Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-10-05
Messages
In Plants
A Man and a Girl Converse
Through Flowers.
By ETHEL HOLMES

young man, with a fortune, good looks.
good health and a good mind. His oc-
cupation was both occupation and
amusement. He studied and did some
scribbling, occasionally sending very
pretty verses to magazines.
Atwater lived in a small place, but
a very old one. Many of the dwellings
stood alone and often In the center of
large grounds. His house was quaint,
and the grounds were a marvel of good
taste. On entering his study one
would Immediately be impressed with
the fact that 1t had been furnished
and decorated by an artist with an ex-
quisite sense for harmony In color.
Through the window appeared grounds
that had evidently been arranged by
a landscape gardener. Both the artist
and the gardener were Ethan Atwater.
Atwater had been drawn to n or
two different women at different times,
but had sooner or later discovered
something in one or the other to offend
his sensitive taste, something that ell
Their smacked of c~oarseness or an alb
sence of ideality. Not that he was a
sentimental man. He may rather be
called a man of sentiment. The sentf-
mental was as repulsive to him as
coarseness.
On Atwater's return from a journey
he found that the place next adjoining
his on the east had changed hands.
The same day he saw a young lady go
into the house whose appearance
struck him favorably. Her apparel
was In good taste. Her hat appeared
to have beer made neither for a giant
nor a dwarf. The colors of which her
costume were composed were subdued.
Her face, too. spoke of innate refine
ment.
1t was In the autumn that Atwater
first saw this girl, and nearly every
day after that he observed her either
going out or coming In or at a window.
His first impulse was to assume the
privilege of a neighbor and go in and
call ON the newcomers, but 1t occurred
to him that he would take pleasure in
studying the girl from the brief dis
lance that separated their abodes. One
of his theories was that a refined per-
6Oh @Odid 0Ot NC I'LL ChiCA thdt uh
ideal person could not be commonplace.
If she were both ideal and refined she
would show her ideality and refine
ment to him without an acquaintance.
If there was a lack Of either he would
be able to detect it without speaking to
her or being spoken to by her.
Within a few weeks he had wit
t..assed acts ON the part of his neighbor
indicating traits that he considered
usual in If not essential to q refined
nature. He saw her receive a child
who came to her house and knew at
once that her heart warmed to chill
dren. He was standing at a window
when she attended an old lady to her
carriage and was sure that she sympa-
thized with the aged. These were but
individual instances Of Atwater's OBJ
servations, no one of which was of SUI
.preme Importance, but all, taken to-
gether, indicated a nature such as he
could admire and revere.
Then he went away for awhile. When
he returned he made q discovery. The
young lady next door did not appear
either in the grounds or at a window.
He began to fear that be had seen her
for the last time. That fear was akin
to pain. He was tempted to make in
quiries, but knew no one to ask. After
a week of chatting one afternoon he
saw her drive up to the house in a car
rage and received with demonstrations
of affection by the other members of
the family. Atwater longed to jump
out of the window and take her in his
arms himself. But this was an impulse
that didn't count for or against his nat
ural idiosyncrasies.
Later he made another discovery SIM
liar to the first. He saN a very hand
some young man leave the house next
door and the young lady follow him
out to the gate. apparently loath to
have him depart. This time it was re-
vealed to him not only that the young
lady was a person of interest to him.
but that he objected to her being of in
terest to any other man. From this
point she ceased to be a matter of
study by observation. She was to be
appropriated.
My story up to this point has been
very one sided, and 1t must continue
for the present to be one sided. 1t is
not to be supposed that a girl may be
under constant observation by a young
man next door without some observa-
ton on the part of the girl. Atwater
had never seen her looking at him,
though he had never failed to look at
her whenever she appeared. Had he
caught her doing so he would have
considered her as overstepping the
bor,lds set for a modest young woman
That she did not do so convinced him
that she did not consider him worth
looking at.
One morning in March Atwater
saw a man digging up the soil in the
yard In the adjoining grounds. 1t was
plain that the ground was not intend