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Show 3 TI12 Nurse's ErrGr Ey EDGAR T. MONFORT JOE POWERS' whole life would have bc-cu changed had he only realized that women were wild about him. Absolutely wild, I say. They liked his bi;i awkwardness, his sort of clumsy helplessness, hla honest blue eyes. And although he was such a virile, masculine type there was something almost pathetic and wistful about him, too. It made Barbara Martin want to put her arms Ground him comfortingly, but she blushed furiously nt the thought and glanced ! guiltily in his direction as she sat demurely beside him In front of the tiny open grate fire at her home. She was as petite and dark as he was : huge and fair; a pleasing contrast were these two together; the sight made old folks feel sentimental and i think back over their own love affairs with geutly reminiscent sighs. Joe tried not to go to see Barbara. He always felt and really was so miserably mis-erably tongue-tied In her presence; yet there was something about her that drew him like a magnet and It was feverish, wretched bliss Just to sit beside her and steal occasional glances at the pink flush In her cheek and the parted red lips and the black curly bob that flirted so recklessly with him and made him. long to put out a huge hand and touch Just one little curL He could do It so gently that she would scarcely realize what was happening, he knew he could. If only he dare. Their conversation on these visits betrayed little of their real feelings. "Did you work pretty hard today?" This from Joe. "Yes, pretty hard. -End of the month ; had a lot o' bills to get out Did you?" "Yes, I had sort of a bad day. Had to fire a couple o' men and I hated to, 'count o' their wives and children. It's hard work beln' a foreman." "I guess it Is." Silence. More silence. Joe struggled frantically to think of something to say but not one single Idea could he coax Into his mind. After several weeks of this he began be-gan to show the strain. He saw Barbara Bar-bara almost every evening and loved her more each time, but It was ridiculous ridicu-lous to think about proposing to her. In the sul conflict he lost quite a bit of weight; he began to feel 111, In fact. Then one day at the plant he was suddenly stricken the company doctor said he had acute appendicitis and ordered him at once to the hospital. hos-pital. To say that Joe was frightened fright-ened simply does cot describe It ; he was paralyzed. He had never been In a hospital and he feared that he was going to die. He became absolutely abso-lutely certain of It when he felt himself him-self being rushed along the street In I the ambulance with Its sinister wall-. wall-. Ing siren. Then he thought of Barbara. Before Be-fore they operated he would write to her and tell her how much he loved j her, with Instructions to deliver the letter after his death. He got a strange satisfaction out of this and at the hospital refused to let the nurses start their preparations until he had i composed his letter. "My own dearest sweetheart," he 1 wrote. "When you read this I shall , be dead, but I wanted you to know J that I have loved you ever since the i first day I met yon, and I had hoped J some day to ask you to marry me. ( You're the sweetest little girl I've ever known and you Just made this ' lonesome old city seem like another j j world to me. With deepest love. Joe." j I He was surprised and pleased, too, ! by his emotional outburst He slipped j It Inside an envelope and addressed It Then he put It In another envel- J ope and marked It "Please mall at once." Then he crawled out of bed J and put it In his coat pocket. They i would be sure to go through his J things after his death and find tt 4 there and mall It. If he didn't die he J could retrieve It and destroy It Fine! 4 The next two days were rather J vague to Joe. He had sensations of J sinking and rising, of darkness and day, but on the third day he felt Im- i measurably better. It was then that he heard a stern professional voice J In the hall saying, "He Isn't dead. I tell you Til show him to you." The J door opened and like the flight of I bird Barbara with a little frenzied cry J had crossed the room and had thrown 4 herself on the bed, was kissing him j frantically, her soft arms around bis f neck. ; J "Oh, Joe, oh, Joe, when I got your J letter and thought you were dead," she shuddered, hiding her head on J his shoulder. j j "Who mailed that letter?" said Joe J suddenly. a "Oh, my Lord, I don't guess ni get 2 my cap now," said a white-faced pro J batloner at the foot of the bed. "But 2 I was going through your pockets to J get your valuables and send them to 2 the office like we always do and 1 came across the letter and m-malled 2 It that night" "It's all right," 6oothed Joe, trying j 2 to hide the Joy that rang in his rolci f at the apparent calamity. "Ton rut j J along and don't worry any more." "Oh, thank you for not reportlm 2 me," smiled the little nurse hurryln; J lut of the room. And now that I he Ice was broker J Joe shed his timidity like a cloal- 2 and found that It was easy to draw J his little Barbara to biro and kiss f bar and kiss her and klsi her. j f Cojjrrilu. I 4 |
