Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1923-02-16
GLORIA

BY MoLLlE MATHER.

When he would glimpse her shining
head at the foot of the garden, and go
swiftly III pursuit, Gloria would be
sure to disappear, her golden head pop
ping out TO mock him presently, from
an upper window. 1t was this elus-
iveness of the girl which first drew,
and her piqued his fancy. Everton,
of the old and honored Everton's, was
not usually evaded by the fair sex.
And If Gloria seemed to him a bit of
thistledown. Everton, upon his part
impressed the girl just at first, pom
derously, and as an old. young per-
son of depressing character. Frank
~. she did not care to know him. She
had heard so much from grandmoth-
er. since her arrival at the homestead,
concerning the desirability of this
same dignified young mar as a future
husband, that she was in revolt at the
possibility.
To Gloria, families of old and In
questioned standing or circumstances
of like unQuestioned stability were
matters of indifference. She had come
to enjoy in full the novel experience
of country life, and the sweet old ex-
perience of occupying the very room
that her own mother had occupied in
her far-away girlhood. After that,
Gloria wanted to go back to her IA
Their. The mother, whose picture on
the wall, was so like herself, had died
before she might even become a mem
DRY.
Father Bob, Gloria preferred to call
him Bob" had cared for her in child
hood as tenderly as that mother might
have done, and had sent her later with
tears in his eyes-away from him to
school. And though Bob's money was
hard won, Gloria eve lacked for
the things that her associates enjoyed.
She looked forward to graduation,
merely as a time when she would be
reunited to her father, and then he
had sent her abroad. Upon her re-
turn he urged that she try life in her
grandmother's home. Gloria was
grieved at Bob's desertion. 1t was
difficult for her to see the unselfsh-
ness of his plan. When Mrs. Everton
Blaine learned of her sons infatu-
alton for the little stranger, she was
distressed.
Mrs. Blaine remembered Gloria's
mother as a graceful young person
who had married out of town, and
gone away, never to return. Everton
came to her with the startling n
n~ouncement of his engagement.
Gloria had consented to marry him,
he said joyously.
"Everton," she bemoaned, "1f you
had but waitedl Now, your engage
ment will only have to be broken. An
Everton may not bring dishonor upon
his family. I I'M sure, no Everton
would"
Her son famed.
'Dishonor !" he exclaimed.
Mrs. Blaine nodded sadly.
"If not she said, chow do you ex-
plain the fact Of the girl being en-
gagged to you, professedly in love with
you, and being each evening not only
in the company of a flashy-looking in
dividual-but being-yes, my dear, in
the man 5 embrace dS well.
81 don't believe it," Everton cried.
''Then you must disbelieve your
mothers word" she told hip. for l
have repeatedly witnessed that en-
brace from my seat in the car. The
girl upon whom you have wasted your
affection, was evidently keeping a
tryst each time 1 saw her, with her
companion on the bridge by the mill"
Without response the son turned
blindly, and made his way toward the
same hidden little bridge. He scarce
" realized why he chose that direc-
ton or why he was going. But as he ap-
preached in the deepest misery that
he had ever known, he saw Gloria
there before him, her blonde head
swaying in it's t~histledown fashion.
in evident time to some merry tune
that she was humming. And near her
stood the man f~ashionably flashy, as
his mother had said, but with hand
SOM yes resting in unmistakable
tenderness upon the girls face. With
out a qualm, Gloria beckoned her low
er. Confusedly Everton came. This"
she said gently, ais my dear, dear ia
ther. Mother ran away with him
years ago, Everton, and married him.
Had l been in her place l should have
done the same. Father happened to
be a young travelling circus man then,
and mothers people never forgave.
Now, father owns that circus and
loves still every animal and every
creature in it. He is trying to per-
suade me to allow him to efface him
self for my sake, to foreswear the
best father a girl could know, because
of the difference of his life from the
lives of your people. 1 had not
thought of that difference"
The blonde head bent to rest
against the gray tweed shoulder.
81 love you BOTH" Gloria said, "but
l must be true to Bob.