The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-04-03
THE EVENING STORY
ALeap Year Plunge.
(By Nellie Cravey Gillmore.)

them petulantly with a very mos
scrap of cambria and lifted her small
determined chin with a sudden acces
sion of pride. Her mind was maze
up; she had shed her last tear-tol
him. And in order to convince herseH
that she meant what she said. she
opened Dwight Ogden's voluminous
letter and read it through to the very
end without so much as the culver OF
an eyelash. Her lips frightened as she
same to the final paragraph:
st am sure the day will come when
you will regret your obstinate course
You have vowed a thousand times that
you loved me-not alone with your
lips, but with your eyes-wh1ch Is
both understand fully that there can
never be any other man or any other
woman, in just the same way. Our
| love was a sacred thing. 1t stands in
a place by itself, high above the every
day counterfeit that people feed them
selves-and foof-themselves on.
We've proved it, haven't we? | am
saying all this to you in self Just1flca-
| ton: in justice to yourself. In after
years it will be something to look
| back upon-as an OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
my silly conscience begin to prod me
for what I've never, Intentionally
| done. But, if course, after your mer-
CHESS words of Tuesday night. 1t would
| be Observation-Disclosures of me-to
reopen the subject to you nave
/ been given to understand. And as
L
you with my feelings. I have asked
you to marry me for the last time"
Margery folded the letter and placed
it calmly in the envelope. Then she
| leaned forward in her chair and coolly
laid it on the bed of pink and gray
Goals smoldering in the CRATE. She
watched it in Spartan silence as the
flame licked up and gathered 1t
hungrily beneath its yellow tongue.
When the last bit of charred paper had
hi Oh re-
the Goals with an elaborate display of
unconcern and weakly trilling a bar
from an old opera, quilted the room
and ran upstairs to her den. Her lips
and her cheeks were very white Is she
sat down before her easel. The unf1n-
ished study-a plate of June apples
was before her. She worked absorb
ingly for two solid hours; then with
sigh she laid down her brushes and
threw back her head to survey the re-
suit She laughed Historically. The
fruit was perfect in proportion, charm
ingly arranged; the leaves were abso-
lutely Hfelike and exquisite. But the
apples We're purple!
Dwight ogden took up the receiver
with eager fingers. All day he had
waited in a fever of hope and fear to
hear Margery's voice. But blank dis
appointment met him. AS before-a
dozen times, perhaps-it was only a
found himself wishing savagely that
they were all dead-or well.
But the days came and went and
drifted into weeks, and there was no
variation to the story. His disappoint-
ment turned into despair. She had
then, meant what she said-they could
never be more than friends, just be-
cause they happened to be cousins!
Well, if she still persisted in her mulish
course, he could do likewise. If she was
20 cit
prejudiced views C a fanatic to prevail
over the deepest feelings of her heart.
he was quite sure he could carry out
his end of the bargain 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
marry him for the last time.
Thus the time dragged on.
There came a time when young DR..
Ogden forgot his own identity for many
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 despair
ed of. The little nurse bodily took 1t
upon herself to send line to Margery
Seasons. She had gotten her name
from the sick mans rawlings; she found
her address in the telephone book. But
alasi Margery was a thousand miles
from New York She was down south, i'll
Georgia, nursing her mother back to !
health-and trying to patch up her |
own broken heart with her art
1t was a month later that, return
ing to her northern home, that Mar |
gerry found the letter addressed in a |
strange woman's handwriting. They
had carelessiy neglected to forward r. |
and as Margery's stupefied senses at |
last took in the fl;ll realization OF the |
words, she gave a little husky cry and |
They brought her to IN |
q little while, and she again took up |
the letter and slowly reread the con- |
tents:
Dear Miss Sessoms-If you can,
please come to the hospital right away. |
[ am writing you on my own RESPONSE
bility. Poor yourg DR.. Ogden is dy-
ing and he talks about you all the |
time-some trouble between you-and |
1 know you'd come if you could hear
him.
ASK for Miss Trueheart when you
get to the hospital. Hastily,
LYDIA T."
But Dwight Ogden did not die after
ALL He came slowly back to health
and streugth-and a shattered life. He
had been so near relief from it all |
and relief had not come. The same
bleak future stretched before him only,
if possible, it was bleaker. The little
nurse had told him of her letter to L
Margery's failure to re i
spond. What was there left for him
to live for? Not even hopei
Margery's trembling hand sought
her throat; she fell if she were 60