Tales Of Love Messages [ COMPLETED ]

A Test Of Love

A test of love

John Blanchard stood up from the bench, straightened his Army uniform, and studied the crowd of people making their way through
Grand Central. He looked for the girl whose heart he knew, but whose face he didn't, the girl with the rose. His interest in her
had begun thirteen months before in a Florida library. Taking a book off the shelf he found himself intrigued, not with the words

of the book, but with the notes penciled in the margin. The soft handwriting reflected a thoughtful soul and insightful mind.
In the front of the book, he discovered the previous owner's name, Miss Hollis Maynell. With time and effort he located her
address. She lived in New York City. He wrote her a letter introducing himself and inviting her to correspond. The next day he was
shipped overseas for service in World War II.

During the next year and one-month the two grew to know each other through the mail. Each letter was a seed falling on a fertile
heart.

A Romance was budding.Blanchard requested a photograph, but she refused. She felt that if he really cared, it wouldn't matter
what she looked like.

When the day finally came for him to return from Europe, they scheduled their first meeting - 7:00 PM at the Grand Central Station in New York.

"You'll recognize me," she wrote, "by the red rose I'll be wearing on my lapel."So at 7:00 he was in the station looking for a girl whose heart he loved,
but whose face he'd never seen.I'll let Mr. Blanchard tell you what happened:

When the day finally came for him to return from Europe, they scheduled their first meeting - 7:00 PM at the Grand Central Station in New York."You'll recognize me,"
she wrote, "by the red rose I'll be wearing on my lapel."

So at 7:00 he was in the station looking for a girl whose heart he loved, but whose face he'd never seen.
I'll let Mr. Blanchard tell you what happened:

I felt as though I was split in two, so keen was my desire to follow her, and yet so deep was my longing for the woman whose spirit had truly
companioned me and upheld my own.And there she stood.

Her pale, plump face was gentle and sensible, her gray eyes had a warm and kindly twinkle. I did not hesitate. My fingers
gripped the small worn blue leather copy of the book that was to identify me to her.This would not be love, but it would be something precious, something
perhaps even better than love, a friendship for which I had been and must ever be grateful. I squared my shoulders and saluted and held out the
book to the woman, even though while I spoke I felt choked by the bitterness of my disappointment.

"I'm Lieutenant John Blanchard, and you must be Miss Maynell. I am so glad you could meet me; may I take you to dinner?"

The woman's face broadened into a tolerant smile."I don't know what this is about, son," she answered, "but the young lady
coat.

And she said if you were to ask me out to dinner, I should go and tell you that she is waiting for you in the big restaurant across the street.She said it was some kind of test!"