New Britain herald., 1927-06-21

l tue great uuCoupIOIul6Iu8 tfut0 o Rods death. that I have determin ed without the slightest hypocrisy either traditional or conventional, t, write you exactly what is in m, mind.
 Do not mistake me, dear heart I think perhaps you love me a. much as anyone of your bloot could love one woman. but know that I always have. and I alway! will have. to take my chance witt all tho other distractions in you life.
 T have never been your interes in 1t. although I am sure l am youl greatest. With Rod I was the be- ginning and the end. wish I coult have loved him as he loved me, bu, dear Wynne. 1t is a thrill that yor or I will never have, because we have not the temperament for 1t. | T expect I am utterly shameless to tell this to you.
 My mother, or even your mother would probably have died before either of them would have con. | fessed to the men they expected to be their husbands, what I am going | to write to you.
 '1n their generation woman considered herself immodest if she did more than submit herself to her lovers 'P1otestations of love'-as | they would call them. She allowed him to kiss her. I wonder some- times if she ever kissed him in re- turn.
 The war has changed all that. Wynne. We girls that are being called 'flappers' over here, though just what anyone means by that l do not know, have seen our lovers go away from us with the sickening feeling that they would probably never come back, consequently we have torn away all-all the crepe of speech at least.
 "Oh, Wynnc. I wish you would come home soon. l wish we had married as We planned that morn- ing before you left. I wish I were your wife.
 T love you with all my heart = with all my soul-but Dad is driv- ing me with his idea that I should marry Jerome Kenyon, and some times-don't misunderstood me, Wynne-1 think I will do It.
 There! I've said 1t. and I'm glad I have, for however much it may shock you, I am sure that it will mark me human in your eyes. and I have never had a desire to be either a superhuman or a divine | woman.
 q am fond of Jerry. He is de- lightfully tender and uniformly gen. tie. He shows me in a thousand silent ways that he is fond of me. He defers to my tastes and follows my advice-something. my dear. that you have never done. I like him more than any other man l have. met except you.
 Not even poor. dear Rod had the power to make me feel his presence the moment he came into the room, and Jerry has this power.
 q suspect you are thinking this is very strange letter for a girl to write to man who has, as it were. come back to her from the dead. It is just because l do realize this that am writing it.
 You are probably thinking that {f Ia T have no place in my heart for any other man.
 Have you never had a thought for any other girl?
 And yet you say you have never really loved anyone but me.
 And, Wyrne. if making my whole body tremble while thinking of you-if my souls longing for the sound of your voice is so great that when any other man speaks-even Jerry-I almost would stop my ears means that I love you. then you must believe that I do.
 "Once you wrote that you judged your love for me by these very in- dicaticns, which makes me think that a womar's love is no different than mans.
 T want you to remember, dear. that I appreciate all the hardships you have gone through all the bravery you have shown to go through them - and l am very proud that you are my man. "Natlee."
 The first thing Phillip thought after he read this letter was that the war was turning this old world topsy turvy.
 It had made his mother younger and more human in her heart, ai- her hair.
 It had evidently brought virtue to Glad-if being chaste meant virtue.
 It had made Natlee somewhat skeptical on the subject of love, and it had made himself feel old-so old and although not yet 21. he was sorry for his lost youth.
 He almost felt that Rod was the most fortunate after all
 With death all about him, he knew that living was going to be much harder than dying could pos sibly be. He was sure he could not go back home and take up the old life again where he had for so long been happy.
 His artillery was in the Argonne woods. There had been 14 of them m his own detail of headquarters company when they had started out so gayly from the little French town to go up to the front. When he ar- rived back with his outfit. he found that he made the fifth that was left-but the round of duty went on.
 All the happy-go-lucky tempera- ment had gone out of Phil. how