The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-07-28
CHAPTER VI.

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I'm, ARRSR5s9HtS had much bet
IEWAihN ter mind than the
u NJ average girl, and
she was intelligent enough to be con-
scious of her own shortcomings. She
wanted to be great, and she was only
clever. Her father had taken unusual
pains with her education, and the adj
yantages that he would have given to
a son were as far as possible given to
her. She could translate Heine and De
Musset very gracefully, and had put
Horace into respectable English verse.
Some of her Heine and De Musset trans
lations she had set to music, and she
sang them with a great deal of taste
But she tired Of translating, and writing
songs began to bore her. She wanted to
do something of more consequence in
the world. Having been born and
brought up in luxury, she thought she
would like to be labor reformer, and so
she attended some noisy meetings at the
Cooper Union, accompanied by her
cousin Archie Tillinghast. Instead Of
being disilIusionized thereby, she got up
quite a sentimental feeling about the
''horny handed sons of toll" So regu-
Larry did she attend these meetings that
she became known by sight to some
Of the professional agitators, and
one of them made bold to call at her
house and ask her for funds to carry on
the good work. He was q smooth
tongued fellow, and he urged her to
write a labor reform pamphlet, which he
engaged to print and send broadcast over
the land--if she would pay the expenses.
Bat the labor reformers palled upon
her after while, and she began to think
deeply upon the subject of negro equal
ity. She talked about it to every one
who would argue or agree with her. She
attended some meetings held to discuss
the subject, and once invited the African
orator home to dinner. She said that
she had mo vulgar race prejudices;"
bat her father had, and the dinner party
did not come off. Encouraged by her
patronage, the orator told her one day
that he had no vulgar race prejudiceS
either, and that he would as lief marry a
white woman as colored one. He ad-
Tanced this belief with so much mean
ing that Miss Archer rang the bell and
ordered the servant to put him out of the
house. After that day she carefully
avoided the subject of negro equality.
and turned her attention to the ameliora-
ton of the condition of the Indian. This
fancy pleased her longer than usual; but
after she had made quite collection of
Indian trophies, and read good deal,
more particularly poems, Of Indian lit
erature, she went out to the plains to
visit friend who had married an army
officer. There she saw the Indian di-
vested of romance. She thought him q
very uninteresting parsonage, and pre-
ferred the legends of the poets to the
facts that there stared her in the face.
At the time when Rush Hurlstone be-
came acquainted with her she was deeply
interested in esoteric Buddhism, and had
attended some questionable meetings at
the apartment of the high priestess of
Buddha, certain Nine. Parapof, who
drew around her a wholly Bohemian
and partially vicious lot of people, most
iy men, among whom she sat smoking
cigarettes and discoursing of the strange
things she had seen in India. She wore
a brooch which she said had been plucked
out OF the forehead of departed Hindoo
and placed at her throat Did any one
doubt her? There was the brooch.
Nine. Parapof was a very clever wo-
man, and had written a book entitled
'eThe Rending of the VEIL" which no
enc read, but which every one said was
a wonderful production. 1t was in two
large folio volumes, filed with illustra-
$aons, showing the veil before and after
the rending, and giving the mystic signs
known only to those who had sought
faithfully for esoteric information on
this subject.
Mime. Parapoff, as I have said, was
clever, but she had face that would
brighten off any one who was not par
tjcularly anxious to learn that which she
aIone professed to teach, Bessie Archer
was never more alarmed in her life than
Gu uSE uiSI NLS4L W H1ule. GdrdDOII
bungalow, as the latter called it. She
had never seen such a looking woman
before; her face repealed her, but her
manner was reassuring. The Russian
was thorough woman of the world,
and she saw that in this visitor she had
q fish of new sort to deal with, who
gould not be caught with the common
bait thrown to the men around her.
Only the choicest morsel would attract
her. She must be careful not to offend
her by speaking too plainly before her at
first, and she must not give her her
famous pamphlet, Naked, and not
Ashamed" to read until she was quite
sure of her. Bessie had induced her
useful cousin, Archie Tillinghast, to ac-
company her to Nine. Parapoff's. Archie
didn't want to go at all, but he was con-
WINGED that Bessie would go alone if he
didn't go with her.
''Rum girl, Cousin Bess," he said to
Rush; bright as dollar, but slippery as
an eel; you never can tell where she is
going to bob up. Beastly place, that
A lot of hairy men, smelling
Of whisky and tobacco smoke, lolling
around the floor on skins, putting their