A LEAP YEAR PROPOSAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19931, 27 April 1928, Page 18

A LEAP YEAR PROPOSAL.

BY PETER PAN.

(A NEW ZEALAND STORY).

It was suffocatingly hot among the stillness of the tea-tree. Long, dry branches reached out to scratch the sunburned arms and legs of the man who was pushing his way through the undergrowth, and if he paused for breath the sandflies . attacked him fiercely. There was scarcely a twitter from the little bush creatures about him. Somewhere in the distance a cicada was shrilling, and once he caught the liquid notes of the tui; otherwise there was nothing to disturb the deep quiet of the bush. " If I could only find that surveyor s track that used to lead to the creek, I should know where I was," he remarked to an inquisitive fantail. " It's three vears since I was here. I know it can t be far away." , , He pushed on for another hundred ■vards and then he slopped with a half suppressed exclamation of surprise. Before him the bush thinned away and the gurgle of running water told him his goal was reached. But it was not the sight of the much desired water that aj-rested the man's attention. Under the spreading fronds of a tree fern ho had caught sight of a lovely, girlish face. Hair of yellow gold, unrestricted by pins, cascaded over softly rounded shoulders. There was a fleeting impression of cheeks as pink and creamy as apple blossom, and then the vision vanished. "Well, I'm dashed," said the man aloud. " A naiad bearing a strong resemblance to one Barbara Dean." Instantly the head reappeared and he found himself confronted by a pair of startled eyes as blue as the sea ho had just left. Their expression changed to one of recognition and then to something else which he could not read for they were quickly veiled beneath their long, straight lashes, lie stood for a mlnhte watching the lovely face he had not seen for all those endless months, r She had changed not at all, it seemed. The little head was still held as proudly with just a suggestion of intolerance in its carriage; the lips were just as red and provocative as of old, and yes—there were those dimples peeping out at him. So it is really you,.Barbara and not a forest fairy," he said at last. He was surprised at the even, matter-of-factness of his voice. To the girl it sounded almost cold- " You are about the last person I expected to see, Denis," she said, and' the man thrilled at the sound of that lowpitched, musical voice again. " Didn't you know that we are living hero now ?" " Living.here. On Kawau ? Is there a party of you, or are you alone with your husband ?" "My husband ?" Barbara laughed shortly. "I am not married. I broke it off with Dick long ago. It's nearly a year since I came down here to look after Bill—-my brother, you know. He has something the matter with his eyes, and the, doctor says he is not to work in an office any more. We bring on early tomatoes and gooseberries and things," she ended rather vaguely. Denis' steady gaze was somewhat disconcerting. " How long after I werrt Smith did you break with Dick ?" he asked.. . . . . t " I really don't remember —a month or two I tirink," she replied. " Won't you .come and see the camp ? If you walk tip the .creek a few yards you will see some stepping stones. Be careful with the middle, one, it is ' rather wobbly." After crossing the stream, Denis suddenly found himsjlf brought up against a fence of tea-tree. There was a low laugh, and Barbara's face looked over the top again. " What do you think of- pur bathroom ?" she asked, 1 and cejnoved , bodily a. small portion of the fence, leaving a gap large enough to effect an "eht'rance. "This is our patent portable door, made and designed by yours truly. Bili made the framework for the fence with boughs of tea-tree, and I did the filling in with the green branches." The wall was semicircular and enclosed a space about a deep, clear pool in the