The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-12-15
Middle Aged
Lovenaki1lg
By ETHEL HOLMES

Amos Chidleigh sat at his desk one
hot July morning hopping his brow.
Then he said to himself:
"Why should I stay in this hot town
when can just as well go where it's
cool? Tomkins can run the business
as well 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 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 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 a summer hotel
overlooking the ocean.
<aS liz WChL uP thC StCpS uC hOIlCCu q
lady sitting on the piazza whose face
was familiar to him.
II do believe" he said to himself.
that's Del Smith,
Del Smith had been q flame" of
Chidleigh's twenty years before. If
indeed 1t were she he need not be lone
ly. He might get some amusement by
remaining incog. and making her ac-
quaintance as a stranger Going to the
hotel office. 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 flame, 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 ride.
Ladies'" said Chidleigh, 81 have an
auto which is at your service. and
will be happy to drive you wherever
you wish to 60"
After some parleying the offer was
accepted, and the trio spent pleasant
afternoon visiting various points Of In
terest in the vicinity. That was the
beginning Of an acquaintance or, If
the lady was Chidleigh'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 recent arrival Of
Smiths he asked the clerk for informa-
ton, and he showed him the name,
MRS. Turnlee and daughter" This
COMPOUNDED the investigator, but he
would not give it up that the daughter
was Del Smith.
However, Chidleigh found associa-
ton with Miss Turnlee more and more
pleasant every day. He took her and
her mother out In his car every day
that the mother would go, and whey
she declined his invitation he took the
daughter.
One day when they were driving
alone together they left the car and
sat on dune overlooking the ocean.
Chidleigh felt that they were drawn
nearer together from the fact that they
were far from any one else and the
expanse of sky and water above and
before them were so vast.
"You remind me-" he said to her, "of
girl l knew when l was youngster
| | was Twenty-Five: she was eighteen
I was drawn to her. but at that age
there are so many girls for the boys
and so many boys for the girls that
one is not inclined to choose and pick
| wish now could be the age l was
then. would provide against my
| present solitary condition"