Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-02-16
Baby Love
By ETHEL HOLMES

like the child that comes to them after
marriage. 1t has its babyhood, its
childhood and its youth. AS a baby is
q CT a.e little thing. liable 10 be
snuAed out by the slightest adverse
happening, so is the beginning of love.
Young love has its measles, its whoop-
ing cough and its colo.
Charlie Edmonds vas twenty-one
and Rosa Lee eighteen when they be-
came engaged. There was a cyclone of
ecstasy for t~wenty-foJr hours, hen a
revulsion. Charlie wondered If he
hadn't done something dreadful. He
wanted to go right off and put himself
back where he was before; but, be-
ing a man of honor and not seeing
how he could honorably do so, he hest
tated. Besides, he shrank from going
back on the wild enthusiasm of the
initial transports and confessing that
he was so unstable. The truth is he
was staggered by the responsibilities
be had assumed.
Forty-eight hours absence from his
love was quite enough to cause him to
forget the responsibilities and to long
for another kiss. 1t was B o'clock in
the afternoon when this new phase
came over him, and he resolved to GO
TO see her after dinner. That would
be 8 o'clock. How would he get
through these intervening three hours?
At half past Z he could stand 1t no
longer and started for her home. Fortu-
nately 1t required fifteen minutes to
get there. He saw a figure at the
front window and on entering the
drawing room saw the girl sitting In
the cleaning. He advanced to en-
brace her. She waved him back.
81 suppose it is all a mistake" she
said.
"An a mistaken His heart sank
within him.
Yes. 1t is impossible that you can
love me and remain away from me all
these long days"
"A1l these long days! Why, we have
been engaged only since the night be-
fore last"
81 sat here In this window waiting
for you till 0 o'clock, then went to bed
and cried all night"
"Poor, deal little GIRL he said, wind
ing his arms about her and smuggling
her face-or, rather, her lips-against
his.
The first spasm of baby love had
passed and was succeeded by six hours
of rapture.
He started to go at 2 a. M, got to
the drawing room door at 2:15, and the
last kiss was at 2:3O in the vestibule.
Baby love didn't have a spasm or
anything else for another two days.
an6alhile Charlie Xas getting down
to engaged life quite rapidly. A man
moves from one position to another; a
woman, In certain respects, is apt to
where she finds herself. Baby
love had all the .children's ills, but
with every one Charlie gained by ex-
perience and came to consider them a
matter of course. Three months after
his engagement he called on his fiance
one evening to find symptoms that
shortly before would have been alarm
ing.
Its perfectly evident" said Rosa,
withdrawing from him as he advanced
to give the usual lovers salute, that
this cannot go on any longer"
"What can't go on any longerY
why, your indifference to me when
we are in otner company"
what have l lone nowT'
"Do you think that your treatment of
me at Mrs. Randall's garden party was
such as / have a right to expects"
"What did I do?"
you know very well what you did.
When l asked you to get me an ice, in
stead of doing so at once you continued
your conversation with Mrs. Fitz Ger
aid, paying no attention to me what
ever"
Mrs. Fitz Gerald was telling me an
incident that happened to her. l could
not break away from her in the mid
die of her story, could Il"
"You didn't wish to break away from
her. You were listening with rapt at
tention.'
Surely you're not
Jealous? Oh. dear. no. l wouldn't
think of being jealous of an old woman
like that. She's twenty-eight If she's q
day.
For the first time since his engage
ment womin's unreasonableness began
to rub the wrong way. His brow low
cred.
"You say hat things can't go on any
longer in this way. Dc you mean that
our engagement must be broken?'
"Unless | can be assured that you
are not to he caught by any married
woman who chooses to throw a spell
over you"
81 thought you said you were not
jealous of Mrs. Fitz Gerald"
"Tm not. Mrs. Fitz Gerald is not the
only designing woman there is in the
world"
"What do you wish me to do?"
This was n poser. Rosa, not having
any reply to make, was silent. She had