say
something complimentary about it.
Miss Swift, desiring an unbiased opin-
Ion, determined to wait for an opportu-
nifty to get her novel before Mr.. Tymer-
sons critical eye without his knowing
that she was its author.
This preliminary may make it appear
that there was no love affair between
these two young persons. On the con-
trary, their hearts struck the love gait
as soon as they became acquainted. If
there was the GOODNESS of intellectual
ity between them they met In the sea-
son of ethereal mildness, and that Is
half Of Cupid's battle, for it is wen
known that the little god fires his ar
rows in the spring with more telling
effect than any other season.
A courtship ensued which lasted for
year. Then Mr.. Tymerson spoke.
From what has been said of him it
may be supposed that his proposal was
model Of courtliness expressed in the
choicest English. This is not so. Love
and intellect have nothing to do with
one another, and when love asserts
itself intellect takes a back seat. The
proposal took place in a fashion very
ordinary and in which a large number
of proposals are made. Tymerson one
She objected on the ground that he
had no such right, whereupon he grew
ashamed and gave himself the right
by stammering out a disjointed state
ment that he loved her and would she
marry him? 1t was after the break
had been made that loves baby talk
came in
During all this time Mildred Swift
kept her literary labors to herself Six
months after she had written her novel
she read IT, not having seen it In the
meantime, and 1t struck her as worth
less. She had been doing what most
beginners do-copying from others.
She realized, too. that she had been
laboring to write as she had been
taught, the one supreme method ap-
proved by the Acknowledgements
among litterateurs. At the time she re-
| ment of one Of the few real literary
| geniuses Of the nineteenth century
| that the school in which she had been
! brought up was very narrow one.
| Miss Swift had accidentally struck a
theme for story that appealed very
strongly to her. She determined to
throw off the prejudices to which she
had been educated, give herself free
rein and write Mildred Swift novel.
She soon became engrossed in her work,
and by the time she had half finished
| 1t she seemed to "walk upon the winds
with lightness that she was con-
scious of the value of this moving
| without effort. Indeed, she doubted If
she were producing anything of value,
because 1t was so easy for her.
1t has been said that on Miss Swift's
first meeting with Mr.. Tymerson she
desired his criticism. Now that they
were lovers she dared not risk turn
ing his love into contempt by submit
ting to him any of her literary work.
In other matters she leaned on him
this she kept within herself
When Mildred finished the work in
which her whole being was absorbed
she waited a week to give her mind a
little freedom from It. then read II
over. About the middle Of the book
she struck a snag. Something went
against her. She became dissatisfied
with her work, tossed it into a drawer
and left 1t there for some time Then
one day she read 1t again. 1t occurred
to her she might remedy the blemish
that had upset her, and she did so. The
next day. without giving herself time
to think about it.. she started it out OF