The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1917-05-17
A Premature
Courtship
It Had to Be Done All Over
Again.
By LOUISE B. CUMMINGS

you would do me favor. | must
be absent from home on business
for a month. don't like to leave
an old woman and little girl in the
house alone, and Id like you to at
least sleep there while I'm gone,
though if you like you can eat there
as well"
Fisk was forty-fve and Fornau
thirty-four. They were chums, Fisk
being q widower, Forman IN "old
bach" Fisk's household consisted,
besides himself, of his aunt, an old
lady of sixty-fve, and his daughter.
Blanche, still in school.
Certainly, old man. replied
Forman. ''Ill sleep there anyway.
1t won't be necessary for me to
spend my evenings there, will it?"
"Not at all. Blanche usually
studies her lessons in the evening,
and my aunt goes to sleep over her
knitting"
"Your house is only few blocks
from the club" said the other, dis
mayed at the picture.
"Just so, and III see that you get
a latchkey. You can 60 in as late
as you like"
The first night MIR. Forman went
to his friends house at 9 o'clock.
True enough, there was the old
lady dosing over her knitting and a
girl in short dresses sitting at a ta-
bic with a globe lamp on it study
ing her lessons. The girl looked up
at Forman with an expression on
her face indicating more interest in
his coming to spend some time with
them than mere protection warrant
ed. Her glance told him that it
would not be entirely safe to treat
her absolutely as a schoolgirl. Her
aunt woke up and welcomed the
custodian, but the girl said never a
word.
The next few evenings Forman
spent at his club. Then one morn
ing leaving the house Blanche went
out at the same time with a pile OF
school books under her arm. They
walked on together, but it didn't
occur to Forman to offer to carry
her books for her till she remarked
that they were very heavy. When
he left her at a corner and returned
them she gave him look of graft
tude.
The next evening Mr.. Forman
came in rather early-10 o'clock
being tired and sleepy. He found
the schoolgirl with pack Of cards
before her playing solitaire. With
pout on her young lips and knit
ting of her smooth brows she said:
ooh, can't work this out. Won't
you help me, Mr.. Forman%
Forman sat down opposite her.
From that moment she ceased to be
interested in the cards, except for
q pretext, prattling to him and en-
deavoring to appear like young
lady.
"How old would you take me for,
Mr.. Forman?"
"Fourteen-perhaps year old
er."
"Oh, dear, you are far out Of the
way. III be seventeen next month"
"You don't mean it,"
Forman remembered a time when
be had considered girl of eighteen
in her prime and one of twenty-five
passee. Then he thought how nice
it would seem to be back in those
youthful days. How much he had
lost by coming to middle age! And
here was a girl who was plainly in
dicating that she wished to be con-
sidered companionable person for
him. Wouldn't it be fine if he could
60 back dozen years and she could
60 forward few years, and he
could love her and she could love
him, and he could get rid of his
wretched club life and all that?
The next evening Forman, who
had received a letter from Fisk,
made a pretext of it to 60 to the
house to tell Blanche that he had
heard from her father. "Take good
care of my little girl' was the in
junction, and Forman made himself
believe that it was incumbent upon
him to afford her some amusement,
80 he asked her aunt if he might
take Blanche to the theater. Per-
mission was given and tickets Sc
cured for a Friday night, when the
girl would not be obliged to 60 to
school the next day and could there
fore sleep late.
Blanche had been to a theater
but once or twice in her life, while