The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1922-08-23
EI i,
SHORT 81 DRY !, B
Just Before His Wedd
BY LiLYsw

BY LiLY7svAhDEL
It had been very fortunate that
he had fallen In love with Leona
4 Simmons In the first place, 1T
pleased his mother tremendously
for Leona was a special friend OF
the family, greatly beloved and
made much of by his mother and
) sisters. For fully six months be-
scarcely missed spending a week.
Y end with them, to say nothing Of
the many dinners and parties.
In the second place, it was very
fortunate for the business, be-
cause this was sadly crippled for
Z the lack of new capital And IN
theethfrd place, it was going TO
make things easy for his sisters
q because Leona, as an attract1Ve
widow, wealthy, with an assured
social position, would be sure TO
protege them successfully into the
8righ circles Truly, 1t had been
fortunate that he, Edgar Wallace,
8Shad fallen in love with Leona.
M HesswouIdF be on easy street the
rest OF his life, and besides that
he would have the delightful
scompanionship of Leona. she
was little older than he, but
! TN at was RIElIllHB-
To do Edgar justice, it must be
Nsaid that if he had not loved
sT5eona sincerely he never would
have asked her to marry him, no
Al m tter how a1luring all the other
ssd etailsj M light be. 1t was ind eed
.Sfortunate that he had fallen IN
SSl;3l love with her, he Thought very
often, and not without con-
tented, happy smile.
80 1t was pleasant to see his
mother fairly brim ming over
with plans for the future and TO
able to see Leona every day.
Life seemed like long sweet
Anew weeks before his wed ding
;7shis mother came g him with
plan.
Z. gar, it's too much. Look at the
h heap of unanswered invitations
land things on my desk. What do
sSyou think? -Can we stretch a
and engage a social secre-
tsry for a few weeks until after
the wedding
- Edgar agreed i'm ediateiy. it
was sensible thing to do.
~ He had forgotten about the ar
rangement when, a few days lat
- er,i& ne met a GUN = pSi oont - -
II 1ibrarya very young thing, not
~ more than twenty. slim and not
reryfstall, dark hair that curled
$naturally-Leona's was straight
the spertest little red mouth
and two dark, inquiring eyes. Ed
&Ear stared, bowed and hurriedly
Meft the room. Later. OF course,
s1fe was introduced to the new
&secretary-
I, n u
next few days Edgar had quite
lew things TO attend to in the
s#sIibrary. where the secretary was
fsssinstalIed. And it was odd, too.
the interest he suddenly took IN
his mothers social affairs Ehe
sssinterest grew tremendously. e
sha d to- dictate a.few private Letters.
q himself and thereby was forced to
i aancel5 an engageme with Leona:
* His personal correspondence in
Creased He wanted to get rid:of
aSlot of stuff before his wedding,
he told his mother
SSN&Then it happened that one DAY
when Miss Bowers was going Tor
q bit or fresh air Edgar was IN
stantly reminded of letter he
had Ito send special delivery and
u sether. Edgar thought tramp
81 through the park would do him
q good. It was cold and there was
IS q, thick layer OF snow on the
aground. A stray little boy threw
Ra SNOWFALL and in two minutes
they were having the merriest
time i'm aginable
s.fSWhen, rosy, laughing and pan
.aSst tiny. they continued their walk,
Ne" founu out her name was jose
VI mime but that everybody called
hsT 10. He rather liked that, 10,
and kept repeating it to himself.
sanstfat when he left her and took
her hand, he said without think
ing, .Good-by, little Jo!
.A5 day$or. two later he confessed
to- himself that he loved her des-
IS IS. sIich@ a predicament? To be mar
s$$ss red in less than two weeks, the
sFaIVad ding. invitations sent out, the
y gery honeymoon trip planned. and
Nsfhen to find he loved this
35zSlittIe Joi Loved her so over
helmingly that he could not
g marry Leona, no matter II it Kill
81 ed the whole family.
He lay in bed at night planning
desperate1y how to tell his mother
and how to tell Ieona! A dozen
;s: different ways presented them sell
* ySsgbut by the time dawn cam e he
). ND rel ected each one, and was as
Ssssss far with his problem as when he
had retired.
The worst of it was he began to
realize that his love was returned
nv little sJoi III her soft brown
Sss ewes was an unmistakable Tight. a
wfstftl, coaxing. dreamy, telltale
Iook! At first his heart bounded
With joy and then Immediately
sank in deep despair.
Sleep1ess nights were tei1nS on
him, he looked hagsard1r- I'D Luc klis
Everybody was too busy to no tee.
sA hundred times he was at the
serge of throwing convention to
ktfe winds and simply gathering y
s-SuttS, $3.50, ,ndE+a11Spr her of his