The Hope pioneer., 1922-08-24
CHAPTER lx-contlnued.

49,
And while read the letter, I Just
knew he would do 1t. Why, could
even zee the sparkle of the ring on
my finger But In five minutes after
the letter was folded and put away,
/ knew, with equal certitude-that he
wouldn't
l had been at home exactly eight
hours when telegram from Jerry
asked permission to come at once.
As gently US I could I broke the
news to Father ana Mother He was
Helen's brother, They must have
heard me mention him. knew him
well, very well, inueed. In fact, the
purpose Of this visit was to ask them
for the hand of their daughter
Father frowned and scolded, and
said. 'Tut tutl" and that was noth-
ing but child, But Mother smiled
and shook her head. even while she
sighed, and reminded him that was
twents-two whole years older than
she was when she married him !;
Ihoug, IN the same breath she nd.
Mltted that was young, and she cer-
tainly hoped I'd be willing to wait be-
fore married, even If the young man
was all that they could nsk him to be-.
Father was still little rebellious, I
think, but Mothetbless her dear
sympathetic heartl-soon convinced
him that they must at least consent
to see this Gerald Weston. SO l sent
the wire Inviting him to come.
Jerry came--and he had not been
five minutes In the house before 1t
might easily have seemed that he had
always been there. He did know about
stars: at least, he talked with Father
about them. and so as to hold Fathers
interest. too. And he knew lot about
innumerable things In which Mother
was interested. He stayed four days Z;
and all the While he was there. never
so much as sthought Of ceremonious
dress and dinners and llveried but
lers and footmen; nor did it once oc-
cur to me that our simple kitchen
Nora. and Old Johns son at the wheel
of our one motorcar, were not beauti-
fully and entirely adequate, so unas-
sumingly and so perfectly did Jerry
Enthusiastically eft in." (There are no
other words that so exactly express
what I mean.) And In the end, even
his charm and his triumph were so un-
obtrusively complete that never
thought Of being surprised at the
prompt capltulatlon Of both Father
and Mother.
Jerry had brought the ring. (Jerry
always brings his "rings"-and he
never fails to "put them on.") And
he went back to New York with
Mothers promise that should visit
them In July at their cottage in New
port.
They seemed like a dream-tliose
four days-after he had gone; and
should have been tempted to doubt
the whole thing had there not been
the sparkle of the ring on my finger,
and the frequent reference to Jerry
on the lips of both Father and Mother
They loved Jerry, both of them
Father said he was a fine, manly
young fellow and Mother said he was
a dear boy, a very dear boy. Neither
Of them spoke much Of his painting
Jerry himself had scarcely mentioned
It to them, as l remember, after he
had gone.
Iwent to Newport in July. t'"The cot.
tage," as 1 suspected, was twice as
large and twice as pretentious as the
New York residence; and it sp0rted
twice the number of servants. Once
again l was caught in the whirl Of din.
ners and dances and motoring, with
the addition of tennis and bathing
And always, at my side, was Jerry
seemingly living only upon my lightest
whm and fancy. He wished to paint
my portrait; but there was no time, es
pecially as my visit, in accordance with
Mothers inexorable decision was OF
only one weeks duration.
But what wonderful week that
was! l seemed to be under kind OF
spell. 1t was as if were in new
world-a world such as no one had
ever been in before. Oh, knew, OF
course, that others had loved-but not
as we loved. was sure that no one
had ever loved as we loved. And II
was SO much more wonderful than
anything / had ever dreamed of-this
love of ours. Yet all my life since my
early teens had been thinking and
planning and waiting for it-love. And
now 1t had come-the real thing. The
others-all the others had been shams
and make-beiieves and counterfeits
At Newport Jerry decided that he
wanted to be married right away. He
didn't want to wait two more endless
years until was graduated. The. idea
Of wasting all that valuable time when
we might be together! And when
there was really no reason for It
efther-no reason at all
l smiled to myself, even as I thrilled
at his sweet inslstence. l was pretty
sure knew two reasons-two very
good reasons-why could not marry
before graduation. One reason was
Father; the other reason was Mother