Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1888-01-02
The Old Year Out and the
New Year In.

Was there a madder little bit OF
beauty in all the town than Rose JEFF
freys was? Mad in her love of dane
ing, of music, of dress, of lovers, OF
life Not that she loved the lovers,
nor one of them. She let them love
her and hover around her for want of
better. But the one she might, she
could, she would have loved he was
just remote enough to see it all, and
never near enough to let her make
him feel her power, although when
he stood leaning against the wall in
that lordly way of his, looking on
while she danced, he made her, with
one fixed glance of the stern dark
eyes, feel his own power, so that, al
though she shigered, she danced with
all the more abandon, giving herself
up to the music and her partner in a
way that might have .s..se.e q 81 ssoil' !,
blood run cold
ssWhy shouldn't | Dance she said
to her demure cousin Margaret, "be-
cause Gordon Penmore looks daggers
at the dancers? Doesn't he like dane
ing? He ought to try it and see.
One waltz with me, and | could bring
/ h,m to terms
Its really shocking, Rose, to hear
y@u go on so" said Margaret. "You
~ .1e me think Of
All those women with the Greek
ns4nes. Very likely. | have never
thought they were half so bad as
they were painted. ApelEes painted
them? Or Zeuxis? They used to be in
the back of our Ollendorff, - she said,
like a good child. s'Well, it would
take them both to paint GordoD's
eyes when he sees me just lying in
Hayden Roth's arms in that new fig
ure, floating, floating, floating
I'm not really lying in his arms at all,
you know, but taking care of myself
like piece Of cut steel. | don't know
why Gordon Penmore should make it
his affair at all. Oh, how | should
hate to be obedent to his whims-to
any mans whims And he scarcely
ever comes near me" And before
she had well ceased speaking the lit
| tie spirits face was buried among the
sofa cushions, and she was shaking
with gust of sobs. "The idea y
| she cried, springing to her feet the
next minute. ''Crying for all | am
worth because Gordon Penmore is
is in existence What should l care
for the great arrow-poInted eyes
will let him see tonight !"
And she did, as she danced at Mrs
Baddon's hall-danced as the waves
dance, as the golden balls dance at
the top of the fountains spray, as
lightly, as gayly, as tirelessly. She
stopped suddenly in her dance-stop-
ped just where he stood at the con-
servatory door, giving a slightly fall
tering step in his direction.
sit makes one almost giddy," she |
said, looking up and smiling family.
''Quite, said he gravely.
'sThanks, Mr.. Roth. Now | am
going to remember my promise for
the rest of the waltz in favor of my |
cousin Margaret. If You want to do
me favor, you will take her out,
she said, with her sweetest and most
coaxing grace. s'And | will stay be-
side Mr.. Penmore till you bring her
here" and she famed herself slowly
with her great pink ostrich feathers,
and looked all innocence.
"You don't approve of all this, do
you?' she asked, presently, looking
eyelids fall swiftly over the dark eyes
again.
"Don't approve" he repeated, a
little startled.
sENo, you don't approve of it. And
| wonder what you are here for. You
know you are just as-as wicked in
countenancing the wrong by looking
on as | am in doing it. Oh, what
lovely air! How can you keep your
feet still p
s'You can't he said, smiling.
s'Oh, if you only knew anything
about dancing" she exclaimed, ''vou
couldn't either. 1t is like having
wings. 1t is better than having wings,
because 1t is being taken possession
of by music and carried as if the wind
carried you. 1t is to leave off being
a person with cares and hopes and
fears and -beatings, and all that
tits just to be leaf "a cloud wreath,
a thing of nature. All that air is
simply delicious"
''Well, let us try it, said Gordon
Penmore. Why not? | can waltz on
occasion. Let me see if dancing can
do all this for me-that is remem-
bering himself. eff you will do me the
honor
ssOh, honor!" said Rose, laughing
like a mischievous sprite. "You
know you don't regard it so at all.
You look at it almost as degrade
ton. You feel as though you were
STOPPING from a pinnacle. All the
same, you are dancing. And | will
show you that you have never danced
before And then they were TAX
ing the time, and had swung off into
the festive procession of the dancers,
and the music was seizing them, and
taken them on its tide, and Gordon