The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-05-27
Middle Aged
Lovemaking
By ETHEL HOLMES

L
when can just as we'll go where its
cool? Tomkins can run the business
as we'll as l. don't care whether
there is any profit for a couple of
months or not. Why should l? My
securities pay me $4,000 year, and
that's enough for a lone bachelor with
out any other income.
The only objection to Mr.. Chidleigh's
going to the country was that he was
too old to join in with the young per
sons he would meet and he wouldn't
know what to do with himself. He
was forty-two years old. However, he
made up his mind to get a sniff of sea
air, and, leaving his business in the
hands of his chief clerk. he got into
his car and after hundred miles spin
pulled up in front of summer hotel
overlooking the ocean.
As he went up the steps he noticed
lady sitting on the piazza whose face
was familiar to him.
81 do believe" he said to himself.
that's Del Smith"
Del Smith had been flame" of
Chidleigh's twenty years before. If
indeed it were she he need not be lone
ly. He might get some amusement by
remaining incog. and making her ac-
quaintance as Il stranger. Going to the
hotel office. a clerk placed the register
before him, and he signed his name so
that it looked like A. Chindey.
The next day he was sitting on the
piazza near the lady he supposed to be
his old fame. she being in company
with an elderly woman who looked to
Chidleigh very much as he remember
ed her mother twenty years before.
They were regretting not being able
to hire an auto for a ride.
Ladies'" said Chidleigh, 81 have an
auto which is Mt your service. and
will he happy to drive you wherever
you wish to go"
After some parleying the offer was
accepted, and the trio spent a pleasant
afternoon visiting various points of in
terest in the vicinity. That was the
beginning of an acquaintance or, if
the lady was Chidlcigh's old flame, the
renewal of one. On the beach the next
morning she sat alone-her mother pre-
ferred to remain in her room-and
Chidleigh joined her. He did not ask
her name. but he propounded some
leading questions, the replies to which
convinced him that he had been mis-
taken in the person.
He was disappointed in this, but the
lady gave him every encouragement to
be friendly, telling him that she and
her mother knew no one at the hotel
and would be very glad to see as much
of him as he liked during their stay
To this Chidleigh declared that he was
in the same lonely condition.
Notwithstanding the replies to his
leading questions Chidleigh could not
divest himself of the feeling that the
lady was Adele Smith Going to the
hotel register, he hunted up the name
but not finding a recent arrival o.
Smiths he asked the clerk for nforma
ton, and he showed him the name
Mrs. Turnlee and daughter" This
COMPOUNDED the Investigator. but III
would not give 1t up that the daughter
was Del Smith
However, Chidleigh found aSsocia
ton with Miss Turnlee more and NOR,
pleasant every day He took her ant
her mother out in his car every da!
that the mother would go, and wheI
she declined his invitation he took tn,
daughter
One day when they were drivinl
alone together they left the car ant
sat on dune overlooking the ocean
Chidleigh felt that they were drawn
nearer together from the fact that the!
were far from any one else and thu
eXpanse of sky and water above ant
before them were so vast.
"You remind me-" he said to her 90
a girl knew when was youngster
was Twenty-Five; she was eighteen
l was drawn to her, but at that ag,
there are so many girls for the boy!
and so many boys for the girls tina
one is not inclined to choose and pick
wish now l could be the age | was
then. would provide against my
present solitary condition"
81, too, have such a memory.
knew young man whom l considered
the pink of perfection. l wished hC
would make love to me, but he didn't
You men have great advantage Uvel
us women in that respect"
do you remember his name?"
''Do you remember the girls nameP
"Yes."
LET us make an exchange"
every well; she was Adele Smith"
"He was Amos Chedleigh."
Amos turned and looked at her fix
eddy.
How is it that you are Miss Turn
Iee?"
I'm not; I'm Miss Smith. My moth
er married a second time"
do you know that am Amos Ched
leighT"
"Of course | do. l recognized 70,
when | saw you come up the hote
steps the day of your arrival"
do you regret being a spinster?"
"Of course l do. Every spinste
does"
Lets make up for lost time. Wi
you marry me"
81 will"
Given a man of fOrty-two and
woman of thirty eight sitting on
dune overlooking the ocean in I'll
twilight, a crescent moon overhea'
lust betrothed, and despite their mil
die age we may conjecture the rest
the picture.
LONELINESS Explained.