Waddle's Sweetheart, by Theodora C. Elmslie (Ward and Downey), has
the negative merit of being as simply constructed as it well can be. Gladdie, a sweet, young " seaside-girl," of the kind popularly designated " quite rippin'," and, indeed, superficial rather than strong, has two sweethearts,—Charlie Butterworth, a minor, and Captain Lane. She marries Charlie, simply because he asks her first; for in reality she cares a great deal more for Captain Lane, who is in the habit of giving her such nice little presents as a bangle. The child-marriage turns out ao badly as most unions of the kind do. Charlie, at all events, dis- covers that his wife is not so much in love with him as he is with her. Besides, poverty and a cruel mother separate them. Finally Charlie, while still away from Gladdie, dies under positively heroic circumstances, and she, earning a livelihood, is quite free to marry Captain Lane. This is the whole of the story, which was perhaps hardly worth writing, and which will bear reading once, but scarcely twice.
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