The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-11-06

[London Society,"
A Romance of the Prince OF
Wales's Garden-Party.


spectacle worth remembering.
Beauty, rank, fashion were before her
eyes; the fairest of women, the most diStin-
guished of men, the noblest in the land were
all grouped before her on historic ground.
mot step we take said Sir Hubert,
''but has been trodden before by those who
made England famous. Eyes long closed
have looked at these magnificent hedges;
lips that here will never open again have
criticized those statues scarce a tree but has
its story"
.'My dear COUSIN" interposed Mrs. Dali
wood "let us live few hours in the pres
ent. 1 want Susan to see every thing and
person she can see. Upon the like we shall
probably never look again. We are making
history at this moment, just as truly as your
dead and gone celebrities made it long ago.
Ii you prefer contemplating the mountain
ash you were speaking of as we drove along,
to looking at the Queen, the Shar, and this
brilliant company, go and find it, if it be
still in existence, yall means; but leave ST.
san with me-"
..'Iiis last look on that mountain-ash was
his last look on Nature, quoted the bar
onet, referring to Fox.
Eyes; and we have now such an opportu-
nifty as may never again present itself OF
looking on Art retorted Mrs. Dallword.
at is, as Susan says, like scene in fairy
ldliu. DSHOlu OlI ShGCt anu IONOly L lihNCoo.
see how Pleasantly the Prince is smiling!
Behold the Shar! 1t is pity the elephant
they had in 1923 is not present, wandering
up and down, eh, HubertF
1.-The Shar and his retinue give quite a
sufficient air of 'Asiatic pageantry' to the
entertainment" answered her relative; "but
still the elephant would have been an agree
able addition"
''Do you see the rabbits scudding across
the grass, away in that hollow, papa?' asked
Miss Yarrel.
do you see the group in that tent, young
lady?" asked Mrs. Dallwood. pray remem-
Der the trouble have taken in your behalf,
and attend to nothing but the wonderful as
semblage of which it is your extraordinary
privilege to form part"
The young lady laughed.
81 am not ungrateful, indeed" she said :;
shut think the scenery aud accessories go
to make up the whole Of this marvellous
play. / fancy must be dreaming. When
/ look back and remember Bersey Vicarage,
/ am sure it cannot be |. No transformation
scene was ever so extraordinary as this
change Ahp'
"What is it, Susan?'
"Only that poor gentleman"
(Which poor gentleman? o, / see. Now
what can induce person so horribly dlshg-
ured to venture among such a company as
this?''
Chow is he disfgured, Therese?" inquired
the baronet, interested.
~ can hardly say. l have only caught a
glimpse of his face twice; once when he rev.
erenty lifted the hem of Susan's cloak,
which the naughty puss was carrying SO
carelessly that it swept the ground; and
again when he put some one aside who was
blocking up our way out of Covent Garden.
He has a chivalrous manner, but he ought
to go yelled, like the Prophet of Khoristan. y
They were at Chiswick, at the garden-par-
ty given by the Prince of Wales in honor of
the Shar 1t was most brilliant company,
and no doubt others besides Mrs. Dallwood
had marvelled to see among that gay throng
q man so stricken that he hurried away
from the surprised glances that met him,
and plunged into the lonelier walks leading
through the wilderness, where he encoun-
tered but few of his species, and where the
heavy foliage threw a welcome shade across
his path.
'Where has your papa gone?'' wondered
Mrs. Dallwood when the evening was draw
ing on.
''To find an old gardener or laborer, or
some one who has worked here for more
than forty years." answered Susan. HE
wants to know if he remembers Fox and
Canning"
Good graciousp' cried Mrs. Dallwood,
turning to Mr.. Forrest, who had joined her
party, ''Sir Hubert is as bad as Miss Blim-
Der; he cares for nothing which has not
been dead and buried
''He told me-" remarked Mr. Forrest. she
wanted to have quiet look at the house
Lord Hervey said was too small to inhabit
and too large to hang to ones watch CHS
wick is more truly classic ground to him
than you can well imagine. He is in the
spirit to-day, not with present Royalty or
Eastern magnifcence, but with Horace Wal
pole, and Evelyn, and Pope, and Gay, and
Lady Holland, and all the rest of the people
who have made Chiswick famous"
"But we are making it famous, too"
said Mrs. Dallwood, ''and why should he
neglect usH'
Susan laughed, and yet there was slight
shadow across her face. She knew very well
the point at which Mrs. Dallwood was aim
ing. She understood perfectly she desired
Mr. Forrest should have another opportunity
of pleading his cause and-well-why not?
Why should she still refuse to please him
and all her friends?
She liked him, she esteemed him. He
was aware her girlhood had been so passed
as to render her Indifferent to the follies and
fashions and pleasures of the world; and he
prOfessed himself quite ready to adapt his
tastes to hers.
lie would accept her views that great
wealth involved great responsibilities. He
was more than willing that she, an almost
dowerless maiden, should teach hin-Whose
riches dated only from the success of his
own father at the Australian diggings, and
the prudent investments of the proceeds OF
those diggings by his grandfather, a rich
sea-captain resident at Southbay--how to
spend his income to the welfare OF man and
the glory of God; and She
III she could only have schooled herself to
forget the years and years during which she
loved the lover who had given her up; if she
could only have regarded as dead and gone
the story of those years, their cherished as
sociations, the glamour that seemed to hang
around them!
the lovely and noble in the land-any pleas
anter to her than the impromptu dances up
at the Hall, the croquet on the lawn, the
lingering walk home by moonlight, the
CHEEKY laughter of the young happy guests?
No. She knew the life she would best have
liked; but if God had appointed her life diff
ferently, should she murmur?
As great lady could she not confer hap
piness upon many? And, after all, as her
father had long taught her, was it not better
to consider others than herself.
She had loved and she had lost-yea, tru-
ly; but could she not still do her duty to the
man who loved her? She would try. In so
many words she did not tell him this during
the minutes seized when Mrs. Dallwood
chose to find amusement and occupation
elsewhere; but she asked time to think over
his proposal.
81 like you 50 much, Mr.. Forrest" she
said frankly, 'that / could not do you
great wrong must feel quite sure of my
self before promise to be all that you ask
1t was not much. perhaps; but from her
Mr.. Forrest understood the words meant a
great deal. He knew perfectly well there
was some old love affair that had hitherto
stood between him and success, and he COM
pretended the struggle it must cost nature
like hers to overcome an affection evidently
the growth of years.
1t was cltar to him she cared for no one
in the circle to which she had been trans
planted; whatever the story, its commence
ment could only be read in the annals Of
her simple and innocent girlhood. There
was no page of her life>open now which con-
tanned word of that fair dream.
Some day, perhaps, she would tell him
about it-how the love sstruck root, how it
grew, how it wthered; but if she never
spoke of that passage in the April OF her
life, he felt sure he should be satisfied; GER
tain she would not give her hand till her
heart could utter the solemn VOWS truly;