Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-10-04

I
had never shone with before. A truly de-
lightful woman. often see something of
her in Alonzo. Too bad that she should
have died in her forties! She had Just be-
gun to entertain with an air at her house in
Lafayette Place, and all the best people
were at her feet. Such pretty feet, too; and
they never led her into any quicksands like
those that her daughters have dared TO ex-
plore. You can't see trace of her mother
in Kitty. But Alonzo is like both parents.
He hasn't his fathers fine presence, though.
We speak of birth making the gentleman,
and j, for one, firmly believe in birth-why
should 1 not? But Gardiner Lispenard,
with not enough ancestry to make out under
a microscope, was nevertheless gentleman
10 his finger tips. 1t keenly surprised me
that his wife's death should have killed
him, as thew say it did. He always seemed
10 me person too high bred for anything
go sensational as dying of grief And
vet he went within two years of poor
Tybilla, leaving both children to the guar
dianship of their Uncle Crawford. Society
expected that Alonzo Van Alstyne, their
maternal uncle, would be entrusted with the
care of them, for Alonzo had more patri-
clan kind of right to their custody, as one
might express it, don't you know? He had
got TO be good deal received, and he had
drifted into one or two exclusive clubs, and
his money would have made him a match,
if be had only chosen to marry discreetly;
while Crawford Lispenard, on the other
hand, went nowhere, and had wholly ne
elected the chances Of acquiring position.
But, as it turned out, the early death of
poor Alonzo (who left considerable money
TO his niece and his namesake nephew rem
dered that existing plan the luckier one.
And society remembered the children when
they grew up. Even Mitty's sad elopement
didn't ALLEVIATE us. We couldn't forget, you
know, that their papa and mamma had real
" once been des uotres, Notwithstanding
that hermit of an uncle. But I'm afraid
I've mentioned all this before, my dear.
It's twice-told tale, is it not?"
Yes" fell from Kathleen, as she sat in
the dimness of the rolling vehicle, opposite
her mother. She did not say anything more,
and perhaps a note OF abstraction or weari-
ness in her tone caused Mrs. Kennard to
proceed with some crispness
Remind me, my dear, when fall into a
train of stale "reminiscences. That is sign
of advancing years, and L wish to avoid all
elderly follies, as 1 hope 1 have steered
clear of all youthful ones. 1t is my wish
not merely to grow old with grace, but with
a certain interesting freshness-de mine bon
entd,u YOU know. So MANY women, as they
go, get careless about pulling themselves
together. They sink into rut1 and stay
there want to avoid that sort OF thing.
Society rewards one if one will only make
an effort. Wrinkles and gray hairs are for
given, have observed. but never the ten
dencv to be dull and Pathological You're
passed over the instant you begin to be
prolix, to construct your syntax with an
excess of perfects and plu-perfects. Now 1
don't want to be passed over, and 1 intend
TO preserve healthy cult for the present
tense of things"
Kathleen smiled to herself in the gloom
She could not help wondering, just then, if
her mother had ever passed a single wake
full hour in her whole life without serious
reflections on the subjects of Society"
position" and ''the people whom one
meets"
No hardship or bereavement had ever
served indeed to lessen in this lady's es-
TEEN the magnitude of these momentous
questions. And when all was told, she had
been a woman whom neither hardship nor
bereavement had spared. Her family Chow
often had Kathleen heard SOD was of gen.
uine New Amsterdam stock, and as Mar
garetta Van Lerius, an only child, she had
been reared in that ease which only wealth
makes possible. But while she was yet a
young woman her father met with financial
ruin, soon afterward dying. Margaretta
had been naughty belle, somewhat heavier
in type than Kathleen and not half so beau
tiful, but with the same graceful, bearing
and the same sculpturesque arms and neck.
She held her head higher than ever did her
daughter, and moved about with 4 statelier
air. She was always thinking of a great
marriage (eyen as a little girl she had
dressed up her dolls in bridal robes for their
weddings to imaginary princes or dukes)
and when the family had gone and she was
obliged to live with her mother in q Ninth
street boarding house, her matrimonial
ambitions burned still more feverishly.
The Van Lerius kindred (unles and aunts
and cousins) would call upon her in these
new and hated surroundings and go away
shocked by her worldliness and pride.
'Isn't it dreadful" her mother would
wall to them whenever Margaretta was out
of hearing "Adversity hasn't humbled her
a bit She's just as grand in her ideas as
ever she was" Now had begun for Mar
garetta those drastic ordeals of economy
from which nearly all her future life was to
suffer. She persisted in 'going out" for
to stay in was torture. Her gowns often
made woeful showing, but she always
wore them with q feminine sovereignty of
mien that was quite her own. Poverty had
bv no means crushed her; she aspired in
way still to lead her world, and the stress
of her extreme energy and self belief saved
her from failure. Caste was then more
thought of in New York than now. To be
q Van Lerius meant more than it now signi-
ties, even though an empty purse went with
the same. Plutocracy had not yet begun in
such strong earnest its glittering usurpa-
lures, though its rules were already potent.
Margaretta was too intense au aristocrat to
be called O mere snob. This word
did and yet did not fit her,
and perhaps for the very reason
that sha was snob, on too imperial scale.
If she had been luckier in life she would
have shOue as great social leader, though
her salon would have won renown through
the rank. not the brilliancy of its guests.
As it was, she had a weary and even toll
some career to exploit. Social leadership
was prize that she could never clutch,
eagerly stretched toward it as were the
yiewleSs hands of her desire and will The
environment of that Ninth street boarding
house became horror to her, and she liter
allv insultcd her fellow dodgers by the re-
pulsion of her demeanor And vet, strange
10 say, it was here that she me: Maitland
kcnnaird the,man whom she married. He
was handsome and of marked personal
charm. An Englishman and stranger, he
threw himself on her mercy, and told her
tale which was, in the main, perfectly true.
He was the only brother of Sir Frankland
Kennaird, a rich English baronet But the
fratcrnal temper was terrible, and they had
lately quarreIleG. lie, Maitland Montague
Kennaird, had come to this country with q
small legacy inherited from his mother,
ard in the hope of temporarily
gaining livelihood as a clerk in the firm of
a large wholesale druggist. That word
temporarily suggested an explanation
u.
elder brother, Sir Frankland, an irascible
invalid honelesslv defnrmed from his birth