The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1896-04-03
miscellaneous.
LEAP YEAR PROPOSAL.
BY W. J. HAMPTON.

BY W. j. HAMPTON.
If there were one thing in all her
experience that Susanna Morton was
heartily tired OF it was the evident
and continuous purpose of mankind to
permit her to remain Il SpinSter.
True, she had been one so long it
/ would seem that she should have be
| come accustomed 10 it but by some
strange fatality women, that is, tine
majority of women, never accept their
lot i'll this form with that calm reSigna-
ton and beautiful Christian 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 wear previously, and there
were moments i'll the last OF the four
when she became almost desperate
Now that II fifth had come, her mind
was made up. She would take the
REIN. of Cupid in her own hands and
drive that harun- scarum little rascal
in a manner TO suit herself. She knew
her good points. ono of which was that
she was thirty-tive years old or there
aboutS. and possessed II poise and bal
ance no man who was looking for a
real sensible woman as IL wife could
| afford to disregard. In addition to
| this she had-what men seldom disre-
gard-a comfortable fortune
1t was this fortune that had been
| the real stumbling block in the matri.
monial path of Susanna, and not any
| lack of attractive qualities in her pos
session, for she was not homelY, nor
was she anything but charming. The
| fortune, however, which was hers
from her sixteenth birthday, had de
veloped in her II 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, believ-
ing, as she did. that men were mer-
ceuary wretches as Il rule, and thar
some day the one man in ali the world
for her would appear and claim her as
| his own.
However, lie did not appear, and he
continued not to appear, until Susanna
had reached All age and a tirmness OF
character, to put it mildly, When her
fortune would have to be at least
double to make her as attractive as
| she was ut twenty.
This knowledge had come to her
gradually. but WAS none the less force
! full on that account, and she deter
mined not to let this leap year pas,
| without results OF II lasting character
OF the men III her train there were
! perhaps half dozen who were eligi
/ Ill, Il .t,,.. I
made IL husband any woman could tx.
| proud of. But they were merely
| friends not Il ndm-jack of them had
every suggested such "a thing as matri-
mony to her, and, possibly, this was
why she liked them. So perverse is
! the nature of woman.
Among this half dozen was one who
found the greatest favor in Susanna 5
| eyes, the Others taking their positions
after him i'll regular graduation, and
| this one Susanna selected as her vic
| tim for leap year, resolving to try all
| the others In case of failure in the first
| instance.
Truly, Susanna was II desperate
| spinster.
And no less spry, for in the course
of his first call in the new year she be
gan her operations. But it was ii
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