'AD PHONE 1200
Romance Flowers At
Old**Wishing Well*9
One day, not many moons ago, tho spirits of the venerable dons whispered together and nodded hoary heads knowingly for, had not pretty Miss Mildred Joyce DeRyn and Branford G. Williams traveled lo, these many miles from Lakeland to cast their reflections in the “wighing._w.eH” at the Oldest House? "
And had not this romantic pair-cast sidelong glances at each other even as their reflections painted themselves on the crystal surface of the fount of the Caballeros ? Had not the lovers, as yet not knowing the depths of the emotions which prompted them in their reflected wishes, longed for each other where their longings were mirrored in the wishing well?
Just so, murmured the spirits of the ancient Spanish conquis-tiadores, and so it came about that the spirits hied themselves to Lakeland, where romance budded from the wishes so recently mirrored in the depths of the wishing well. Several months passed e’er romance bloomed.
Then yesterday the couple, impelled by the wish hidden in the depths of the mossy Spanish
well, returned to St. Augustine and sped on the wings of romance to the cloistered “wishing well." Gazing once more into the crystal depths, tho two lovers saw mirrored there another, a third countenance, that of Judge Louis Victor, and in his hands he hold the little book from which he read the ritual which granted the wishes cast in the romantic well that day when the two first came under the spell of the dons.
What more fitting ending to a romance born where romance first invaded the shores of America from the strands of Spain?
It was the oldest story in the world, set in the oldest setting in the new world, where it budded into a romance of the 20th century.
Long will the romantic Spanish “wishing well” cherish the reflections of the two Lakeland lovers and long will the echoes of tho whispered wishes resound in the silent depths of the fount of lovers! Forever more will tho spirits of venerable dons nod sagaciously at each other and murmur as lovers peek shyly into the bowered “wishing well.^jj And so, beware!