Lakeland Evening Telegram Newspaper, May 17, 1913, Page 7

FITINSPARENTS y Thought She Sought a Ca- cer When in Reality It Was Love. gy DOROTHY BLACKMORE. ey spoke in undertones, turtive- atching the door. But—what i8 to be done with colorless, hopeless. r husband shook his head sadly. s it, my dear. seems to be centered in that one bose; she sees only one goal— es for only one. Why, I can't make an engagement for her any e for fear of interfering with a pn or & class or an appointment ractice with someone or other. she's our only daughter.” rs. Calhoun raised her hand cau- “Do be careful, dear; she’s lairs, and 1 wouldn’t have her hear or the world. We musn't break heart in trying to thwart her am- n. That would be cruel.” he whole thing's cruel,” Mr. Cal- d said, desperately. s. Calhoun nodded thoughttfully neither father nor mother spoke looked up, & bright light in his | ppose—suppose, dear, we con- to tell her 1 have had some re- in business and cannot longer d to pay for her lessons. We can | expenses and live consistently the statement, can we not, dear?” sked eagerly. e mother hesitated. “Y-e-s—we , 1 suppose, but would that do ocod? Isn't Laetitia just the sort ould go to work—sing in a cho- in cafes—anywhere—to earn gh to study? Any girl with her and determination will find a | And there is a way—if only she | see it—a way to make us all Shortly, rvice g ) pw's that?” ave s Vi » Mrs. Calhoun asked. Her tone | slng was uch & wild deaire to Laetitia’s whole ; in some moments. Presently the i appeared to his rather thick vision. G T e e —— Wwas not blin her child. jand it was p | life—to sing, to shine befo, ers, strugglj d tothe shortcomings a1 €r one alm and object in to go into grand opera, re the footlights. Teach- Ng for the dollars t| €ame to them from lessons, flattehr:: her and led her on toward her imag- ined place among the stars. Friends who were kind-hearted asked her to lln‘:' and even her father and mother badn’t the heart to tell her she could not. Why a girl who had no voice should h, the question that ofte; itself to both mother and mne: . Laetitla had become so engrossed + in her studies of musie in all branches ! ertaining to voice culture that she bad forsaken most of her triends; she i had withdrawn from social life, say- | Ing that she must save her strength for her work. The home that had once been the scene of gay little par _tes, was now quiet after dinner, and jthe father and mother gat silently reading under the library lamp. Leti- tla was in bed gathering energy for the following day’s lessons. She was working diligently on the opera scores in the faint hope that she might have opportunity to sing before a man- ager. “Whom could she love?” Mr. Cal houn broke in abruptly, as it the idea conveyed to him by his wife had Just Mrs. Calhoun smiled. “Better— who loves her enough to make her give up her career, my dear?” “Well, put it your way—who's the man? Il ask him here, throw them together, do anything to save our lit. tle girl from the awtul failure 1 can see coming her way,” the father said, sitting up, energetically. “Do you think young Davis {s hopelessly dis- couraged?” “He ought to be—the way she's treated him. But if he showed halt the determination about winning Lae titia that she shows about winning fame, he'd have her,” Mrs. Calhoun declared. “Nice fellow—Davis,” mumbled the father. “He's all of that. I had quite made up my mind to him.” the would only fall in love, des- ely In love, and be made to feel | he was making a great sacrifice he man she loved in giving up areer—her music, she would be | —we would be happy, and she ! hort oustituti 5 sure to be hers if she contin- | . 1. U N believe she will be a grand op- | rs in th ar.” f ake notifie- Calhoun had studied her daugh- | i p he knew that the girl lived for | rst day A o tic effects; that heroics ap-| 8 03" f to her. More than once she ! , ab rayed that her girl might fall in | ¥ith a man who would insist on ! the ving up her musical career. Un-l who b hany mothers, Laetitia's parent n the p in that S — PHY, resident to him is the question now,” re- marked Mr. Calhoun, with a hopeless | dcar—but, oh—I can't give up Tom inflection in his voice. Mrs. Calhoun ralsed a silencing tin- | I've tried so hard. be saved all the pain of failure ' &€r, remarking: “Listen, I hear foot- | money of father's and yours for music ! steps—Laetitia is coming down.” Myr. Calhoun began to read, ostenta- | tiously; Mrs. Calhoun, too, became ab- sorbed in her n:aiazine. “Mother,” faltered Laetitia at her elbow. Laetitia could not sing, “How to make up Laetitia’s mind | Much to do something big and won- THE EVENING TELEGRAM, LAK ELAND, FLA., MAY 17, 1913. pled down one hew mother's footstool, burying ber face in her mother's lap. Mrs. Calhoun looked quickly across at her husband who, in turn, peered across the top of his glasses at his daughter's bowed head; then bhe looked up quickly and held his wite's eyes for an instant. Had she heard? | Mrs. Calhoun put her hand tenderly {on the girl's hair. | “What is it, dearie?” she asked. Laetitia burst into sobs; her whole slight frame shook and she buried her face deper and deeper into her moth- er's lap. Tears came silently to the eyes of both mother and father, but Do one spoke. . Laetitia reached for her mother's hands and held them convulsively in her own while her body continued to shake with her sobbing. “Can—can't you te]l mother, }dearie'.