St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1889-03-30

too lovely for anything very fine were
the EXPLANATIONS that reached the mad
ans enraptured ears.
THAT will do, Robert, land us at the
pier, close to the boat house"
The party disembarked, to leisurely
promenade through the beautiful orange
grove, whose dark green foliage was en-
riched by the graveled walks, whose bor-
ders were set off with tinted sea shells.
In front of the entrance an eIaborately
designed fountain cooled the atmosphere.
as the dolphins that guarded the charmed
circle shot innumerable jets of water up to
the middle basin to fall with musical
cadence upon the dripping flowers that
lined its margin.
The morning was spent in unpacking,
to make themselves very comfortable, for
their prolonged stay through the winter
months would require only the lighter ar
ticles of dress. Water proofs and rubbers,
hunting and fishing jackets, guns and
fishing tackle came to the front.
Madam Copildike was shading forty
five, with a plentiful sprinkiing of gray
hairs, whose unwelcome intrusion brought
many little pang of regret to the heart
that had rebelled at Jhe-silent footsteps of
time, as he touched her with his silvery
wand. She had been beautiful and was
so yet, her conquests as belle had been
numerous, but she had never been the
heroine of tragedy. None of her admirers
had ever shed any blood upon her account.
Her entertainments and box parties filled
BALI column of the fashionable society
journals, while every charming novelty
imported from the continent in the way of
entertainment, made her the leader of
society in New York. Every titled per-
sonage, every distinguished author, in
some way, was drawn into her silken web.
She had q remarkable faculty for sur
rounding herself with the young and
pretty girls of the city, and such was her
tact, that she played opposite effects to
superlative degree, such thing as
c0ntre temp was unknown.
Her husband was a New York banker,
who cared little for her company or
whims if she chose to buy cocoanut
forest in Africa, it was all the same to
him, so that she did not exact any part of
his valuable time, which he estimated to
be worth five hundred dollars an hour,
and minutes in proportional parts.
The orange plantation was one of her
especial pets, aside from the whim, it had
been the means of bringing considerable
revenue to her purse, which she was
proud to call her pin money, but it would
have been a small fortune to a person not so
well off in this worlds wealth. They
drifted each into the channel that suited
him best. He never came to the South,
had never seen the famous winter resort
of the Copildikes.
The salt air had given the party vo.-
racious appetite. They ate and ate, until
they were ashamed of themselves.
"My dear Count, no apologies are neces-
sary, it is the experience of all new
Corners it is the climate
MADAM, do picked olives grow here?
they say the soil of Louisiana is capable
of producing anything, large tract of
land grown in picked olives would have
such an effect upon the atmosphere, / can
account in no other way for the appetite
that would bankrupt provision closet in
q month
Count, we are spared the trouble of
planting picked olives, when we can i'm
port the green varieties SO much cheaper.
The laugh went around the table, at the
counts expense, who Redeemed to the
roots of his hair, as he remarked:
"Deuced clever woman that it leaves
me nothing to say. l am ashore, badly
wrecked"
"You have nothing to do, my guests,
but to eat, sleep, and be merry. You will
find the library filled with all of the most
recent books of romance, including Robert
Elsmere. Hammocks are scattered through
the grounds"
They fingered at the table for an hour
over the wine, and then the gentlemen witty.
drew to the shaded piazza, where cigars,
smoking jackets and caps made life very
endurable, as cigar after cigar was con-
sumed in smoke and ashes, the converse
ton naturally turned to the beautiful spot.
'sMy dear Count, these are capital
cigars, the Henry Clay brand, imported
direct from Havana
Glow in the name of all that's great.
are we going to kill time on this islaud?'
'Four long months away from New
York, with season of unusal gayety in
store"
The three gentlemen's thoughts ran in
the same channel. The ladies were not
troubled with such fears. Commend me
to woman to extract all the sweet pleas
ure from every passing flower. The
slightest event of life is whole play of
happiness. If the weather is rainy, the
sun does not cease to shine upon the fer
tility of her self ordained ingenuity. She
can curl up on sofa with a novel, or sleep
the tiresome hours away. Can find a hun
dred charms in the delicate veining of
forest leaf; every little sea shell or pc bile is
toy to her. Of course, we don't know what
the ladies said, but the afternoon wore
well to close, when the party moved to
the boat house to step upon the deck of
the s'Idledrift." How they enjoyed the
swift motion of this ocean bird as she shot
through the waves to leave foamy wake.
'tMiss Penkeville, you be heroine and
Jump overheard so that can save some
one, am dying for some excitement"
'sMr HardellI beg that you excuse
me, the water is wet, and oh so cold,
besides you don't look my hero, you
would not write up well. I'll throw a
rubber doll over, you can imagine it is
myself"
4 Eyes, by using an India rubber imagina
ton might possibly reach such conclu-
sion"
Mrs. ,Copildike saw the drift of the bit
ing repartee. She had tried her best to
make match, and was taxed to her ut
most to keep them good friends, hoping
that the close communionship would wear
off the rugged points of difference.
Miss Penkeville was tall, graceful girl,
with the most fascinating dreamy gray
eyes that languidly dawned upon one in
the strangest of manners. Her hair was
beautiful, wavy and soft as silk. No one
could tell what the color really was, for
every light gave different TINT Pecu
iarly romantic, with that ideal element in
excess, she dreamed her life away, waiting
for some fairy prince to awaken the sleep
ing beauty in the garden of roses.
Miss Odyearne was striking contrast,
rather small, with plump little figure,