cre/;k. " Look, we lined *il with stones and then with shingle' from'the'beach; so it is never, muddy," the girl explained. Denis was watching her with a puzzled expression in his grey eves. This wasn't the Barbara who used to drive her own car, who insisted on. a. new frock for each day at Ellerslie, and who refused to do any housework if the maid left. Often he had thought of her during the time they had been apart, but it was always as the social butterfly—in a ballroom, at a bridge tablfe or on the tennis court. » Never in his wiJdest- dreams had he imagined that he would ever listen to her thus'dilating upon the jovs of life in the open. Her blue bathing costume disclosed the tan of her once white arms and neck, and he could see blisters on the hands that she used to keep beautifully manicured. " I have just bisen having a fresh water dip after mv morning swim," she was saying. " Bill is getting breakfast. You must' come along and have some." She led the way down the surveyor's track that Denis had been searching for. "I sailed over from Waiwera in my little eighteen-footer yesterday evening and anchored on the other side of the island," he told her. " This morning I found that I was short of fresh water and came ashore hoping to find the creek again." "You remembered when we were here in the Abbott's yacht then ?" Barbara asked quickly. "My chief recollection is of coming Ashore to pick blackberries and getting very scratched in the attempt." " I remember getting a new frock all stained with them," Barbara said, but neither of them was thinking of the blackberries. They were recalling how in the evening they had sat on the beach and -watched the moon rise over the hill at the back of the island. It was an evening that Denis had always treasured in his memory. Barbara had been in one of her most tractable moods, and he had all but extracted a definite promise from her that she would marry him at the end of the year. " Only you must hurry uo and make some money so that we can live in town. I couldn't stay in the country for long." she had said. Tho tiext day an' Englishman, Dick Elliot, had joined their party / and, rightly or wrongly, Denis had conceived a fierce jealousy of him. Barbara had always had a weakness for new faces, *md Dick was different from the other men she knew. He had, a knack of sayring amusing things in a quietly serious *jvay that was most entertaining. He was also a perfect dancer. It was that which ■"insed the final rupture between the ";wo. They had anchored at Kawau ' for several days and the party had been ashore every night to dance. On each occasion Barbara had danced more than half the evening with Dick. On tb« •third night, Denis booker! a dance with her and when it came round he Raid : " Let's sit it out. I want to talk to vou." He led the way to a. rustic seat mnder a pohutukawa anrl plunged headlong into his subject. " Barbara, we shall have to come fo son.e sort of understanding right awav." he began in just the sort of tone that caused Barbara to determine that she should be understood as little as possible. *" Are you going to marrv me or not ?" V Certainly not if vou intend to adopt that bnllving tone." " grandmother! Whv do voti ■dance all-the evening with tbat fellow when you are encased to me ?" " 1 am not engaged to vou and could not consider the possibility so long as you take-op that absurdly jealous attitude." Denis said rather quietlv : , " I shan't ask you again. Barbara. Tf you change your mind you can come and ask me." - " You'll have to wait a long while for •that, Denis. Sorrv f must "o, I have this dance with Dick." She walked across the lawn, ber <ro!den head uliglitly mo r e nroudlv than usual. The next day Penis cainrh't the steamer hack to town. Soon afterwards Barbara heard that, he had hij; farm and •Tv!* land in i*>e Wairarana district, -hat wfts after he bed seen in the raners jy* of her engagement to

