Show DELIAS TWENTY FIFTH BIRTHDAY by gertie des wentworth james copyright by joseph bowles june 1 11 a m it Is five years to day since I 1 even opened my birthday diary at first after it was all over 1 coulden couldn t bear to see or to touch the little book then when that feeling had dulled I 1 forgot all about it but this morning I 1 came across the volume which holds the flamboyant es from 17 to 20 and a mood has seized me that after five years I 1 will again turn to my paper confidant poor little book you are faded and yellow on the margins like our the worse to wear from 17 to 5 Is a long long while who could help growing the worse cor weara I 1 don t s appose that many jilted wo men of 25 can smile with perpetual success euc cess jilted it Is a marvelously ugly word to write but as a birthday diary demands the truth I 1 may not scratch it out yes at 20 I 1 loved madly riotously and wonderfully oh god how fu I 1 of real romance I 1 was and at 21 I 1 had to teach myself to leave off loving I 1 didat think I 1 should ever learn the lesson but I 1 suppose I 1 hagenow hav enow I 1 almost wish now that I 1 had entered in the birthday diary how my lover gave me up there was nothing par ticul arly original about the proceeding or the way it was done but tor all hat it was worth remembering it was after dinner I 1 was in my boudoir waiting for him of going to the theater with the others bee se he had wired that he wanted to see me alone that wire had made me so happy it is because he just wants to sit with his arms around me he and I 1 quite by ourselves I 1 thought with glad conceit as I 1 got into his favorite gown with curious punctuality he was usually late on every occasion george arrived his mouth looked straight and beet as he entered the room but when it was pressed against my own in the most passionate greeting he had ever given me I 1 forgot its almost cruel lines when I 1 had drawn back after that swift spontaneous kiss george did not make any effort to come near me again I 1 have come to tell you he began looking more napoleonic than I 1 had ever seen him I 1 have come to say delia that my people want me to marry a woman with a great deal more money than you will ever have I 1 had better confess it all and oh its no good writing down the CAME THROUGH THE TREES ugly history of debt and difficulty the mercenary edicts of a snobbish family full of generals admirals unpaid bills and self importance and the pitiful cowardly weakness of a man a firm jaw and napoleonic profile 1 details are nothing it s only results that matter and the results are in my heart and on my face this morning when I 1 woke I 1 looked in the glass just as I 1 looked on the day I 1 began my birthday diary eight years ago at first there dian didn t seem to be much difference but then gradually I 1 under stood why my only friends are clever staid spinsters or sensible married women and my only admirers livery colonels or prudent people who would be likely to study insurance uses A woman 0 five and twenty I 1 remember how I 1 used to revel in the term woman while I 1 was young enough tor it to be absurd when ap piled to myself but now oh I 1 d give anything it people would only spon call me a girl it seems ages since I 1 was called a girl by anyone except mamma she of course will call me one when I 1 m 90 I 1 am always a nice little worn an a clever woman like yourself you who are such a charming woman etc I 1 don t want to be a woman not nice clever nor charming I 1 d give all my reputation tor saying smart things being accomplished and well read and for dressing well it I 1 could just be a silly vain shy arro gant girl again but no youth s sweet scented man has closed tor me I 1 am 25 I 1 am clever I 1 am lone ly I 1 am admired I 1 am unloved and even dolt the boy lover who has faithfully remembered my birth days all theae years forgets me now to day 1 the first time since we said good by on my seventeenth birth day that no gift has arrived from the blazing past I 1 expect I 1 shall hear by the next mail that he hos taken unto himself a wife some young fresh skinned thing bent straight over from home in order to test the anglo indgin marriage mar ket before she runs the gamut of es london seasons poor dolf he was full ot al a boy pass anat fidelity I 1 shall never never forget you 0 leave off loving you all my life sometimes I 1 can hear those worda a he said them that wonderful june if lust eight years ago when I 1 was lull of child girlhood s arrogance perhaps then oh here comes soma one to break my solitude cannot they j leave me alone with my birthday thoughts 9 6 p m although I 1 never believed that this birthday entry would itself into two halves like some ot the others it haa done so I 1 began my diary on tha conclude it in the bedroom such ai tiny bungalow bedroom where my din ner frock is laid out ready the some one who came through the trees to break the solitude ot my birthday thoughts was dolt the boy lover bronzed and grown into a strong almost stern look ng man I 1 thought I 1 would bring your pres ent myself this ye ir delia were his first words as he stepped into the punt and dropped a packet into my lap in a strange inexplicable way I 1 gasn wasn t surprised to see him it almost seemed as though the water and the wind and the birds had prepared me for bis coming I 1 I 1 thought oi had f t forgot toi me this I 1 stammered tearing the string and paper off the packet I 1 told you eight years ago that I 1 should never never forget you he answered quietly as I 1 raised the lid 0 a small cardboard box and there was my birthday gitt another gold heart just like the on he bad given me when I 1 was 17 I 1 have come home to give you my heart over again will you take it thi time deliaa then I 1 realized that there are men who never forget and thant god tor them but dolf I 1 have changed so much let me move into the sunlight here so that you can really see my tace and remember I 1 powder now I 1 no no you must hear me I 1 hav loved some one very much aldand he gave me up jilted me dolfl you will ba only taking the leavings 0 another man you can t want me dolt you cant want me with a tender smile on face dolf took both my hands in his yes dear I 1 can want you and I 1 dc want you he answered I 1 have wanted you all these years lonely blazing years delia and in my own way 1 ve been praying all the time that seme day we might be together A sudden feeling 0 resentment rushed over me perhaps hia prayers had been responsible for my being loved and left but then as I 1 paw the great honesty of his eyes but thankfulness and humility re bained in my heart it you really mean it dolt ia am ready but it Is a risk tor a man jf pick up broken threads after eight years I 1 said it is no risk because with me the threads have never been dropped then he bent down and kissed my hand now the second gold heart 1 I lost the first one years ago Is hanging round my neck and everyone knows we are going to be married we have been up to the houseboat and erica has kissed and cried over u both and mamma Is so happy too everyone seems happy and surel it can t be true but Is it that I 1 ay happy as wella it would be wonderful it it were so but 1 I sit opposite the glass as I 1 write it almost looks like it I 1 caught myself smiling knowing it and the smile has taken away that long line put on white frock and and why to nigh I 1 believe I 1 can bear to wear roses ah there Is dolf he Is calling to me from the garden below when are you coming down yo vain little girl little girl girl gurll not clever woman but just eatn little girl at last I 1 have come back to my heritage I 1 am 25 but some one ha called me a girl it is very dear to be loved and my thankfulness Is great please god the future will be all right I 1 think it will where are the roses put one in my hair and a cluster on my breast yes dolt I 1 am coming A little girt |