Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1930-05-02
HER HEART
NOT BROKEN
BUT 1T WAS /;
LOST
sS1SSlSS1SS1S5SS1S
(@ by d. J. walsh.l

NV YHEN Veronica Long looked
N up and saw Doctor Byfeld
w coming along the hospital
corridor she knew instinc-
lively that he was about to ask her
to perform some unusual duty. She
was not prepared, though, for the ex-
treme oddly Of the commission he i'm
posed upon her.
"Mr. Leighton will send his car for
you this afternoon" he told her.
you're to go right to the young mans
room as soon as you arrive. He will
probably be mapping, but when he stirs
you're to begin at once trying to pull
him out Of himself. You're to pose as
a distant relative who has arrived for
a visit unannounced. Mind-no uni
form-only your prettiest and most
becoming frocks. No hint Of hospitals
or medicines. You're to tease him, tan
talize him, boss him-anything to
arouse the spark know must be left
in that otherwise healthy makeup.
He's in bad shape. Sneaked of and
got into the war when he was a mere
infant and he has never recovered
from his terrible experiences overseas.
I know you can help him. His family
are desperate over his failure to re-
spond to any Of their efforts"
"Why pick on me, Doctor Byfield?"
Because you're the only nurse on
my staff that I'd trust to 60 there and
not lose her head. Bob Leighton is a
handsome devil and don't want the
heart of the best nurse I've got brok-
en-. Are you sufficiently forewarned"
Amply. I'll be good and report ev-l
cry day or two" ~
Ronnie Long was strangely conf
dent that she knew exactly how to
handle Bob Leighton's case. She had
been overseas herself and was not al,
together unfamiliar with cases of
Americas finest whom the tragedies
Of the World war had turned from
men into seemingly immovable, stony
hearted images.
Robert Leighton, ST., greeted her
very cordially and asked her II she
understood the terms Of their con-
tract When she answered Affirmative
ly he asked hey to lose no time going
to the young mans quarters.
When she opened the door softly
she found herself in a large, pleasant
room, beautifully furnished. One
whole side Of 1t was screened and
open to view of the mountains.
Stretched out asleep on a long loung-
ing chair lay the man whom she
knew must be her patient"
She sat down across from him and
little way off, opening her book to
read, planning to begin operations by
startling her patient with her pres
ence when he awakened. Losing her.
self in the first interesting pages Of
the novel, she finally looked up quick
ly to be startled herself. Bob Leigh
ton was looking at her as though he
had been at 1t for hours, with a pair
of soft brown eyes, weary In spite of
the amusement In them.
He spoke first. "Are you real or
make-believew
you'll find I'm very real" she an
swered with a little chuckle. I'm
Veronica Long. You didn't know you
possessed a Far Western cousin with
nerve enough to wish herself on you
for a visit without being invited, did
your
LET me see-I believe I have heard
such person mentioned, but I didn't
know she hailed from the West"
Ronnie decided that she had made
an suspicious beginning. Already she
had aroused him to the point of feign-
ing knowledge of her instead Of stub
bornly refusing to talk to her, as
Doctor Byfeld had warned her he
might do. That night Bob decided to
try dining with the family and got by
with only one short lapse into one Of
his deadly apathetic spells.
AS days heightened into weeks the
process of the treatment she was US.
ing gave Nurse Long some question.
She leased Bob from his dark moods
of dependency; invelgled him into
doing things he utterly refused to do
at first; she even angered him occa-
sionally.
The black, dangerous moods passed
slowly. She felt that she was winning,
but the state of her own heart and
mind, as her. patient grew TO be more
and more himself, worried her con.
siderably.
''Idiot" she told her image as she
was comblng her hair one night be-
fore retiring. Here you are doing ex-
actly what Doctor Byfleld warned you
against. You're losing your heart to q
man who is so far above you socially
that he won't stop to dust his shoes
on you when he learns the truth"
1t had been arranged that Ronnle
was to accompany Bob on a fishing
trip in the Maine woods as a climax
to the good work she had been doing,
but she had made up her mind that
she simply could not carry It through.
She spoke to Mr.. leighton about It
and In spite Of his earnest pleading,
she said she was determined to return
at once to the hospital. Then she
went to Bobs room to say gOod-by and
collect few OF her minor belong.
ings.
"What's dolngT he asked casually,
watching her nlt about the room. "You
net IA though we were starting for
49, M today Instead OF next week."
n"i going to Maine" she be-