Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1922-08-31
CHAPTER Discontinued.

sven see the sparkle OF the ring Oh
my finger. But In FIVE minutes after
the letter was folded and put away,
/ knew, with equal certitude-that he
wouldn't.
/ had been at home exactly eight
hours when a telegram from Jerry
asked permission to come at once.
AS gently as I could broke the
news to Father anu Mother. He was
Helens 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 tutw and that l was moth
Ing but a child. But Mother smiled
and shook her head, even while she
sighed, and reminded him that was
twenty-five whole years older than
she was when she married him
Though in the same breath she adj
United that l was young, and she GER
tainly hoped I'd be willing to wait be-
fore married. even If the young man
was all that they could ask him to be.
Father was still little rebellious
think, but Mother-bless her dear
sympathetic heart!-soon convinced
him that they must at least consent
10 see this Gerald Weston. So l sent
the wire inviting him to come.
Jerry came-and he had not been
i've minutes In the house before it
might easily have seemed that he had
always been there. He did know about
stars; at least, he talked with Father
&bout them, and so as to hold Fathers
interest too. And he knew a lot about
annumerable things In which Mother
was interested. He stayed four days;
and all the while he was there / never
so much as thought OF ceremoniouS
dress and dinners, and lrEer{ed but
lers and footmen; nor did it once oc-
cur to me that our simple kitchen
Mora, and Old Johns son at the wheel
of our one motorcar, were not beautf-
fully and entirely adequate, so unas-
sumingly and so perfectly aid Jerry
enthusiastically eft In" (There DIRE no
other words that so exactly express
what mean.) And in the end, even
his charm and his triumph were so I'M
obtrusively complete that never
thought of being surprised at the
prompt equalization Of both Father
and Mother.
Jerry had brought the ring. Jerry
always brings his ''rings"-and he
never fails to put them only And
ne went back to New York with
Mothers promise that I should visit
them In July at their cottage In New
port.
They seemed like dream-those
-four days-afrer 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
b desag hoy, very dear boy. Neither
OF them yoke much Of his painting.
Jerry himself had scarcely mentioned
It to them, as I remember, after he
had gone.
went to Newport in July. 1.-THE cot
tage." as I suspected, was twice as
large and twice as pretentious as the
New York residence; and 1t sported
twice the number Of servants. Once
again l was caught in the whirl Of din
1ers and dances and motoring, with
the addition of tennis and bathing
And always, at my side, was Jerry,
seemingly living only upon my lightest
within 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
Emily one weeks duration.
But what a wonderful week that
was! / seemed to be under kind of
spell It was as If were in new
world-a world such as no one had
ever been In before. Oh, I knew, of
course, that others had loved-but not
rs we loyed I was sure that no one
had ever loved as we loved. And it
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
how 1t had come-the real thing. The
0thers-all the others had been shams
and make-believes 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 1 was graduated. The idea
Of wasting all that valuable time when
we might be together! And when
there was really no reason for it,
etther-no reason at ALL
/ smiled to myself. even as thrilled
at his sweet insistence. I was pretty
sure I knew two reasons-two very
good reasonss-why could not marry
before graduation. One reason was
Father; the other reason was Mother.
limited as much.
"Hol Is that alllH He laughed and
Kissed me. "I'll run down and see
them about it, he said jauntily.