Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-03-30
HhGSkelGtOl OfQueGn AInG'S GatG.


would say, ''that are so entirely livable
in;' and so she seemed to find it. for she
was there all the year round, except in
August and September, when her address
was "AbergOwrie, n. g."
Few peODle~knew where AbergOwrie
was, and Mrs. Dalmayne gave them no
chance Of finding out, for none of her
large circle of London friends, her salon
as she called it, were ever invited to the
Dalmayne ancestral home. 1t was sup
posed to be somewhere on the border, for
on one occasion Mrs. Dalmayne had been
heard to say, With that playful smile and
little sigh with which she always spoke of
AbergOwrie, eve Dalmaynes were always
sad Border thieves 1t was odd that
Mrs. Dalmayne always sighed when Alb
ergOwrie was mentioned. An unintiated
guest once inadvertently remarked this
popularity to Miss Bunderby, the entdRt
of the Dalmayne mdtSOn, and pOetess of
unutterable intensity to boot, and was
promptly crushed
mo wonder she sighs," growled the
pOetess, looking like a scOrnful thunder
cloud, and said no more. But the poor
guest wondered on, nevertheless, and so
did many others, but in vain. Dear old
AbergOWrie'-(e everything and almost
everybody was ''dear' with Mrs. Dali
mayne was useful weapon in the bonn
bardment of that stately citadel, Society,
without whose sacred portals, but within
the shadow of whose stately walls, Mrs.
Dalmayne untOwardly remained. Once
the weapon was parted, nay, very nearly
broken, when, at the first October recep-
ton, the AbergOwrie card, sigh and all,
having been played with the usual effect
Ona sYmpathiZing audience, a bluff, hearty
visitor arrived, and in a stentOrian voice
reminded Mrs. Dalmayne of that delight
full day. he had had with her and her
charming daughters at Margate last
month. There was an dgOniZed hush.
Mrs. Dalmayne, alone calm, gazed at her
assailant with an amused mile.
'Oh, that madcap freak of mine and the
girls was one of the brightest spots ina
sigh and slight pause-a not too bright
holiday. You know turning toward her
other visitors, chow intensely earnest SIR
SeybOre Wright is in the cause of progress
and science. He and ! talk by the hour.
He calls me his aptest pupil. Well, we
were up at sigh dear Old .Abergowrie
I and the girls-alOne, for we like, for
two months in the year, TO be alone among
our own people. (GwendOline, dear, you
must show the Illuminating address our
dear tenants presented to us at the sta
tion.) Well, we were alone, as l said.
when a telegram arrived from dear Sir
Seybore dated-ah, how amused we were
-Margate. "COme atOnce. Great scheme.
Advice wanted" We did not know what
to do; we did not know what the scheme
was. l left it to the girls. Gwendoline,
who at dear AbergOwrie lives but for the
poor, wished, of course, to remain at her
duty. Ermyntrude, who was writing that
article in the Nineteenth Century this
month"; dare say you have seen it-'En-
titles and NOnentities,' and who only eX-
lists for art and science, urged us sadly,
and we went. Dear Sir SeybOre's plan
was for constructing in mid-channel a
submarine cOnvalescent home for diseases
of the chest, in direct communication
with the Channel Tunnel, on, believe,
the Overlook system. Charming talks we
had over the plan upon the jetty. We
staid there two days to rest, and then re-
turned to- sigh dear Abergowrie.
Now, may | give YOU some tea, Sir Hen
ry?"
The bluff visitor was useful acquaint-
ance, and hence his presence at Mrs. Dali
mayne's receptions. These festivities
were generally held on Saturday after
Moons. The afternoon was a convenient
! time. An actor or two could be got, who
served as a bait to more illustrious Yisi-
tors. Professionals of every kind would
90 to Mrs. Delmayne's in the afternoon
and show off their various accomplish
ments in the hope of finding wealthy pat
rOns. Mrs. Dalmayne was undoubtedly
in the sO-called artistic set, but that did
not satisfy her ambition. Art was all
very well as a stepping-stone to Society.
