Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1917-06-05
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! Story of Romance Yer.
! sus the Practical

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By ALAN ENSDALE j
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OF all the girls Of our bunch l pre-
ferred Gwen Meriweather. Gwen had
character stamped In her face as plain
ly as the word may be printed. But
she was, or seemed to me to be, devoid
Of sentiment. was full Of 1t. / fell
In love with her. and since she was de-
void Of what was born In me endow.
ed her with It. For this purpose ! had
plenty Of Imagination and succeeded In
covering her with an ideality which
she did not possess.
It Is said. aud l believe 1t, that op-
posites are readily attracted to each
other. At any rate, Gwen and pair
ed Of. It was not long before was
making love at high pressure. Gwen
did not seem averse to listening to my
rhapsodies. but she made no return In
kind. Besides. she showed her matter
of-factness In other ways. For In
stance, l gave her book rack. hand
somely inlaid, one Of those con-
trivances to put on stand to hold a
dozen or SO choice books. Not long
afterward her little brother knocked
it off the stand and broke It l told
Gwen that I would have 1t mended
for her. She said that 1t would cost
more to mend 1t than 1t would be
worth.
This reply was a great shock to me-
I had supposed that the gift, coming
from me, would be Of inexpressible
value to her. Gwen looking at It in a
pecuniary way rather than prizing 1t
as an expression Of my tender feelings
for her seemed to me to be barbarous.
I made no complaint simply went
of and nursed my wound.
When I entered seriously with Gwen
into a discussion Of q future together
she again threw damper on me. She
poo-poohed my talk about love In
cottage-poverty she called tt-and
brought up many objections to q
match between US. I was so inflated
by my romance that nothing seemed to
stand I'm the way Of our union. l told
her that with love in our hearts Oh
jections- were Of no moment whatever
Her reply was, when poverty comes
In at the door love hies out Of the win
dow"
This was all the more chilling to me
because there were no important world
" reasons why Gwen and should not
be married. I was In receipt OF an In
come on property to enable us to live
comfortably. I had. besides, good
salary and was advancing as rapidly
as was to be expected. / have noticed
that women have a way Of saying one
thing and meaning another. Ovens
real objection to marrying me came OUT
in good time. She saw plainly that l
had set her upon pedestal as an OBJ
iect of worship, and she feared that
when the time came-as 1t inevitably
must come-for taking down the gilded
image and putting up one OF flesh ana
blood my love would not prove to be
of the kind to endure the change.
This was the way Gwen expressed
It to me: "You have mistaken me"
she said. you consider me generous,
unselfish. On the contrary, am mean
and never give anything away that l
want myself. Besides, have traits
inherited from my ancestors, that
would turn any man from me whose
love was of the most substantial kind"
was q bit staggered by this confes-
sion, but not for long. My optimistic
disposition rose above fear that l would
not love Gwen even il she were all she
PAINTED herself, and told her so III
most impassioned words, at the same
time layishlng upon her an abundance
Of caresses. But she disengaged her
self from me, avowing that ut the first
sign of q real fault in her my caresses
woald turn to expressions OF contempt
One day when Gwen and | were
walking together we came to rrult
stand kept by n poor woman who was
evidently obliged to keep her little
child with her while selling her goods.
Gwen took fancy to some apples and
asked the woman their price. Instead
Of having It Gwen endeavored to beat
the. vendor down and, failing to do so,
walked OIL without buying. l was so
filled with comm!seration for woman
whose sphere In life condemned her to
make her living in such an humble
way, especially as she was obliged to
keep a hungry looking child with her
while doing so, that would have been
glad to pay double the price she asked
for her apples.
said nothing to Gwen about the
matter then, but l thought a great
deal. After oil, was she not right In
asserting that after we were married
her faults would come up to make trou-
BILE between us? She had said that She
was very mean and when time came
nad not scrupled to show that mean
ness. While I was repelled at her
fault, could not but admire her frank.
ness and her wisdom at hesitating to
marry a man who was ignorant OF 1t.
Gwen and were invited to spend
couple of weeks in midsummer at the
country residence Of friend OF hers.
Gwen and Miss Emily Tucker had beeI
| schoolmates, and I did not doubt that
Miss Tucker possessed my flancee's con-
| fldence to q far greater degree than ]
did, for II there are two persons In
the world who are bent on Withholding
| confidence from each other they are an
engaged couple. I know perfectly wei
that Gwen gave her friend a list Of my
good and bad qualities and certain
other information about me that she
| would not mention to me. ...
One evening I was sitting In tho
| cleaning In the drawing room while
| the girls were upstairs In their rooms
| dressing for dinner. I heard a light
| step on the stairs, and moment later
| Gwen entered the room where was.
I was sitting In dark corner. and she
apparently did not see me. Hiere was
case Of curios In the room, some OF
| which were very rare and some very
beautiful. Gwen went to this case and
| took from It q tiny statuette, for which
| she had expressed admiration. She