A book and a rose

 I forgot where I found this, but I had saved in in my computer & just found it.

It's such a cute story:

 "Lieutenant John Blandford was in New York City at Grand Central station, and he looked up at the bog clock. It said five til six. His heart was racing. At exactly six o'clock he was going to meet the girl whom he thought he was in love with but had never met. This is what had happened...

While he was in training as a fighter pilot during World War II, he happened to go to the library and checked out a book. As he flipped through the pages, he noticed that someone had made notes in the margins. Reading the insightful observations in beautiful handwriting, he said to himself, I would love to meet whoever wrote these notes; they seem to be so kind, gentle, and wise.

He looked in the front of the book and saw a name: Hollis Meynell, New York City. He decided to try and find her. With the help of a New York City phone book, he found her address and wrote her a letter. The day after he wrote her, he was shipped overseas to fight in the war.

Surprisingly, Hollis answered John's letter. The two corresponded back and forth throughout the war. "Her letters were just like the marvelous notes she had written in that book," John recalled. "She was so comforting and so helping."

One time John confessed in a letter that he had been scared to death when he'd found himself surrounded by enemy planes. Hollis had assured him that all brave men are afraid at times. She suggested that the next time he felt fear, he should imagine her voice reciting, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me."

As they continued to write, John began to realize that he was having romantic feelings toward Hollis. He wrote, "Send me a picture," and she declined saying, "If your feeling for me has any reality, what I look like won't matter."

Still, he was intrigued by this woman and longed to meet her in person. Finally that day came when he was able to return to the States on leave. He mentioned in one of his letters that he was coming home and would like to take her to dinner. She arranged to meet him at Grand Central station at 6:00 p.m. by the big clock. "You'll know who I am because I'll be wearing a red rose," she wrote.

At last the day had come. John waited nervously to finally meet the girl he thought he loved. Then his heart leaped as a young woman approached, her slim figure capped off by an attractive face framed with curling blond hair. In her pale-green suit she looked fresh and lively, and her flower-blue eyes sparkled.

He moved toward her without realizing she was not wearing a rose. She welcomed his approach with a quiet, "Going my way, soldier?" But as he took another step, he realized that just beyond her stood another woman--a plump, graying woman with a red rose adorning her rumpled coat.

He stopped cold, utterly torn between following the winsome young beauty in the green suit and keeping his commitment to the woman whose letters had so uplifted him during the war.

Abruptly, he made his decision. With unhesitating strides he approached the plump woman, whose face beamed with a warm smile. "I'm Lieutenant John Blandford, and you--you must be Miss Meynell. I'm so glad you could meet me. Would you join me for dinner?"

The woman's smile grew broader with what appeared to be quiet amusement. "I don't know what this is all about, Son," she said. Then she pointed toward a figure in a green suit, who was now nearly out of sight. "That young lady gave me this rose and asked me to wear it while walking through the train station. She said that if you asked me to go with you, I was to let you know she'd be waiting for you in the restaurant across the street."

"She said it was some kind of test." "