The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1892-05-04


Colonel Warren Talbot Uds a thorough
man Of the south.
The Roosevelt mansion stood little
distance south from the Pulaski House,
square or park. II was large rectangu-
lar building Of the old time southern
architecture, surrounded by rows of pal
metto trees and gnarled live oaks.
In the. days Of slavery, when Mr..
Roosevelt and his wife were young, this
house was filled with notable guests, art
lists and literary folk chiefly. who spent
the winter months in round Of gay, but
quiet and elegant, social pleasures.
The only change that the war and its
seQuele had brought to this fine OLD
house was the discontinuance of its lib
eral Inequalities, not on account of its
owners reduced means, but because Of
the general gloom and poverty which
had rendered society moody, RETROSPECT
tive and bitter.
The Roosevelts had managed to keep
together little cotcrie of immediate
friends to whom they lisp.Gsed liberal
hospitality in something like the old
southern style, but none Of their north
ern friends had returned since the war.
No doubt many of the latter were dead,
and the rest swept past Savannah every
winter in the gay stream Of pleasure
hunters going to Jacksonville, Fernan-
dina and the upper waters Of the st
Johns. --hsa
Mrs. Roosevelt dreamed of making
Rosalie the means Of relighting the So
cial fires in her house, and she was not
disappointed. The strong and merry
mountain girl brought breath of the
up country with her She had her hours
Of homesickness. it is true. and cried
over her fathers letters; but she rallied
readily. taking up her cheerfulness and
girlish activity where she left off, and
making the most Of the opportunities
her surroundings offered She was, in
some indefinite way. aware that she was
taking into her life some new and pow
srful elements She had been delighted
with Chicago. she was enraptured by
Savannah.
In a little while she had made &C
luaintances among the young people Of
her aunt's set, one OF them, Mildred
Fain, becoming her devoted friend. Miss
Fain was three years older than Rosalie,
a petite brunette, with finely cut features
and faultless grace Of manner. Her
family traced itself back to the early
days of the city, where it was honorably
connected with colonial history. Her
grandfather had been a cabinet officer
or something of the sort under a Demo
cratic administration, and her father had
fallen, distinguished Confederate gen.
eral, in one of the terrible battles Of the
Virginia campaigns In many points she
was quite Rosalie's opposite.
Rosalie loved her from the beginning;
and in fact that sweet affection that girls
have for each other was quickly formed
between them, greatly exaggerated by
their wholly opposite temperaments and
characteristic elements They found in
each other something new and fascinat-
ing, quite unlike what usually draws
girls together They soon fully contided
in each other; and so Rosalie discovered
that Miss Fain had lover, a Colonel War
rem Talbot, lawyer and politician, whose
name seemed much honored by the daily
newspapers of Savannah. This young
man often dropped in at the Roosevelt
mansion to smoke and chat awhile with
Mr.. Roosevelt, but it CHANGED to be some
weeks after her first momentary meeting
with him that Rosalie found herself in
conversation with him ON the broad
veranda. II was the merest accident,
this little tete-a-tete, but Colonel Warren
Talbot found ii most charming bit Of
experience
"What delightfully."- naive and pretty
girl your new friend isl" he said to Miss
Fain soon after.
'Fm quite charmed that you think
So" responded that young lady; "she is
the sweetest girl ! ever saw, and she
knows 30 much, and is SO brilliant, too
and so good and kind. and altogether
unlike any other girl ever saw"
"Oh," exclaimed the colonel gayly,
"you are an accomplished eulogist. Go
on, however--it is bird singing Of q
bird, one flower shaking out its perfume
ON another-it's all very beautiful"
The next time he went to Roosevelt
place he again talked with Rosalie. He
had not been much in the north, and her
vivid descriptions of the great cities and
the social whirlpools into which she had
merely dipped while there were to him
as charming as anything of the sort
could be, and they gave him as imme-
date an impression Of western power
and eastern agility as II they had been
sketches and photographs Of the scenes
and persons mentioned.
~ like those people," she said in a
tone Of enthusiasm; "their vim and
movement, their alert eyes and bright
shrewd faces, give one the idea Of ire
sistible energy"
"Then you like the north better than
the south?" he remarked in careless
tone, but fixing his eyes questioningly
upon her.
"No, sir. I like the south immeasur-
ably better" she quickly responded, .