Smyrna times., 1928-12-26
Love Via Camera
Route
By RUBY DOUGLAS
CCopyright.)

(Copyrtght)
THE mere click of a camera seems
4 an incident too small to chronicle.
And yet, as Rosemary Willowes stud
led the newspaper reproduction of
| photograph taken so frivolously on
| Commencement day at Annapolis the
| day Bruce Saddler became a full
fledged ensign in the United States
navy. she realized how important a
seeming trivial act may become.
Among the many friends and rela-
tiyes who were at the academy ex-
ercises to see Bruce graduate Rose
mary felt of no especial consequence.
She and Bruce had gone to school to-
| gether and she had run over from Bal
timOre to the navy hops from time to
time but the two had never been
more than chums. On that day, with
the others, she had congratulated the
young officer by kissing him, and the
camera man had chosen that moment
to snap his machine and get the pretty
picture.
From that instant there seemed a
different relation between them. Nei-
ther was consciously aware of it, but
the old frankness, the free-and-easy
comradeship had departed. When
the Sunday papers published the pic
ture and Bruce and Rosemary saw it,
each had an intuitive message that
told them there was more of signifi-
canoe in that moment than they would
realize for years
Bruce had gone to sea and the
two had cOrrespOnded. When he re
turned they We're much together, and
before he left again on long cruise
they had become secretly engaged.
''Please-let US not announce it,"
begged Rosemary. 1T is so hard to
be an engaged girl when your sweet
heart is away all the time"
And. after some protest, he had
agreed.
As weIl-intentioned friends will.
they hinted to Bruce in letters that
Rosemary was in love. Even though
the young folks did not know of the
actual betrothal Of the pair they had
pretty well guessed the truth. There
followed letters between Bruce and
Rosemary that were not in the same
tenor as those that had sailed the seas
back and forth during his early alb
sence. Rosemary accused him, un-
justly, of unreasonable jealousy. He
said she was faithless. A lovers
quarrel so easily achieved when. the
man and girl are separated. ensued
and now, for two years, they had been
estranged.
True to her feminine nature, Rose
mary had discovered. as soon as she
knew she was free to have him. that
she did not want the other man. Her
pride would not let her admit that
she still loved Bruce.
At least, not until today, when she
came upon the old newspaper clipping
showing Bruce holding her close and
their heads together while the camera
man and all the world looked on. How
wonderful he looked in his uniform
and how proudly he had displayed his
ensign's stripes. All the thrill of it
and the wonder and sweetness of the
year that followed enveloped her in
romance. She admitted freely, now,
in solitude, that Bruce was the only
man she had ever cared for. And she
had lightly thrown away his devotion.
Probably he had found a sweetheart
more nearly worthy of him.
If she had hesitated long enough to
have come out of her mood she would
not have had the courage to fold the
picture within the sheet of writing pa
per and address It to him. Days passed
and, although she seemed not to be
anxious, she watched the postman
coming down the street
At last, a letter from the q. S. S.
South Carolina-he had been trans
ferred. She ran TO the big hammock
on the veranda before opening it. Her
face was flushed with excitement.
She opened 1t and a newspaper
clipping fell out. But-she examined
it closely-it was not the one she had
sent him. He, too. had kept it. treas
ured 1t, perhaps.
The long letter from Bruce told her
all that had neen in his heart since
she sent him away. He Lad been
lonely. almost desperately so, at
times, In strange ports. All the gay
life offered to him with his fellow Off
GERS had meant nothing to him. He
had gone to dances; he had played
around with this girl and that just
to keep from being called boor.
Every time there was mail he had
looked for a word from her. Time
and again he had taken the picture
from his leather wallet and looked
at It, hoping by his earnestness of pur
pose and steadfast love, TO reach her
across the seas. And then had come
the brief message-the. photograph
that she, too. had kept. If she had
done this, she must have cared.
Rosemary's eyes were full of tears
when she finished yhe letter How
heartless she had been. How nearly
she had wrecked both their lives.
Bruce had told her that his ship