Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-09-09
THE SENATOR'S DAUGHTER
BY A WASHINGTON AUTHOR.
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH. ]

said Mr.. Frank Eberle, correspondent OF
the Metropolitan Courier.
"Told you! You have met her then," e1-
claimed young Caxton, of Ca1tonia, mil
lionaire cotton planter by inheritance, OF
vast accomplishments in Washington train
ing for q career in the Senate when one OF
the old Senators from his State should die
or resign, if that time ever came.
The two were conversing together in the
drawing room of Secretary Hamilton on the
occasion of a reception at which the Presl-
dent and his wife and all the high officials
of the Government were present. Among
other things Young Caxton was looking out
for as an aid to a brilliant public career was
a wife whom he could esteem as the equal
of himself in breeding and education; the
most beautiful of her kind, irreproachable
as purity itself, a fit partner In the tenn
perate expenditure of his comfortable in
come. Caxton was old enough and had had
enough of filtration to wear his early notions
of love and romance somewhat threadbare,
and his search for wife partook very much
of the business-lke methods with which he
studied public life and the machinery by
which most successful politicians win sue
cess. As he stopped for a moment to chat
with Eberle and watch the passing mob he
had uttered an exclamation of astonishment
when his eye caught the figure of young
woman leaning on the arm of ex-senator
Drake, who had Just returned from a long
tour abroad.
''She is the most beautiful creature have
ever seen," said Caxton with great enthu-
siasm. "Who can she be?''
Eyes, she is very beautiful. She is Mrs
Fardella, and that is about all / can tell
Won. She is the widow of an Italian of
that name, a gentleman of grea: wealth who
died two or three wears ago. and lett his vast
estates to her. which include big castle
somewhere in the Maritime Alps, between
Turin and Genoa. She passes her time
visiting the capitals of the world apparently,
and is now making first call upon US in
America. met her in this way: Djemlah,
the Turkish decorator, was sent for to ar
range the tapestries, portieres, rugs, crock
erv. pictures, and so on, which she brought
over to furnish her rooms, though it is said
she is here only Tor the season. Knowing
NV own fancy for such work he invited me
to 60 with him, as he had been told the
stuff was of the most costly and exquisite of
Its kind. During our stay she chatted
freely of her travels, her love OF the arts,
and all that, and l found myself uncon-
sciouslv fascinated as / never was before
with the conversation OF a woman. You
know l am a cynic in my judgment OF the
SEX"
'But she didn't tell you of her husband
and castles and the rest?"
"Oh, no, that came from Drake. He met
her in Paris, and it is through Mrs. Drake
that she gained her entrance easily to the
inner circle here. Drake and his wife were
invited once to an evening in the salon of
Madame Edmond Adam, and met her there,
and that. of course, was a guarantee of her
reputation, though l don't know why 1t
should be-
"Reputationr' exclaimed Caxton indig-
nantly, 81 would stake my life that she is
as pure as the purest of her SEX"
aYou know very well nobody would take
the stakes if you lost" growled Eberle as
he walked away.
Caxton at once sought ex-senator Drake,
hoping through him to secure an introduc-
tion, but found that gentleman quarreling
over politics with his successor who had de-
teated him, and several others, all of the
game party, but full Of differences of opinion
in private discussion. Mrs. Fardella was
the center of a group of ladies who were evil
IDENTIFY charmed by the remarkable person
ality which had in a moment caught the
fancy of the really unsusceptible Caxtcn.
Mrs, Hamilton and Mrs. Drake were of
these admirers. Mrs. Drake was telling
DOW hTS. dTuelld ndO Storm
those present at Madame Adams by her
playing and singing, and there was unan-
imous request that the stranger would take
her seat at the piano. After a moment of
mental protest against the bad taste of
forcing her TO the front upon so short an ac-
quaintance, Mrs. Fardella consented. For
a little time she sat at the instrument and
her eyes assumed far-away look as though
she were losing all thought of her sur
roundings; then she toyed with the
KEYS as though waiting to know
whether they would respond to what was
passing in her fancy. From that she drIfted
into an improvisation unlike anything ever
heard before by any of that assembly,
Every human emotion and passion was por-
trayed so clearly and thrillinglv tn at the
most stupid and unmusical ears caught the
Interpretation. All the phases of human
life, the ease and luxury of the rich and the
hunger and wailing of the poor, doubt and
recklessness, purity and bestiality, love and
hate, faith and infdelity, were recited as
though from an open book. The peace and
harmony of pastoral life mingled with the
rush and roar OF the city, and the stately
and reverential measures of a grand mass
were interrupted by the widest of pac-
chanalian revels. Then the player broke
forth into the song of the toreador from
heart-broken strains of "Spirto Gentil,"
and ended with Tyrolese air in the dialect
of the natives which set everybody patting
with their feet, and some of the younger
people were irresistibly impelled to whirl
throug b a mad waltz to the music of the
song.
The company were SO impressed with the
strange character of the performance
that compliments were rather strained, and
Mrs. Fardella, to these formal words, merely
said that she could not play to her own sat-
isfaction except for those whom she knew
intimately.
"By heaven!'' muttered young Caxton to
himself, 81 don't believe another creature
exists who is equal to that, and yet anyone
would know 1t was mere by-play, and
scarcely a suggestion of her real power with
the instrument and voice"
"What genius she is, exclaimed Sec
retarv Hamilton.
"Or devil, which is about the same thing"
said Eberle, whose cynical soul had not
been so stirred in long wears.
'Drake, can't you tell US who and what
she is?' asked the Secretary of the ex-Sena-
tor.
81 don't believe anybody, even her most
intimate friend can do that" answered
Drake. You might infer from her lovely.
tawny complexion that she is Italian. but
/ was told in Paris that she is of American
parentage, though born in Italy, Possibly
the heat of Genoese suns gave her that gem
uine Italian flesh color when she was wont
TO run bareheaded among the Alps When
very young she was married to a wealthy
Italian who was sort of recluse and philoso-
pher, and harbored social theories even mora
radical than those of Garibaldi and Cayour.
which it is whispered were fully absorbed by |