The Forrest City times., 1896-07-17
SUSANNA NORTON.

Ii there was one thing in all her ex-
perience that Susanna Morton was
heartily tired of it was the evident and
continuous purpose of mankind to per-
NIT her to remain spinster.
True she had been one SO long it
would seem that she should have become
accustomed to it; but by some strange
fatality women--that is, the majority
OF women-never accept their lot in
this 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 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 manner
to suit herself. She knew her good
points, one of which was that she was
thirty-five years old or thereabouts,
and possessed a poise and balance no
man who was looking for real sensi-
BILE woman as wife could afford to dis
regard. In addition to this she had
what men seldom disregard - COM
Portable fortune.
1t was this fortune that had been the
real stumbling block in the matrimoni-
al path of Susanna, and not any lack of
attractive qualities in her possession,
for she was not homely, nor was she
anything but charming. The fortune,
however, which was hers from her six
teenth 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 as a 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
had reached an age and frmness of
character, to put it mildly, when her for
tune would have to be at least doubled
to make her as attractive as she was at
twenty.
This knowledge had come to her
gradually, but was none the less force
full on that account, and she was de-
termined not to let this leap year pass
without results of lasting character.
OF the men IN her train there were
perhaps half dozen who were eligible,
and any one of whom would have made
husband any woman could be proud
of. But they were merely friends; not
a man-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 the half dozen was one who
found the greatest favor in Susanna's
eyes, the others taking their positions
after him in regular gradation, and this
one Susanna selected as her victim for
leap year, resolved to try all the others
in case of failure in the first instance.
Truly, Susanna was desperate spin
ster.
And no less spry, for in the course of
his first call in the new year she began
her operations. But it was a dread
full task, and the evening passed with
out 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, "how 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
twitted. I'm sure you only think SO.
Z look just as always look"