(COPYRIGHT.)

Denis came out of his reverie with a start. They had emerged upon a clearing under a giant purin. Over an open tire a billy was boiling and a savoury odour was coming from the frying pan. The cook, a bronzed young man in shirt sleeves, looked up as they approached. ' Bill, you remember Denis Meredith, don't you'! He has just dropped in for breakfast, so you had better do a few more fritters." She disappeared into one of the tents that were pitched nearby while the men shook hands. Denis looked round him appreciatively.

" You couldn't have, found a more beautiful site for your camp. It's ideal." It was early January but an old pohutukawa that leaned protectively over one of the tents Was still ablaze with its glorious crimson flower. Tea tree had largely given away to ferns and native trees which almost surrounded the little camp. The surveyor's track continued on another hundred yards or so, winding its way among nikaus and karakas, till it emerged upon a sandy beach. Through the green Denis could see water, blue and sparkling in the morning sunshine. "Not a bad little spot, is it?" Bill said trying to keep the pride out of his voice.

" Don't you ever get lonely ?" " There "is no time for that. In the week ends we often have visitors and twice a week we take the launch to Waiwera for provisions. It was a surprise to see you. I had no idea that you were in these parts again." " My old place has come back on my hands. I've been able to sell my run near Waipukurau, so 1 am back where I was a couple of years ago." " I am glad you haven't lost any time in getting a boat. We may see quite a lot of you during the summer." Denis shook his head. " I oon't think so. I had no idea you were both living here or I should never have come. Of course you remember about that old affair with Barbara and how it came to a sudden end ? I expect it is rather a nuisance for her mv being here." " Not at all. She always thought far more oi you than that English chap. I could never understand why she let you go like that." ' " It was largely my fault, I suppose. I was jealous of Elliot and finally said that I would never marry her until she asked me herself." " That makes it a little difficult." Bill poured water into the teapot with an abstracted air. " Would it be injudicious to inquire if your feelings for her have changed at all ?" "I shall always love her," Denis answered simply. He looked up to bnd that Barbara had reappeared. She had changed into a sleeveless frock of tawny yellow that brought out the lights in her shining hair now coiled over her ears. " Aren't those pipi fritters ready yet. Bill ? I'm ravenous and I'm sure Denis is too." She helned her brother carry the food to the other side of the puriri where a blue patterned cloth was set with cups and saucers. " We alwavs have our meals out here unless rain drives us into the tent." " What do you do in the winter?" the visitor asked. "It is so mild here, we hardly have any cold weather, but for three or four months last year we slept and had our meals —except lunches —on the launch. But before next winter Bill is going to have a bungalow built. He is getting married in a few month's time. Denis offered congratulations and inquired -who the bride was. " Ell,i Rees. She is the sweetest thing and just adores this back-to-Nature tence. I'm sure she will bo happy here. Barbara answered the unspoken question in Denis' eyes. "I shall return to the bosom of my family once more and attempt to remember my table manners and how to wear stockings again. Denis thought he detected a shade of wistftilness in her, tone in spite of the lightness of her speech. " I believe you are just as fond of the country now as yon used to be of the town." he challenged her. ."Possiblv. One's tastes change as one gets older," she proclaimed with all the wisdom of twenty-one. After the dishes had been washed Denis spoke of returning to his boat, but his host would not hear of it. "We don't have visitors every day. You must stop to lunch." Dennis looked at Barbara thoughtfully, but the blue eyes were smiling an invitation. " Come and see how a market garden is run." Denis went. Later he helped Bill chop wood for the fire, while Barbara made a pie for lunch, cooking it in the camp oven. Denis recalled that, in the old days, she had always given as an excuse for not being able'to cook that it was " A messy business and made one so bad tempered." They all went swimming after lunch, and somehow the shadows were already lengthening before Denis so much as thought of returning. But they would not allow him to go. " You miist stay and listen to the radio concert at eight o'clock," Barbara said. " You can spend the night he:re. There is a spare stretcher in Bill's tent." Denis staved. The concert over, Bill announced his intention of going to bed. The other two sat very still for a while, drinking in the beauty of the night, and! listening to the noises of the bush. The firelight cast flickering shadows on tree and ground; the earthy, indefinable odour of the bush came to their nostrils. Sometimes, far up in the puriri, a leaf would fall and they could trace its flight as it dropped, rustling from bough to bough, until it fluttered to their feet. Somewhere a morepork was calling plaintively fo its mate; nearer at hand they could hear an oppossum giving its funny, throatv, little crv. Barbara broke a long silence. " It seems terribly near to Bill's wedding. I hate the 'idea of leaving this place." Denis, who was following ai train of thought of his oWn, merely made assenting noises, but her next remark startled him out of his preoccupation.

" Bill says that now I've got so domesticated—cooking, and all that—it is a waste not to get married myself. I told him that there wasn't much chance of getting off down here, but, sueing that it was Leap Year, I would propose to the next man who came along. What about it, Denis?" In the firelight it seemed that her eyes were teasing him as of old. Denis bit the end of his cigarette holder till it nearly cracked, but his voice sounded almost impersonal when he spoke. " I suppose this is a snare to trap the unwary male into buying you a pair of silk stockings?" " That is the penalty if yon refuse, but I rather thought you might have said ves." , . Denis looked at her again. Would he never know if she was serious ? " I don't think you quite finished your proposal. One generally mentions one s feelings on these occasions. It's a detail of course, but I believe it's the usual thing.." He held his breath, waiting for her answer. It came unexpectedly. "You wretch, Denis! I adore you—but I hate vou for making me say it first—darling!" The end of her remark was a trifle muffled. It is rather difficult to speak when two muscular arms are crushing the breath out of one and two insistent lips are covering one's own. " You were taking a bit of a risk when you proposed, weren't yon. dear?" Deniß asked, after a pause. " Supposing I had changed ?" , "No risk at all You reallv should break yourself of the habit of discussing a third person when the said person is within earshot." " Meanincr, I suppose, that yon overheard what I said to Bill this morning ?" " Right first time." "So you cheated, after all. I might have known you would get tho best of me in the end." " All's fair in love." she murmured, very close to his ear. j