‘“ Mrs. Calhoun asked, letting her own tears drip down unheeded on her bosom. “I=1 will. That's what 1 came down for, mother,” Laetitia whispered from the mother'’s lap. Nr. Calhoun was preceptibly ill at ease. He tried to remember all they bad said; he would have given all he owned to have retracted his words; i let her sing; let her practice; let her do into anything that she thought she wanted, but—never let him see his | little girl so unhappy again. That was his only wish. “L—Ilet me have your handkerchief, mother,” Laetitia said, | head. “Here—take mine, daughter,” sald | her father, quickly offering his most cherished pocket handkerchief from his upper coat pocket. “I—1 want to tell you both all about it” the girl began, plying the ample bit of linen diligently. “Go right on, dearie,” Mrs. Calhoun stald, stroking the hand she held. “It's about me—about me and my career—and Tom,” she confessed. “You don't understand how it has been perhaps.” Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Calhoun sald & word; they still wondered {f she had heard “I have worked so hard to be a suc: cess for you two. I am your only child, your only hope. I wanted so raising her derful for you—mother and father, for the empty fame of an opera star. I've spent all this and you've given me every advantage, and it seems so ungrateful of me to give it all up for—love.” She hid her face, and the father and mother lcoked at each other again. “Tom says I must give it up—my | career—or he will go away to the end of the world, where he can never, | never even hear of me,” sald she,' Her mother looked up. Laetitia's | hair was banging in two braids across i her should.rs; they glistened in the lamp light. Her long rose-colored ki- | mono_fell to her toes and she_crum- bursting in fresh sobs. er, with emoticn, “‘don't do that, We | glanced from one to the other. | with a good business and $6,000 in the | want you to be happy—we want you to marry Tom. We—we've been real- ally disappointed, daddy and I, be cause he did not come around any more.” Laetitia looked up, a gleam of light shining in her swollen eyes. She Her father smiled and nodded. “Have you, really? Do—do you like him?” “We—we love him,” Mrs. Calhoun sald, earnestly. “Oh, mother!” cried Laetitia climbd- ing, like a little girl, to her mother's lap and squeezing her around the neck. “Do you, truly? And I won't have to work so hard to—to try to be a success in order to make you proud of me? Oh—oh!” In spite of herself, the mother’s eyes overflowed with tears. She was too happy to speak. And Laetitia had not heard their plotting and planning against her. And it was Tom Davis, after all! “I've always thought it was an aw- ful thing to be an only child, the one hope of a pair of doting parents— it's been such hard work! And now there will be two of us to make you happy. Daddy—ask Tom to come to dinner tomorrow night that—that you want to show him something—any- thing to get him here.” “I'll ask him to breakfast, it you say 80,” laughed the father, wiping his glasses carefully; they had become moist and dimmed. ‘(Cnpyrl(m, 1913, by the McClure News- paper Syndicate.) An Interruption, An impassioned oratress had reached the climax of her denuncia- tion of the tyrant sex, when a little man in the corner said he arose to present a question of special privi- lege. “Put him out!"” shrieked many up- friendly voices. “State your question,” said the or atress. “I want to marry you,” said the Mt tle man. “I like your talk and I like your looks. I've got a good house and a 20-horsepower motor ! car.” “Order! order!” shrieked the audi- ence. | “Let him state his queltlon."‘ shouted the oratress. “I'm fifty-two, a regular churchgoer, bank,” concluded the little wman, | “Put him out!™ yelled everybody. “In deference to the popular de- mand,” said the gifted oratress, “I'll | have to ask you to wait on the out- side.” “I'll wait,” chuckled the little man. Whereupon the oratress resumed.— Cleveland Plain Decaler, For Sherlock Holmes. Somebody wondered how long a! “Dearie, dearie,” protested the moth- gertain woman who had just left uui Hunt For "HUNTS” No Lie on the Can No Lye in the Can Peaches Apricots Pears Cherries Hawaiian Pine Apple Pure Food Store W.P, Pillans & Co. PHONE 93 room had been married. “About 16 years,” sald the jeweler, “How do you know?” asked the jew. “You never saw her untfl eler’s wife. tonight.” . “I can tell by the size of her wed ding rings,” he replied. “The width of wedding rings changes about every UPHOLSTERING AND MATTRESS MAKING. Ola Mattresses made over; cushieas of all kind made o order. Drep me A postal card. five years. The kind she wears was {a style 16 years ago.” Valuable 8tamp Collection. How stamp collecting has become specialized is instauced by the sale ia Pdris some time ago ~f a collection of Bwiss stamps for ahont $40 ana Arthur A Douglas 410 8. Ohto Street. Poor Pursuer of Pleasurcs. “It's the only pleasure I have tm lite,” said an English hawker, in e» plaining to a magistrate bis love o beer, BRICK Large Stock We Save You Moeney A. C. Conyers Red, Buff, Gray and Common Building Prompt Shipments Duval Building Jacksonville, Fla. Your Printing to the Lakeland News Job Printing U get.your work done by people who know--who will not let some foolish error | creep into your work that will make your printed matter ineffective, and perhaps subject it to the amused comment of discriminating people. | Our plant turns out ten newspapers every week--two of them being sixteen-page { | . §The Services of Artists Are Yours When You Bring Office Wapers of state-wide circulation; but this does not mean that we do not also give the &losest attention to the small work. An order for visiting cards, or for printing a rib- . v o badge, or a hundred circulars, is given the same careful consideration that enables weo 1S to secure and successfully carry out our large contracts. ow. 0u § mm KENTUCKY BUILDING And, having had to fit up or the bigger work naturally enables us to do the smaller work better. For Printing--a Line or a Volume--We Are At Your Serbice "HE LAKELAND NEWS JOB OFFICE