The Press., 1912-06-19
David'S
 Dream Woman
 She MAterialized Into A Reality By cLARISSA MACXIE
By cLARIssA MAcxIE

| Copyright Dy ALneTlCAn EESs8 <ASSS~ ! citation. 1911. |
 David Wright paused on the corner waiting for chance to cross the crowded thoroughfare. It was late afternoon. and lower Broadway was
 teeming with pedestrians and vehicles Above the corner where he waited tow cred the eighteen stories of the tall
 building where his offices were situa'
 ted. He had just left them for the day
 and he had gladly closed the door on
 their subdued hum and bustle.
 Life seemed very stale and dull to
 David Wright today. Perhaps he was
 tired from long and busy summers
 application to hard work, although he
 had always thrived nightly on hard
 work Perhaps 1t was the rather lone
 ly life he led in his handsome bachelor
 quarters, for he was without any near relatives. Indeed, he had never known the real meaning of a home, for he had
 been orphaned while he was a mere child and had spent most of his youth in boarding schools and other places of learning.
 Now that his business was a success, he had no need to make more money. He could not spend his income by half, and he thought wistfully of travelling, but somehow. back within his inner consciousness, he had a hazy mental picture of himself travelling about the world in a leisurely fashion, but he was never alone. Always beside him there stood a woman's form. She was always small and dainty, and she was gowned in gray. But who she was he never knew. She had no identity, but he felt that she must be the woman who was to be his wife-some day. So he delayed a trip to Europe or the far east, secretly, though half denying 1t to his abashed self, waiting for his travelling companion
 "She will have to come along pretty soon," he smiled whimsically to him. self, ''or I'll be too old and infirm to travel in anything except wheeled chair"
 Just then the policeman's whistle sounded and there was way clear to Broadway. David Wright took one step forward to the street, then an- other, slipped and fell, the back of his head striking the sharp edge of the curbstOne.
 After that he could not recollect what happened.
 Suddenly he awoke and tried to sit up in the white hospital bed, but his head reeled dizzily, and he sank back on the pillow.
 "Ah," breathed the nurses soft voice close beside him, and he felt an arm beneath his shoulders, and he was half supported to a sitting posture. Then somebody sat down on the edge of his bed, and his head was supported in an outstretched hand.
 It was all done skillfully and quickly, and by the time David opened his eyes there was a glass of stimuIant at his lips, and as he swallowed it in little sips his dizziness cleared away, leav- ing sickening pain in its wake.
 Leaning over the low railing at the foot of the bed was his own physician, watching him with relieved eyes.
 What happened, docT' asked David, with wavering smile at the kindly face of his friend.
 "S1ip up on the pavement and a crack on the back of your head" re- turned Dr. Lawton, coming around and relieving DaVid's prop. "A good rest up here won't do you any harm, Wright" His skillful fingers touched the sore spot on the back of David's head. He made one or two sugges- tions to the nurse, who stood in the background, and. with a final laughing injunction to his patient, the doctor left. promising to return in a few hours.
 After that fever set in, and 1t was several days before David Wright was able to sit up once more, weaker, but quite free from pain. His private room in the hospital was pleasant and sunshiny and so high up that the noises from the street came up in a subdued, pleasant blur of sound.
 At last he lifted his weary eyes and looked at the nurse who had so pa- tiently attended him during his sick ness. He had always been conscious of her soothing presence, even when his fever was at it's height, and she had become confused in his mind with the dream woman who was his trav- cling companion in those day dreams that had been his for several years.
 He watched her now as she busted herself in the sunny window, quite of his scrutiny She was small and fair and exquisitely colored. with dainty features crowned with soft masses of waving golden hair pale gold shot with deeper tints. Her eyes were hazel, and the white lids were fringed with dark lashes, and the line of her eyebrows was dark and finely arched.
 David had known very few women, md he watched this one with lncreas- ng delight There was familiarity about the boise of her head eaneciaIIv when she bent it low. He somehow 1new that her hair was parted. al- hough the little white cap hid the parting from view. and the lovely | lands looked familiar too. Had he ever seen her before? He | 'ould not recollect. He did not even Inow her name. The doctor called | Ter nurse" and so David addressed Ter. Nurse" he said in a voice singular ? weak, "how mucn longs. must I I tay here?"
 She turned her lovely, startled eyes pon him and came to the bed. "A