The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-06-13
TOO VICTORIAN
BY JANE OSBORN.

nope around the way you are DOING
now Seventeen-year-old Ruth Tos
ter-lda's pretty golden-haired sistor
looked up from her algebra ans
glanced whimsically over her study
spectacles. Thank fortune I've never
oeen In love-Oh, there's no use saw.
ing you aren't. Nowadays girls come
rlgnt out and say so when thew are
but l suppose if you insist on being
victorian you just won't be frank
ABOUT 1t. was saying that il 7 ever
uio iail In love and then lost out the
way you have-well, you needn't look
80 onended, you know you have-why
wouldn't NOPE around about il ia
use my brains, same as man would"
well smarty, since you know il
all, Ida said, going over to her sister
and closing the algebra she was study
ing, what sort Of plot would Won
perpetrate. Would you 60 down to
matthew's apartment through the
dumo waiter shaft and steal the young
nero away in the Silly night?p
Now you're talking!" said Ruth.
springing to her feet. That might
De a good plot If the hero wasn't six
feet one and the heroine only five feet
three. I've thought out something
even craftier than that. The facts
IN the case are thus" Here Ruth be-
gan tabulating them on a page of her
algebra notebook. Hero is really
very fond of heroine if not actually
in love with her. Hero naturally timid
and not much of lady's man. Hero
lives in same apartment house as
heroine, and just before heroine gets
him to the proposing point she plays
her CARES wrong and tries to make the
hero jealous. Hero, instead of getting
Jealous, just gets a case Of cold pedal
extremities. Deadlock follows"
Here is where the craft comes in
You remember that little baby ring
with the blue-enamel forget-me-nots
that the hero gave the heroine in a
moment of sentimental fervor at q
picnic last summer. Now, don't look
surprised. OF course | know he gave
1t to you. Haven't / seen you veal
1t around your neck on a piece Of
white ribbon every night since? d
you think | keep my eyes in my pa
jana pockets? Now if the hero though
the heroine had lost that ring ant
thought she cared a lot for it he't
think that she cared a lot for hin
without having to be told so.
"Of course you haven't lost the ring
but just the same you can put al
advertisement in all the papers lik
this:
LOST-A baby ring with small
ferget.me-nots. OF small intrinsi
} worth, but highly priced by the OWL
, er. Reward, $75
Now, sooner or later, the hero
bound to read that advertisement, an
after he puts his shrewd masculin
. wits to work for about half an hou
4 1t will begin to dawn on him that tn
o poor little five-feet-three heroin
q misses him, wants to see him, love
/ him dearly"
o It was a week later and the adve
e tisement had appeared for five day
in the three local papers. Then on
+ day Ida came to Ruth's room and IL
o terrupted her in the midst Of her alg
!. bra. Ruth removed her spectacle
q and focused her eyes on her siste
ITS so funny" Ida was crushin
an open letter in her hand. "Someor
has found the ring, yet l still hay
i it."
q "Goose!" was Ruth's rejoinder. 1T
Matthew that answered. He didn
find it. He's Just saying he did. +
thinks he is being crafty just the We
. I said he would and he thinks "
y did lose 1t and he's just pretendiI
:, he found it so as to have chan
N to see you"
"If he did write that letter, l a
= sure he is very clever, for / new
would have thought that 1t was fro
him-and | am not at all sure that
= is even now. See, the writer sa
he will return the ring to the own
II she will meet him in the mall
X the mark at four o'clock this att
by noon. And she is to know him
cause he will wear a red rose and
al How did he know 1t was a 9
nd that lost the ring and how did he knt
that the mall in the spark is j.
no across the way from the owne
In house"
ng oTm sure don't know, but coin
dences like that are not unusual. AL
way, I shall keep the appointment
e alone"
10 At six o'clock Ruth, still pori
over her algebra, saw a very Pill
CO faced bright-eyed sister dash into
room. -,
"Who do you think I've been walk
with and he's coming back after O
sr, narq Matthew But it wasn't he u
be wrote the letter. In fact, ! didn't W
I'd FOR the man with the red rose. M
We thew Just happened to be there
NJ when told him was waiting for
OF man with a red rose he told me u
er the man only wanted to kidnap me
something like that. Don't you s.
do II was as plain as day after Matth
oy axplained it to me. But girls ne
he think of practical things IKE u
Matthew hadn't even seen the adv
he tisement in the paper and when !
him about losing the ring ne 5
he'd have another one made Just
q of course 1 never shall let N
Ter thew know l didn't lose that ring :
Ak Ruth put on her spectacles and :
ew a glance down at the algebralc ;, n ta,,
OF @sav. Ida, you're Victorian all tnrou
hv -. o,,sss there are some men