Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-03-09
The Golden
Heart
By BARBARA PHlPPS

5000 A@o
an enemy's country that the invader
has not made willing captiyes of a
number of the daughters of the region
invaded. During the war between the
states many a Union soldier wooed and
won a southern girl whose antagonism
against the Union armies was very
bitter. There seems to be something
in the social relations that deies the
horrors of war.
Lieutenant Joaquin Molina. a young
Spanish officer just out of his teens,
was during the last years of the last
century sent with his command to
Cuba. Those were the days when
General Weyler was attempting to
crush the Cuban revolution by execu-
ton and Imprisonment, and both he
and Spanish soldiers were hated by the
downtrodden Cubans.
Lieutenant Molina was encamped
with his regiment near a sugar planta.
ton owned By one Leandro Reyes. The
officers were received at the plantation
with ciyility, if not cordiality, for
Reyes did not care to %antagonize them
luOuSu Ills SA IiDdIniCo 0CiC dh ~
free Cuba. His daughter, Inez, a dark
eyed beauty of seventeen, saw Molina,
and Notwithstanding she hated him as
an enemy of her country she fell at
once under the spell of love, a spell
that was mutual. for Molina recipro.
Gated.
True. the lady did not at once ac-
knowledge that she had given her heart
to the young Spaniard. Indeed, she was
struggling against her enthrallment.
1t was not long before the two
passed from a mere acquaintance to
an acknowledgment of what they fell
for each other. Inez, though she adj
mitted her passion for the young off.
Ger, refused to become his betrothed
on the ground that he was engaged in
the work of subjecting her country.
men to the yoke of the king of Spain
He pleaded for her to at least with
hold her decision till the war had end
ed, but she replied that the end OF
the war, whatever it might be. would
not alter her decision.
When Molina's regiment was order
ed to Santiago there was a sad parting
between the two. during which Inez
gave way and told her lover that il
Cuba achieved her independence he
might come back and ask her again
Encouraged by this, he took one kiss
which she permitted, and tore himself
away. He left her a parting gift-a
little gold heart he wore on his watch
chain.
Molina fought at Santiago, and when
the end came he was shipped with his
regiment to Spain. He asked for leave
In order to visit Senorita Reyes, but
owing to the terms of the surrender.
was unable to obtain one. He was
obliged to defer seeing her again fol
a final reply to his proposition till he
had gone to Spain. Then, if neces
sary, he would resign his commission
in order to seek her.
When Lieutenant Molina reached
Madrid he found it impossible to OBJ.
tain a leave to return to America. He
would have resigned his commission
In order to go and claim Inez, but his
mother dissuaded him.
"Whatr' she said. will you cross
the Atlantic to claim a girl you are
not sure of? If you resign from the
army what career have you? And you
will not find 1t pleasant to live ON the
income furnished by your wife's ia.
Their"
Molina was thus persuaded to put of
the matter so near his heart from day
to day, till at last, having thought less
and less of it, he drifted away from ii
altogether. He was thrown in with
girls at home who desired the atten
lions of a young soldier who had been
through the last struggle to preserve
Cuba for Spain. In a few years he
married one of them. and his Cuban
romance was looked upon thereafter
as a pleasant dream.
Fifteen years passed. Molina had In
the meantime resigned from the army
and had been elected a member of the
cortes. Ten years after his marriage
his wife died and left him a widower
without children. Fourteen years
after the close of the Spanish-Ameri
can war he was appointed to a promi
ucnI pldCe III the SpdulSu eSdllOu al
Washington. While there he was n
night attending a reception of the
president and was introduced to a
lady of middle age who. though a ma
tive of tropical America, where WON
en- bloom and fade early, was still
beautiful. He did not catch her name
but saw at once that there was Span
ish blood in her veins.
"We have met before. senor." she
said.
"Indeedr" looking at her scrutiniz
ingly. when? Where?"
"In Cuba"
II have not been t. Cuba for fifteen
years. While there I met a number
of ladies'"
"To one of them you gave a token"
"a token!"
dyes"