The Democratic advocate., 1896-03-21
A LEAP-YEAR PROPOSAL
W. J. LanptOn, in New York sun,

tired of it was the evident and continuous
purpose of mankind to permit her to remain,
spinster
True, she had been one so long it would
seem that she should have become accus-
toned to it; but by some strange fatality
women. that is, the majority of women,
never accept their lot in this form with
that calm resignation and beautiful Chris
tian spirit which has won for them the
endearing title of the gentler sex.
And Susanna Morton had put up with
it just as long as she was going to.
Four leap years had passed her by, and
she had submitted gracefully. but each
year less gracefully than she had done the
year previously, and there were moments
in the last of the four when she became
almost desperate. Now that fifth had
come, her mind was made up. She would
take the reins of Cupid in her own hands
and drive that harum- -scarum little rascal
in a manner to suit herself. She knew
her good points, one of which was that she
was thirty five years old or thereabouts,
and possessed poise and balance no man
who was looking for real sensible woman
as wife could afford to disregard. In
addition to this she had-what men sell
dom Disregard comfortable fortune
1t was this fortune that had been the
real stumbling block in the matrimonial
path of Susanna, and not any lack of at
tractive qualities in her possession, for she
was not homely, nor was she anything but
charming The fortune, however, which
was hers from her sixteenth birthday, had
developed in her fear that men sought
her for her money and not for herself, and,
never having fallen in love with any of her
courtiers, she did not find it difficult to
resist advances, believing, as she did, that
men were mercenary wretches as rule,
and that some day the one man in all the
world for her would appear and claim her
as his own.
However, he did not appear, and he
continued not to appear, until Susanna had
reached an age and firmness of character,
to put it mildly, when her fortune would
have to be at least doubled to make her as
attractive as she was at twenty.
This knowledge had come to her gradu-
ally, but was none the less forceful on that
account, and she was determined not to
let this leap year pass without results of
lasting character.
Of the men in her train there were per-
haps half a dozen who were eligible, and
any one of whom would have made hus-
band any woman could be proud Of. But
they were merely friends; not a jack
of them had ever suggested such thing
as matrimony to her, and, possibly, this
was why she liked them. So perverse is
the nature of woman.
Among this hale dozen was one who
found the greatest favor in Susanna eyes,
the others taking their positions after him
in regular graduation, and this one Susanna
selected as her victim for leap year, re-
solved to try all the Others in case of fail
ure in the first instance.
Truly, Susanna was desperate spinster.
And no less spry, for in the course of
his first call in the new year she began
her operations. But it was dreadful
task, and the evening passed without
single step taken forward. The effort had
been made, however. and courage always
comes with effort.
When he came again, she was so wrought
up over the work before her that her eyes
sparkled and her cheeks glowed in rosy
color
.'Why, bless my soul, Miss Susanna,
he said, chow pretty you look this even
ing.
He was ten years older than she, and
always assumed that bless-my soul style
affected by elderly men.
''Oh, thank you, Mr.. Culver" she
twittered. "Tm sure you only think SO.
1 look just as l always look
ssOf course, Miss Susanna, only slightly
more so, he smiled, but there was that
in the tone which had the ring of insincer-
ity, or at least superficial and society sin
cerity, which is very nearly the same
thing and which made Susanna desplse
the fattery of men that so far had meant
to her no dissolution of the continuity of
her spinsterhood
She was good natured about it, however,
and let Mr. Culver go on with whatever
he had to say, for if there was any man
who could make fattery any more palatable
to her than any other man, that man was
Mr.. Culver. But it was soon over, and
when he had fixed himself comfortably in
an easy chair with which he was familiar,
he seemed to have forgotten whether Susan
| ma looked ike fright or a fairy, and BE-
gan talking about all sorts Of things, as
people do who talk for the mere sake of
talking.
At all events, that's the way it pre-
sented itself to Susanna, and she felt the
spirit of desperation slowly creeping over
her. She took long breath for encour-