The Holbrook news., 1922-06-09


 will give him credit for that To me he did not speak again that day. | am not sure that he even looked at me. If he did there must still have been in his eyes only the "Oh, some friend of Helen's." that I had seen at the morning introduction.
 i did not meet him again for nearly a year; but that did not mean that I did not hear of him. l wonder if Helen ever noticed how often 1 used to get her to talk of her home and her family life; and how interested I was In her gallery of portraits on the man. 1 tel--there were two fine ones of her brother there.
 Helen was very fond of her brother. l soon found that she loved to talk about him-if she had good listener. Needless to say she had a very good one in me.
 Jerry was an artist, 1t seemed. He was twenty-eight years old, and al- ready he had won no small distinction. Prizes, medals, honorable mention, and special course abroad = all these | Helen told me about. She told me, too, about the wonderful success he had just had with the portrait of a certain New York society woman. She said that 1t was just going to make" Jerry; that he could have anything he wanted now-anything.
 1 saw Jerry myself during the East pr Vaca tiOn Of my capODd vpar in col lege. Helen invited me to go home with her, and Mother wrote that l might go. Helen had been home with me for the Christmas vacation, and Mother and Father liked her very much. There was no hesitation, there fore, in their consent that I should visit Helen at Easter time. So I went. Helen lived in New York. Their home was Fifth avenue mansion with nine servants, four automobiles and two chauffeurs. Naturally such a scale of living was entirely new to me, and eorrespondingly fascinating. From the elaborately uniformed foOtman that opened the door for me to the awe some French maid who "did" my hair, 1 adored them all, and moved as in a dream of enchantment. Then came Jerry home from a week-end's trip and I forgot everything else. I knew from the minute his eyes looked Into mine that whatever I had been before, I was now certainly no mere "Oh, some friend of Helen's." I was (so his eyes said) "a deucedly pretty girl, and one well worth cul tivating" Whereupon he began at once to do the "cultivating." In less than thirty-six hours l was caught up in the whirlwind of his wooing, and would not have escaped 1t if I could.
 When I went back to college he held my promise that if he could gain the consent of Father and Mother, he might put the engagement ring on my finger.
 Back at college, alone in my own room, drew long breath, and began to think It was the first chance had had, for even Helen now had become Jerry-by reflection.
 The more thought the more fright ened, dismayed, and despairing be- came. In the clear light of calm, sane reasoning, it was all so absurd, so i'm possible! What could I have been thinking of? I must forget Jerry.
 I pictured him in Andersonville, in my own home. I tried to picture him talking to Father, to Mother.
 Absurd, What had Jerry to do with learned treatises on stars, or with the humdrum, everyday life of stupid, small town? For that matter, what had Father and Mother to do with dancing and motoring and painting society queens portraits? Nothing.
 Plainly. even if Jerry, for the sake of the daughter, liked Father and Mother, Father and Mother certainly would not like Jerry. That was cer- tain.
 Of course I cried myself to sleep that night. That was to be expected. Jerry was the world; and the world was lost There was nothing left ex- cept perhaps, a few remnants and pieces, scarcely worth the counting 1 excepting of course, Father and Moth 1 ones father and mother There would come a time when
 Jerry's letter came the next day by special delivery. He had gone straight home from the station and be- gun to write to me. (How like Jerry that was-particularly the special delivery stampD The most of his let ter, aside from the usual lovers rhap- sodies, had to do with plans for the summer-what we would do together at the Westons' summer cottage in Newport. He said he should run up | to AndersOnville early - very early; just as soon as I was back from col lege in fact. so that he might meet Father and Mother, and put that ring on my finger.
 And while I read the letter, just knew he would do it. Why, 1 could even see the sparkle of the ring on my finger But in five minutes after the letter was folded and put away. I 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 could I broke the news to Father and Mother He was Helen's brother. They must have heard me mention him. I knew him well, very well, inGeed. In fact, the i purpose of this visit was to ask them for the hand of their daughter.