The Washington herald., 1920-05-10
THE GIRL LEFT BEHIND ME.

THE GIRL I LEFT BEHIND ME.
Do you. o middle-aged woman,
ever meet that person, who is the
strangest person in all the world
to you, the girl that you were when
you were sweet-and-twenty. and
whom you have left So far behind
you that you can scarcely remember
how she looked, or what manner Of
creature she was?
Sometimes you come upon heg
picture in an old album. and you
look at 1t curiously. How pretty and
fresh the face is! How serene and
untroubled! How trustingly the
eyes look out upon the world!
What a bloom Of rose was IN those
cheeks! What gold was tangled in
that hair! How 1.-the and slim, as
a willow wand, that girlish figure!
1t is like the portrait of one long
dead and half forgotten, and as you
look from it to your reflectin in a
mirror, and see yourself stout and
grizzle headed, with tired eyes and
with lines OF care and suffering on
your face, you can scarcely believe
that you were ever she.
Sometimes the girl you left be-
hind you comes and sits beside your
DGu III WATCHES Vi
night. and you marvel at how gay
and light-hearted she Is. Laughter
ripples forever over her lips, and
her heart sings with just the joy of
living. She is sure that this is the
best Of all possible worlds, and that
her path is going to be strewn with
roses with never a thorn among
them, and that the sun Is always
going to shine for her.
1t has been years and years since
you really laughed or thrilled to
the ecstasy of being. The path you
have trodden has been hard and
stony, with few flowers blooming
along its arid way and your sky
has had so many more clouds than
sunshine that you have learned to
be fearfully, forever expecting
storms.
But as an echo of the girls gay
laughter fits back to you, you are
filled with a furious anger against
those who robbed her of her joy
BUSINESS, who stified the song in her
heart. and who blotted out the sun
shine from her.
And as you look into the eyes OF
the girl you left behind you, you
see that they are filled with dreams
the beautiful romantic dreams Of
maidenhood that always end, like
the fairy tale, with "And so they
were married and lived happily
ever afterward."
She dreamed of a lover as hand
some as a prince, and as noble as
Sir Galahad, who would find her
and claim her for his own. and that
they would go through the world
with his strong arm about her, pro-
tecting her from every hardship.
and their souls one, in a rapture OF
perfect companionship.
You smile cynically at the girls
vision of married life, from which
the last tattered rag of romance
has been torn for you SO long ago.
Your prince has grown fat and bay
Widowed. Your Sir Galahad rows
with you over the bills, and doles
out your car fare to you. 1t has
been ages since he gave you kiss
that was not a duty kiss, favored
with ham and eggs, and you know
with bitter certainty that nothing
you could do or say would raise
one-tenth of the thrill in his breast
that a two-potnt rise in stocks
does.
But you could weep with pity
for the girl whose dreams were 70
be swept away so soon. They
might have let her hide the sordid-
ness of everyday living even from
her own eyes with her cloak of
romance, but no one took the trou-
BILE to do 1t. They walked her from
her dream, and life became ashes
nd nae ~ IL. - a.