Those within the magic circle were at
tracted by Mrs. Dalmayne's artistic teas.
| They came IN the afternoon, when they
would not have taken the trouble to do so
in the evening. They came, it is true.
They drank Mrs. Dalmayne's weak as
thetic tea in small handleless cups. They
laughed and talked to the actors and art
lists. They vehemently applauded the
singing and Rotations; but they did not
ask Mrs. Dalmayne to their parties in re-
turn, and the only glimpse she got of the
coveted land was the distant view at 4
semi-public Foreign Office crush once or
twice year. Still Mrs. Dalmayne was
not discouraged. In spite Of these disap-
pOintments her progress was satisfactory.
Several politicians, caught by the artistic
trap, were gradually beginning to look
upon the ''dear old rOOf-tree" as a conve-
nlent meeting-place wherein to discuss
their party programme. They could hardly
be called party, it is true, being the adj
herents of the member who brought in the
Deceased Grandfather's Wife's bill. But
still, who knew but that what began with
two members might not end in both
HOuses-the sold rOOf-tree' salon in
reality, and Mrs. Dalmayne its queen!
Mrs. DalmaYne's two daughters, Gwen
in the upward family flight. Well edu-
Gated, accomplished and gOOd-loOking,
they were all the most ambitious mother
could have wished-unless perhaps that
they were Il few years younger. Ermyn-
trude, the eldest, was any age, no one
quite knew what. She looked about %
ill-natured people added ten years to
this-but there was no certainty IN the
matter. GwendOline owned to %. Envy
said she disOWned decade. Ermyntrude
went in for mind; Gwendoline for mat
ter. Ermyntrude enjoyed an intellectual
Irritation with POsitivist, or even q
Broad Church Bishop, did not give in to
crinOlette, and was crested" by music Of
a sufficiently archaic character. Gwen
doline preferred a soldier (thOugh, owing
to the army not being on Mrs. Dalmayne's
visiting list, she more often than not had
to put up with a barrister), carried q
small eXcrescence behind, and thought
nothing so pretty as ''Oliyette." In spite
of this frivolous trait in her nature-la-
mented by her mother as ''the want of
earnest purpose" and by her sister as
''the absence of a great idea"-( poor girl,
it was almost time her ''great ideal" came
round the cOrner )--GwendOline was So
cial success more pronounced than her
less worldly sister. She had had several
prOpOsals-Only from poor artists, it is
true-but that was more than Ermyn-
trude's luck, whose only approach to a
prOposal-thOugh counted by her as such
had been a squeeze Of the hand from a
great art critic one nj mt at party after
supper, accompanied, III she SAID, by "a
laOk that searched my SOUL" The great
+ It critic, however, did not seem to have
{ iund what he was searching for, as he
] ever went any further, and Ermyntrude
v IS still a spinster, darkly limiting at
St me great lile-sOrrOw that had Overshad-
owed her in early prime. At the time my
story opens ''great interest," according
to Mrs. Dalmayne, had sprung up in the
/ Dalmayne family. and shOne as the bright
est star in the Dalmayne SdtOn. The
great interest" was Lord CassiOWary,
the leader of the Oppositi0n's eldest and
somewhat weakly son, who, his father
/ being a stern Tory, was naturally an adj
vanced Radical-an apostle OF free
| thought, pioneer of civilization, a lev
/ eler, In spite of his rank, Of all class bar
| riers, an adorer of Burne Jones and Wag-
/ ner, an atheist, a hater of tobacco, a lover
/ of lemon and other squashes, and an adj
mirer of Gwendoline DalmaYne. All this
and only just %! No wonder he was a
''great," nay absorbing "interest," to
! Mrs. Dalmayne.
ellis opinions, Of course, are crude and
verge upon the terrible, but then he Is so
truly earnes6. That night when he told
/ the Vice Chancellor that all laws were the
survival of a tyrannical antiquity, and
/ that the people should be so educated as
! to be able to do without law at all, he kept