The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1885-02-13
LEAP.YEAR.
BY LEIGH NORTH

BY LEIGH NORTH
SCENE-a brightly lighted room.
Dramatis r~ersone-the modern young
man and two young girls. He, gentle
manly and good-looking perhaps be-
yond The average, leaning in a not In.
graceful attitude against the mantel,
with his back to a large mirror. They,
on O low divan at the other side Of the
ROOM, alternately listening and replying
TO his remarks, or whispering to each
other at some apparently irrelevant but
amusing subject.
"Yes," he said, a little defiantly, and
with a slightly heightened color, since
his first remark had been received with
, peel of laughter-"yes, Z / would like
to know what it feels like to be refused.
I'd ask some girl just for the fun of
hearing her say no, if 1 dared"
"Try us! try US! 0 most irresistible
Adonis!" cried the elder of the two,
with a hooking smile, springing to her
feet and making him a low courtesy.
The girls dark hair loosened and fell
with the sudden motion, the brown eyes
were trimming with mischief and mer-
riment, and the flushed cheek looked
very inviting.
II have q great mind to kiss you,
Sauce-box," he said, by the way of an
swer. zones cousins don't count"
The two cousins, so called, were q
pleasing contrast to each other-the
dark-eyed, merry Kitty Glen, and her
fair, blue-eyed friend and cousin Mary
Nesle. Neither was, strictly speaking,
cousin to Herbert Raymond, Kate, being
astep-relation, and Mary only a cousins
cousin; but as he had been on terms of
brotherly intimacy, especially with the
former, the pleasing fiction was always
maintained, and Herbert felt himself at
liberty to criticise the sayings and do
ings of either, to object to this or that
man of their acquaintance, and to act
generally in a very brotherly manner,
while he had been persuaded from wear
ing many a favorite neck-tie by Hates
raillery or Mary's gentler protest.
The talk on this particular evening
drifted to other subjects, and 0 the
whole matter faded from the young
mans mind. Not SO from that Of the
two girls, who, with heads bent togeth-
er in council, were busy deyising a plot
against him. Time, however must be
allowed to elapse ere they carried it in
to execution, as they did not want to
be immediately accused of being the
plotters.
So Herbert walked with Kate. and
rode, talked, or sang with Mari, all
unconscious of any designs upon him;
and, truth to tell. he was beginning to
find in the hours spent with his blue
eyed cousin" O new charm. To "chaff"
with Kate was fun, but the quieter
times spent with Mary, and aver the
silent moments, seemed to fly with in
credible rapidly. Nobody surely ever
had such sunny golden hair, such sweet
little ways. as cousin Mary he be-
gan to think, as he watched and studied
her more closely; and now and then he
fancied Tor was it only fancy p that his
sudden or unexpected appearance
brought a deep shade to that rose tint.
ed cheek, a new brightness to the love-
~ eyes. At least IL Ct is was q delusion
1t was a very pleasant one, and he did
not feel disposed to put it away from
him.
Among the list of Herbert's acquaint-
ances was q very pretty young widow
who had been q belle before marriage,
and was none the less facinating now
That she was again free. Report said
that her marriage had not been a happy
one, but whether or no that had been
the case she did not seem disposed to
De In haste to resume matrimonial fet-
ters, though supposed to have had al
ready several opportunities OF so doing.
In the course c1 acquaintance Kate
knew Herbert to have received several
notes from her, and rightly guessed that
ne was familiar with her writing. The
arch. plotter selected this Mrs. Peto,
tnen, as n of the unconscious victims
OF this conspiracy, and obtained posses
sion OF one of her notes from o lady
friend, and with considerable skill imi-
lated the penmanship and style.
another letter purported TO come from
= MISS North, whom Herbert had once
met and expressed an admiration for,
nut who had not seemed to ~reciprocate
u; and n each from Mary and Kate
completed the list. Was il by accident
q design that the last never reached its
destination? Mary's enthusiasm over
,ne practical joke seemed somewhat 20
nave waned, and it required more than
one reminder from Kate to induce her
= iuihll her part Of the compact. while,
IN Inct. at last Kafa wrnka the note