| Show A college love affair by B I 1 J KROMER all the travel he bad had indulged in all the hard work all the business absorption and worry all the great affairs of life which had occupied his time during the strenuous years tol fol lowing his graduation from college had not erased from his mind and heart the memory of dainty carefree care free laura tolman his old sweetheart of the college das days he ile had suspected this before he returned to the old scenes now that he was here the conviction came to him with crushing force ayery shaded walk every leafy retreat every part of the old college build ings and the campus seemed to be alive with her presence As he walked the old familiar paths he seemed to hear the music of her girl ish voice and to catch the very aroma of her sweet presence with a groan he admitted it he had tailed failed utterly in the task he had set himself out to perform he ile had gone away that day when her en on ga gement to bently was announced determined to forget her The gle that afternoon had been a hard one and many times be he had thought of the river as the most peaceful haven he could find finally his pride bad had triumphed and set ting his teeth with that peculiar grit ty motion the fellows on the grid iron knew so well he had said to himself claude belknap brace up where Is the spirit of your forebears are you to let a chit of a girl ruin your life especially a girl who throws you over tor for a fellow who is only after her money moneys and so he had gone bravely away with a song on his lips but with gloom in his heart he had worked hard and not without success the very whole beart heartedness edness with which he threw himself into his work and which was born of bis his desire to so occupy himself that he would forget the laughing face and saucy eyes of his college sweetheart drove him on to success he bad had taken up a astren bous profession and it had carried him to many climes and into touch much danger in the stress and heat of the bat tie with fortune he had nattered flattered him belt helf that the old wound had healed and finding himself in the near vicin ity of the old college town he had rashly decided to revisit the old scenes then like the rush of the tide came the realization that he ever would love the sweetheart of his youth wherever she was and what ever her condition or relationship the realization frightened him when the thought flashed across his mind that she was the wife of another heartsick with his own reflections he sought to escape them by calling on miss carrie sample who still lived in the town and who had been a great chum in the old days he ile was given 0 o warm a welcome as to make him forget for the moment the bitter pain in his heart the conver bation naturally reverted to the old college days and the old boys and girls belknap had been abroad so long and so occupied with business that he had lost track of them to a considerable extent but miss sam pie having lived all the years under the very eaves of the old college and being a gossipy piece knew where nearly all the old classmates were who they married how they were prospering and all the other details which so delight the feminine heart the conversation was animated and extended and belknap for the time being forgot his heartache under the magic of this clever and friendly lit tie woman it was when she dragged forth forte from a sacred drawer a bundle of old class photographs and that he was most painfully recalled to his great sorrow oh but do you remember this pic pie nic we we had she exclaimed shoving a photograph in front of his very nose did ne remember the blood rushed back into his heart at the memory until he thought he would faint it was a snapshot of a group fit at a picnic the girls adorned with the boys hats and the boys wearing the feminine millinery it was just outside an apple orchard surrounded by a high stone fence over which but at a perilous height hung a bough of luscious fruit in the very cen ter of the picture was belknap and perched audaciously upon hia his der was laura tolman supported by his strong and steady arm picking the apples and throwing them down to the laughing comrades below did he remember that picnic it was the day when maddened by the contact with her dainty self he had poured forth his love and then frightened at his own audacity had stammered and tailed failed to ask as k the vital question the photograph brought back all the memories mer verles of the afternoon and aroused all his latent passion As he gazed at it he felt the full tide of his passion sweep through him until it seemed that he must burst miss sample chattered on we all thought you were awfully sweet on laura tolman she said really we did in tact fact the whole class thought it was a match and was all fixed up it was perfectly par when after commencement you plunged into business and she got engaged to that bently fellow you can cant t always judge about these college affairs he replied with a fine assumption of indifference by the way whatever became of misa miss tolman or mrs bently oh dear didn dian t t you hear she re pl pd with a shriek of laughter no he replied gravely and a trifle shortly oh ia in its the greatest joke laugh laughed edthe the girl let me tell you no positively I 1 must read it el never mind who but one of the old class wrote it to me from sara toga walt wait and III get the letter and away she danced leaving her caller wondering whether to be angry or glad presently she danced back in again listen to this she said and then she read oh carrie just the funniest thing happened here yesterday you re member laura tolman of course well she has been here all the sea son with her mother who by the way does not look much older than laura well you remember she be came engaged to mr bently just aft er or she graduated and mr bently has kas been here also all the season and be he has been a perfect shadow to laura she has seemed a trifle cool and one day presuming on our old class rela eions I 1 chided her about it ella she said very solemnly and you know laura never was very solemn I 1 m awfully afraid I 1 ve made a mistake there was another be fore mr bently dently and I 1 liked him very very much but be he seemed tongue tied and it made me angry that be he would not speak and and I 1 ac cepter mr bir bently and sometimes it seems to me that it would be a sac to become bis his wife when my heart Is somewhere else while we were talking a messen ger boy came with a note from her mother that she bad had left tor for new NOW york with mr bently where they would be married the next day and she hoped laura would approve and always treat her second father with all due respect and a lot of other stuff and she wound up by saying that aunt julia juila would be a sufficient chaperone during the brief honey moon trip they proposed to take oh my carrie what a shock it was to laura and really I 1 don dont t know whether she was more angry or more glad you roe bently bad had found out that the widow had old tol man a money although everybody had been led to bellevo believe that the bulk of the estate had been left to laura now what do you think of that asked miss sample laughing until th tears ran down her cheeks what became of laura askea belknap with an indifferent show of indifference oh she s living an oll maid a ideal life at the old home in cleveland replied miss sample careless ly the bentleys moved to new york and built a palace on the drive laura preferred to live in the old home oh you must not go yet mr belknap where in the world would you go at this ridiculously early hour to Clevel clevelan aill he replied regard ing her steadily after he had left miss sample looked oft off into space for a moment and then gave voice to a prolonged whistle copyright 1906 by dally daily story pub co |
