Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1891-04-23
A MOB HILL PRINCESS.

palace of her father. the king. 1t was
one of the richest and most beautiful OF
| palaces, standing on an imposing ter
race and looking down with all the maj
esty of royal abode upon the surround
ing houses, though many of them were
equally splendid.
he had no more royal blood in his veins
than hackman or car-conductor. He
had left the aged father who had given
him the royal blood of honesty as an
heritage, and come to California in ''the
days Of 40" to search for gold. He had
found the gold, and since that good for
tune had created the hunger and thirst for
more and more gold, there seemed to be
no limit TO his ambition. Everything
he touched had turned to gold, and for
years people had called him King Midas.
The name clung to him after he built his
palace on Mob Hill, and il was sometimes
varied by the less classical appellation of
"Old John Vernon, the Bonanza King.
| The Princess Beatrice was the only
daughter-the only child. She was the
power behind the throne, even before
her weak little mother succumbed TO the
ill-health that had driven her all over
the face OF the earth in search of new
climates and new physicians. Since her
death Beatrice had worn the ermine cx-
clusivcly, and worn it with SO much un-
affected simplicity and grace that she
was not spoiled one jot or little. There
was something in her nature too sweet
| and womanly for any amount of money
or power to choke out.
She stood, one evening, on the marble
steps OF the grand piazza, looking in her
own dreamy fashion at the steel-bluc
waters OF San Francisco Bay, just as the
sun was going out through the Golden
Gate. She was wondering, as she had
grown to wonder very frequently of late.
why her father seemed changed. He
had a secret which he was evidently
keeping from her as long rs he possibly
could-but a secret that must be made
public sooner or later. Something in
the expression OF his face, as he avoided
meeting her eyes, told Beatrice all this
She wondered every morning il he would
tell her before night what it was. Her
questioning eyes scrutinizcd him very
closely across the fine damask and gilt
tering silver and crystal as she handed
him his Mocha or Oolong at breakfast.
lunch, or dinner.
"Do you believe it is possible that he
is going to fail 2" she asked her very
dearest friend in all the world-father
barely excepted-Helcna Ashton, that
afternoon.
elbow can he fail 2" said Helena,
with an inexpressible gesture.
Miss Ashton was an extraordinary girl
in very ordinary position in life. She
was the oldest of three daughters, and
had very good reason to be proud of a
talented elder brother who was. putting
the zeal of his life into his profession.
ooh" rejoined Beatrice, composedly,
"he might as well fail as"
"As the Bank of California I"
" As we'll as some other men who have
failed. l wonder how it would seem to
be poor"
"As poor as we are2'
"No, you are not poor. You belong
to that happy class of which Young tells
in Night Thoughts "a goodly COM
petence is all we can enjoy Your
father enjoys life as well-far better
than mine does, because he has that in
terest in another life that all my fathers
money cannot buy ; and your mother
oh, Helena If only had such mother !.
But / never had"
The princess would have cried If she
had been crying girl but she only
swallowed little sob as she bent over
Helena's artistic workable. When she
rose with sudden vehemence from the
mahogany and old-rose plush chair in
which she had been idling it flew back
and struck the unfinished painting on
Helena's easel, throwing it, face down
ward. across the long, curved rockers.
''Never mind, the paint is dry" said
Helena, not stopping her work in the
velvet bed of arasene lilies. "You could
not hurt it any if it was not. 1t is a
storm at sea-"
Beatrice carefully replaced the picture
and adjusted drape of amber silk across
the easel.
"You paint so much better than
| l do-you do everything better than l
do. You always did, since we began to
90 to school together. Your brother
life is"-blushing slightly and getting
behind Helena's chair. "He has given
up the quest, l presume, as hopeless
one-something past lawyers ability to
ferret out. Good bye, dear. Will you
he at Mrs. Adleys AT home tomorrow
EVENING""
"Oh, yes"
Helena put down her work and went
arm in arm with her friend down the
stairs and out upon the lawn. They
stood together in the iron gateway for a
| few moments, thin the princess was
driven away from the pretty Queen Anne
house picturesque affair in dull Indian
red and terra Gotta shades-to the por-
tails of King Midas's palace.
/ 1t was not alone of her father and his
unaccountable actions that Beatrice was
thinking as she stood on the piazza look
ing over the waters OF the bay.
'lf were poor girl, l believe-but
ne is too proud-too true and perfect a
man to ever think of-and there isn't
another like him in all the world"
Which scattering reflections certainly
had no reference to her royal parent.
The unspoken thought brought blush
to her face that made her brilliantly
beautiful, even to the stupid footman
| who answered her questions in the hall.
els papa at home yeti"
"No, miss. lie went away an hour
ago to be gone until tomorrow night.
lie left this message for you"
Beatrice read the scrawling hand
writing on large white card that the
obsequious servant handed her on sill
yer salver.
DrAR LITTLE PnrxcEss: Tomorrow night !
will tell you. all that think you must sus,