Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1883-11-22
CHAPTER L.

It was nne afternoon IN the middle
Of May. The sun shone brightly into a
light, large, gayly furnished room. evil
IDENTITY the boudOir or private sitting
room of woman of means, if not of
very cultivated taste Cultivation, re-
fnement, educated taste, were, indeed,
most conspicuous by their absence
from all the arrangements of this room.
Everything in it looked as if it had cost
a good deal of money, but there was
everywhere an odd mixture of the vul-
gar and elegant-incongruities which
here and there almost attained the rel
ative heights of the sublime and the
ridiculous. There was velvet car
pet, light in its general effect, brilliant
and varied of hue; it had a dazzling
blue ground. adorned with medallions
of drab, more like tea-trays than any
of every hue, aud of species both
known and unknown to scientific class
ification. 1t was a carpet which would
have caused a latter-day votary of blue
and white china and neutral tints to
tear his hair and wall aloud. 1t was
the kind of carpet which challenged
the beholder to ignore it if he could,
with a triumphant consciousness that
he could not. High artistic authorities
inform us that the carpet should be the
least striking thing in a room. In this
case, it was the most striking one. Pos
sibly that was one reason why its own
er had chosen it. She was a person
who did not love the beauty of retiring
hess in any shape or form. This was
hbundantly testified, not only by the
carpet already mentioned, but by all
the rest of the furniture of the room.
The hues were, in all cases where it
was possible, lively, and, so that mo-
notony might not pail, they Were va
ried Colors and shapes and styles were
massed together III bold and daring
way which had at least the merit of
defiant originality about tan original
ity which deted conventional ideas of
fitness.
One of the principal features in this
Room was the profusion of tables, little
and big, which pervaded it. just
where the uninitiated visitor might rea-
sonably have expected to find free and
open passage to the door, or the win
dow. or the piano, there, without fail,
would be planted some rickety, spindle
legged structure, covered with speci-
mems of the latest and most grotesque
China monster or Partisan gimcrack.
(They were bought by the lady of the
house as articles of rertu: it was her
unruly son Tom, and his no less unruly
ally, Margaret Darlington, who persist
ed in calling them gimcracks.) They
were great nuisance to all her friends
and ran away with a great deal of her
money, and were universally voted
q bore; therefore, she chung to them
with fondness which only increased as
the disfavor of others augmented.
She, Mrs. Robert Pierce, was, at this
momens of this bright afternoon, alone
in the room-a stout. fair, matronly
woman, young still, and only promising
to be enormous. and unwieldy in figure
some time. She was dressed in kind
of tea gown of some flowing white stuff, |
a Ia Hnteau, which, with its frills and
ribbons of blue, suited her. Her fair
face wore a somewhat high color, and
she threw herself back ins a lounging
chair, and closed her eyes, signing
YEARLY. and clasping her hands upon
her knee.
"Oh." she murnmred. haf aloud. ''is |