The Globe-republican. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1889-1910, 1899-01-19
Going a Long Lane.

They were walking home from even
ing meeting.
"How long have We been engaged"
asked Ezra, after silence.
Janet answered promptly. It'll be
fifteen years the 10th of next month"
"And day after tomorrow must
start for Florida"
Yes" she said, II suppose it is best.
It would be hard for you to stay here
through the cold weather when you
were so sick last winter. But you can
come back in the spring." she added,
trying to be cheerful.
81 have been thinking" said Ezra,
hesitatingly, that fifteen years is a
good while for an engagement to last.
Don't you think it would be a good
plan to end it before l gO?"
She looked up at him quickly. Do
you mean that you wish to-"
BE married. Yes"
co." she said.'"I did not know but
you might wish to be released"
NO." he returned, emphatically,
you would be the one to wish that"
81 never have" she answered.
Every one knows that I have the
best of the arrangement-that you are
smarter and better than I am. have
meant, all these years, to get some
thing ahead, SO that we could be mar
ried some time, and so that you would
not have to do dressmaking. But /
haven't managed right, or something,
and now my health giving out has
spoiled it ALL"
4 would have been ready any time,
Ezra" she said, gently. Eve would
have got along"
81 had got so used to being engaged
to you that had almost become salts
fed with there being nothing different.
But now that l am going away, and
will not see you all winter long-I wish
we could be married before co.
But there is so little time," she said,
thinking of the pretty things she had
hoped to make if this time ever came
Il know" he answered. not under
standing her. II know you could not
leave to go with me, but We could go
to housekeeping when l get back.
wish you would do it," he ended, visit
fully.
81 WILL" she consented. IF it will
make you happier"
On the appointed day Ezra set forth
on his way to Florida, leaving his bride
behind to face the New England win
ter alone. At first she was lonesome.
but when long letters began to come
from Ezra she felt happier. He was
a good letter writer, and before winter
was past it seemed to her that she had
had more companiooship with him
than usual.
Ezra liked Florida and the climate
agreed with him. He found work there,
and when spring came he decided to
stay on. He proposed that Janet
should join him in the fall. She
agreed at the time, but when fall came
she began to be dreadfully homesick.
She finally wrote that, as Ezra would
probably come home by another spring,
she would wait for him.
But the next summer he spent in
Florida also, and when fall came again
and they had been married two years,
nothing was said about his returning
or her joining him.
Janet, however, began to have de-
sire to see her husband. She deter
mined to go to him and surprise him.
So she packed her trunk and departed.
At the same time Ezra had long
ing to see Janet, and he decided to go
North and surprise her. They started
at about the same time, and passed
each other somewhere in Virginia
When they reach their destinations it
is hardly necessary to say that they
were both surprised-unpleasantly so.
Each felt impelled to return over the
way they had just come. but each re-
0eetsd that the other might Do the,