The Ocala evening star., 1921-08-04
Johns Wife and
Sweetheart
la. 81 Mss.srn s.eNspap.r -
By WILLIAM FALL


and dropped the letter down the mail
chute. She had been gone three
weeks. bur she had communicated
with him twice during that period so
that the breach between them was not
irreyocable. That morning her second
letter had come, and now that he had
answered il he took il up and began
reading il again
Dear John" she wrote. Il have
been thinking q good deal during our
separation and nave come to the
conclusion that neither OF US is so
much TO blame for our disagreements
as the other thinks. II is our life in
the city. John. the rush of work, the
cramped quarters. the killing Of the
romance OF life by the sOrdid struggle
for existence. John. shall we try again
and see if we cannot be kinder TO each
other?'
John Croft had come TO the city
from the country. like so many coun-
try boys. burning TO make name and
fortune in the field where the prizes
are immense but the struggle acute.
No mercy is given on that battlefield.
He was twenty then, and Mildred
Carter had told him that she would
wait for him, if need be. forever. They
had been sweethearts for three years
and neither had been in love before.
And Mildred waited, though the wait
was long. Year by year John Croft
had struggled vainly. hopelessly, until
his sudden recognition came. Then
he had married
At last his wife and he had resolved
upon a temporary separation. It was
not TO be permanent; they were too
sincerely fond of each other TO dream
of anything like that. Rather it was
to be period of adjustment in which,
each. alone, could examine his and
her heart and see wherein the Of
fense layN
His wife would not return for three
days. Why, then, should he not go
to her, to Clayton, the village of their
birth, and see her as she was now, re-
call the thousand memories OF their
love, steep his soul in those passion
ate memories which would encourage
him to take up the burden of life
anew? He sat down at his desk and
wrote her a letter of thousand en-
!dearments. He was coming back to
Clayton, he said.
No sooner had the posted that let
ter than the plan became overwhelm-
ing in its insistenee. He thrust a few
things into his suitcase, descended in
the elevator, hailed a taxicab, and was
on his way to the station.
Ten minutes later he was seated in
his car. watching the flying landscape
as the train steamed through the
pleasant country on its way toward
the little Pennsylvania village.
1t was six hours run. Croft's heart
was beating fast when at last. well
toward sundown, the train slowed
down and ran into the little station.
He made his way down the village
street under the long shadows of the
elms.
L was a long street. and before he
had reached the end the sun had set.
The gracious twilight of spring shroud-
ed all things in mystery. The place
had not changed at all He might have
been returning thither from college.
All sense of the intervening years had
left him. AT last he was standing at
the bottom of Mildred's garden.
"Mfldredr' he called.
Then his heart pounded violently in
his breast as he saw a slim figure in
a sunbonnet start out of the house and
move toward him with the old. leis-
urely grace And so she passed be
tween the borders OF Towering lilac
and at last stood before him. Why,
this was his Mildred4 unchanged
well. hardly changed. not at all TO
her until he died
Mildred" he cried and then he had
clasped her in his arms and her heart
was beating against his own. And
for a long time they forgot everything.
save that they two stood there to-
gether as they once had done.
"John. dear" she whispered, raising
her head and looking into his eyes
"Mfldredl"
at has been all a mistake, hasn't
II? It was the city that killed our
love. Dear, you don't know how hap
DIV your letter made me. If we could
always live here tOgetheri"
Dear" he said softly, u want you
TO know one thing. l always loved you.
Sometimes, when we were least hap
py, I faneied that there were two
Mildreds-my wife and the sweetheart
who came from Clayton TO marry me
five years ago. But now they are
both one and we viii live here togeth-