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I
BELLE'S PROBLEM
By Harold Carter.
(Copyright by W. G. Chapman.)
Should a man for forty-five marry
a girl of nineteen? "That was the
question most in discussion at the
summer hotel. Of course everybody,
knew that Hubert Ellington was a
charming man, well-to-do, and of ir
reproachable antecedents. But still,
Looked Fearfully at Him.
Belle Moran was rather young for
him.
How had he captivated the girl,
over whom half a dozen young men
had broken their hearts that sum
mer? Belle could not tell.
"I wish I know, Molly," she con
fided to her chum. "We had only
.known each other a couple of weeks,
and he seemed so much a man
among those callow boys. But but
I wish I knew."
"Do you mean that you have ceas
ed to care for him, Belle?" exclaimed
her friend in horror.
Belle began crying. Then, as Molly
coaxed her, she showed her that let- -let
from Jack.
Jack had loved Belle for two years,
ever since she came back from
school, and they had grown up to
gether. But Belle had never known
how madly Jack loved her. And
now now Well, everything seem
ed wrong.
Hubert could not have reached his
age without having had numerous
love affairs. That Belle knew perfect
ly well. But he had once been wildly,
hopelessly in love. And the girl had
gone out of his life and married an
other. "If ever I were to meet her, Belle, I
dont know, I cant say, but the old
love might revive," he had confessed
to her.
And that was the man she was to
give herself to; one with a romantic
past. Not a discreditable, but still, a
romantic one. Belle was not sure
that she would not have preferred
Hubert to have had a real past than
to have been in love so desperately
with somebody else.
To crown all, her mother, to whom
she had written about her engage
ment, was coming up with Jack. And
then the fight would begin. Hubert
was a gentleman, but, naturally, her
mother was upset, and as for Jack "
They did not come on the same
train, however. Jack arrived first,
late in the afternoon, and tackled
Belle immediately.
"Tell me, Belle, do you love him?"
he insisted. "If you'll assure me that
you do, more than me, I'll go away
and never trouble you again. But it's "
pretty hard on me."
They were strolling between the
famous arborvitae hedges that make
the grounds of the Hotel Lakeview a
sort of maze. It is rumored, indeed,
"., j-A'-A
