Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1892-09-29
CHAPTER DISCONTINUED.

were ten pathetic years of struggle,
whose real chronicle will never be
written. Lord Rothsay and Auburndale
did not seek in marriage the hand over
which, when unattainable, they had so
gallantly bowed. Other offers were
made, but none of them just pleased
their recipient. She uttered no public
plants, however, and hobnobbed with
duchesses as blandly as if her in
come were many generous thousands of
pounds and not few pinehing hun
dreds. Her position was distinctive,
but not enviable. At first she acquired
the title of 1.-THE pushing American"
but after awhile her popularity and
the thorough suitableness of her pres
ence crushed this impudent nickname.
People with positive appetite for
select associations rarely fail in secur-
ing them, except it bethat their natural
equipments are at fault. Hers were so
far from such drawback that they OBJ
tanned for her warm welcomes every
where. And yet she secretly shivered
with disgust at the bonds of her pow
erty and the lessening lures of her per-
son. One day she resolved to return to
New York and see for herself if life
there might not be lived with smaller
manned in her native town until Kath-
leen was nearly old enough to be
Drought OUT In New York, as in
London, she held herself with the
highest, missing no entertainment that
was mOdish and openly referring to her
straitened affairs as if they had been
those OF an exiled queen. she was
privately 4 good deal more laughed at
here than in England, and with great
inward bitterness she realized that the
shattered Van Lerius fortunes were an
object either Of fOrgetfulness or disre-
spect. Daily existence, too, was here
much more difficult. a house Of her
own, however limited of space, was not
to be dreamed of. She could only
aspire to apartments, and these,
necessarily somewhat shabby, were in
New \ Orl- II bcevct of inferiOrity The
plutocrats. moreover, were rushing to
the front. Even he's resOlute aversion
to being pushed against the wall suf-
fered transient collapse. She might
have given UP the fight altogether but
for the increasing beauty and fascina-
ton of Kathleen. She had by this
time Surrendered all hope of u lofty
marriage, but why, she now reflected,
could she not revive these blighted
.yearnings in the future triumphs of her
beautiful child? There, across the
water, was her London status. They
had not forgotten hcryet; they were very
good over there about not forgetting
YOU when they had once accepted you.
Why not present kathleen at the next
drawing room? The commonest Ameri-
cans We're thrusting themselves nova
days into buckingham palace. Surely
the niece of Sir Franklin kennaird (vYho
had now not only concluded to remain
alive, by the way, but had become the
father Of two more lusty little boys)
would present Il decisive claim of en-
trance. After that the sorcery of
Kathleen's beauty and those qualities
of intellect which q careful education
had fCstered would doubtless reap due
results. Thus n1eGitating, Mrs. Ken
naird packed her trunks and once again
sailed for foreign shores.
Kathleen's success in London was
prompt and complete. Her connection
with Warwiclshire baronet did not
specially serve her. Old acquaintance
flOcl1ed about her mother, and these,
with their influence, crowned the
maternal desires. But though she soon
became a celebrity and had scores of
as a girl who would be dowerless
bride. This is nearly always fatal to
the making of great marriage in Eng
land, and Mrs. Kennaird knew it. Two
years passed, and although the girl had
no lack OF devoted male attendants,
that dreamed of sutton with the shining
name and princely rent roll had not yet
l1nelt at her feet. Mrs. Kennaird grew
restless even petulant.
''You repele your best opportunities, -
she said to her child: Look the
statue, if you please, men like it. But
in certain cases don't forget that your
marble is feminine flesh
Kathleen colored a little at this. She
detested her mothers worldly spirit;
she had ideas of her own as regarded
life and how best to live it; she had
thought with depth and breadth for
one of her age and sex; she had read
some of the wiscst modern books, many
of which are wiser. by the way, when
truly deserving to be called so, than
the whole libraries of more Anticipated
views and teachings. And yet her
mothers personal spell was one which
constantly cast over her a kind of in
visible net from whose flaments
thorough escape seemed vain.
She had q mind of both finer and
stronger fiber than that of her mother,
and nature in all ways profounder.
And yet there were times when the
mere sound of her mothers voice caused
her covert trernors and thrills. 1t was
like mesrneric force, and it often took
the form of fear. Reasoning coolly
about it, the girl would tell herself that
she understood perfectly its cause. Her
mothers personality was an intense
one; it had spiritually ensheathed her,
so to speak, through all her younger
years. Now, when she had broken
loose from its hgatures, it's letters, the
discovery came to her that habit could
not so easily be disreputed. And yet
there We're times when even this ex-
PLANTATION did not suffice for Kathleen,
and when there seemed sublet and
mystic reasons why it should not. But
now and then she would laugh nerv-
ously at her own fancies, and declare
to her own heart that a very simple
solution of the problem was to be found
in hlla1 love. For she did love her
mother, and with great fondness and
devotion, in spite of mental and even
moral differences between them which
o1,