The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1912-05-18

A Leap Year Plunge
By NELLIE CRAvEY GILMORE


matte to prevail over the deepest feel
| ings of her heart, he was quite sure
he could carry out his end Of the bar
gain to the bitter end After the
things she had said to him, it should
be as he had stated in his letter, he
had asked her to reconsider and mar
~ him for the last time.
Thus the time dragged on.
There came a time when young
DR.. Ogden forgot his own identity
for many weary weeks. Stricken
down with pneumonia, he raved in
delirium till the pretty. gentle little
nurse had to wipe her eyes more.
than once.
The crisis came; his life was de-
paired of. The little nurse boldly took
it upon herself to send line to Mar
gerry Seasons. She had gotten her
name from the sick mans rawlings;
she found her address in the tele-
phone book But alas! Margery was
/ thousand miles from New York. She
was down south, in Georgia, nursing
her mother back to health-and try
ing to patch up her own broken heart
with her art.
1t was a month later that. return
ing to her northern home, Mar
gerry found the letter addressed in
strange woman's handwriting. They
! had careIessly neglected to forward
| it, and as Margery's stupefed senses
| at last took in the full realization or
| the words, she gave a little husky cry
and-swooned. They brought her to
in a little while, and she again took
up the letter and slowly re-read the
contents:
/ Dear Miss Sessoms-If you can,
please come to the hospital right
away. I am writing you on my own
: responsibility. Poor young Dr. Og-
| den is dying, and he talks about you
all the time@some trouble between
! you-and I know you'd come If you
could hear him.
ASK for Miss Trueheart when
you get to the hospital Hastily,
LYDIA IT,
But Dwight Ogden did not die
after all He came slowly back to
health and strength-and a shat
tered life. He had been so near re-
lief from it all, and relief had not
come The same bleak future
stretched before him only, If posi-
BILE. it was bleaker. The little nurse
had told him of her letter to Mar
gerry = and Margery's failure to re-
spond. What was there left for him
to live for? Not even hope!
Margery's trembling hand sought
her throat! she felt as if she were
going to stifle. Her heart plunged
! downward thousand leagues
Dwight dead-and she had not been
able to go to him. He had died be-
] lieving her cruel and unforgiving
and relentless! When she could pull
herself together she arose and
dragged her aching limbs to the
telephone. She called up the hos
pital and asked for Miss Trueheart-
| Miss Trueheart was ION duty" and
she falteringly inquired of the girl
! at the phone when DR.. Ogden had
died.
"Oh," she gasped, 'not-not dead
Getting weIl-ah! Thank you so
much; I was misinformed. Goodby."
Margery never knew how she got out
the words-or how she got back to
her room The first thing of which
she was conscious was of sitting be-
fore her desk, pen in hand.
Dear Dwight
81 have just returned from Macon.
Ga. after a six weeks visit. On my
arrival at the house I found a letter
from the girl who nursed you, Miss
Trueheart, telling me of your serious
illness. It was written the day you
were expected to die and she asked
me to come You understand now
why 1 did not.
Dear, can you ever forgive me?
I have been narrow. prejudiced, mean.
But have suffered. You don't know
the price I've paid. Dwight these
wretched weeks and today when 1
thought 1 had lost you.
There's nothing can write. moth
ing I can say, to excuse myself And
I'm not going to try. After the way
acted and talked that last night, Of
course you could never ask me to
marry you again. But-but it is leap
year, dear, and I am going to ask you.
My people are getting ready to sail for
Paris in ten days. 1 can be ready
for the other-in a week. AS in the
old days.
''Margery."
"P. s.-After all. we are only sec