Puppy Love

I was 19, and pretty Lois Tanner was three years my junior. Sweot 16! Is there in all this warld anything sweeter? There may be other sweet Bixteens, but the comparativo degree of the adj jective in this coimection has growu rusty from long disuse, and sweet 16 rernains positive in kind and superlative in degree. And Lois Tanner was 16. From the flrst day of onr meeting weweve the children of wealthy paren ts and were summeriug by the sea - some intangible influence, some inexplicable forcé seemed to draw us to each other and to tji the lines of onr lives parallel. For two years we had kuown each other, and one day - it was the third sumnier after our meeting - we sat on the rocks by the shore, iv.ui as the wavea beat in rhythinio measnr s npi n the silver sand stretching out at our feet I looked into her sweet blue eyes and knew that Lachesis, as she drew two threads from Clothio's spindle, was twisting them into one cord, forever indivisible. In early youth how far the eyes, undimnied by years, can see into the future, and how keen is young love to decipher the handwriting on the wall ! "Lois, " I said as we sat there in the fading twilight,"do yon knowhow long We havo kuown each other?" "Does it seem long, Mr. Beldon?" she replied, with a coy little smiJe. "It has been tv.'o entire years, Miss Tanuer, " said I, f.iliing mto her mock formality of marnier. "And one leams a great deal in two years, ' ' she added. "In one direction I have learned nothing, Lois, ' ' I said, with a quietuess I did not feel. ' ' Why, Jack, ' ' she exclaimed, ' ' I don 't see how you could stand stilL " "But I have," I insisted. "How?" and her eyes looked her guilelessness. "In loving you, Lois, " I broke forth, "I co'uldn't love youany moreinatliousand years th; ii I loved you after our "Oh, Jack," she cried nervously, "what :naV you say that?" ' ' Why sh'ouldn't I say it ?" I answered, witli a dogged resol ve not tobe put down by any womau's whim. "Because, Jack," she said very earuestly, "papa has been saying all along that you and I were together too mueh, and the first thing the f amily kaew there wonld be a case of puppy love to cure. ' ' "Did your father say that?" I asked, with the anger showing in my face. "He did, Jack, and he says" - "Well, I don 't want to hear what he eays, or has said, or will say, ' ' I interrupted. "If ]ie says anything like that, he doesn't know what he is talking about and hasn't the most remote idea of what d man truly in love with the one woman in all the world for him feels. " "He ought to know something about I it, ' ' Lois said hesitatingly. ' ' You know, I Jack, lio ñas been marned three times. " , "That's juut it, " I growled. "He 's grov7n oallons. He think.s beeause I ain not 100 years oíd I don 't laiow niy own ! heait. anti am irresponsible into the bargain. If it weren 't for you, Lois, " I added, amelioratiug my v.-rr.th to a slight extent, "I wonldn't have aman iike he ia for my father-in-law nnder auy oircnmstanoc ' "Papa isn't po ; ■-■ 'nlly bad, Jack," she said in exteauii.un of the paternal weaknoss. "I never thoiight he was either nntU you told me what you have," I admitted. "But, Lois," and I gi-ew hard again, "you nrast know that no father who regards the futiu-e happiness of his daughter can take the position he does and assnmo to díctate the course of two lives wliich in the nature of things must be independent of his. " "Papa says your papa said the same thingand agreedwith him thoronghly, " she replied, arguing as women do. "Lois," I said in my firmest tone, "don 't speak co me of father again. If you do, I shall be tempted to do him some bodily injury. " The dear little woman laid her hand on my arm re.itrainingly and smiled witn such irresistible sweetness that I even forgot the wound my own father had given me. "Let itgo, dear, " she pleaded. "They have forgotten they were ever youug. ' ' Tb shadows were growing into a deeper purple, and the waves took 011 the meiiower shades of Mie eveiiing sky. The uight wind, just rising, tossed Lois' golften hair about her smooth white forehead, and the pink of the sunset brought a rosier glow to her cheeks. I brushed my hand acroes my eyes and lookod into her face. "Do you remember what I said a few moments ago?" I asked, retmning to the previeras subject. "What did you say?'" she replied. trembling a little, I thon.ht, for she surely oould not have forgotten so soon. "I said, darling" - it was the first. time I had ever called her that, and it abnost frightened me - "I said that there was one thing I had nofc leanied iu the last two years, and that was to love you better than I did when I first met you. Do you think I should have learned?" "Perhaps, Jack," she blushed, "ií you had, you would have gono ahead of i m(i JU. taS class. .' ' I I "Oh, Lo?a" i began to say, and then , I stam'"ed ma g .,fd to Lhe face j I subpoenaed to appear to identify the ini terview. I On this testimony largely the jurj . ■ brought in a verdict of manslanghter in , I the fourth degree, assessmg the punishi ' ment at two years in the peuitentiaxy. i , Theu carne a delay, while the case 1 was appealed to a higher court. Bnt the verdict was snstained. Following this a pctition for a pardon was circulated and presented to Governor Prancis. The pardon was granted about four monthf af ter Grote wás committed to the peni tentiary. A few days since a marriage licens was procured for Henry C. Grote and Helen Symons. A reporter callcrl it the bride's home Only hor wo1 found at home öhe aid chat Hwu v auHelen bad been marriu. Mary, his firs mLe, she said, died two years ago of oonsumptiou. After living alone for two years Mr. Grote had cast about for another helpmeet and found uo one so well fitted for the place as his dead wife's sister Helen.