The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1893-05-13

but / fancy you will be infinitely
obliged to me IN the long run. Consult
some of your lawyer friends and see
how the knot can be united legally, for l
would not have you lose the full fruits
Of this sacrifice by reason of obstacles
in the path of your marrying again
more felicitonsly next time, | will hope.
l have no intention of making away
with myself"
Another of the envelopes was adj
dressed to Celeste To her she said:
s.As soon as you have read this, ask
Mr.. Lorimer to send you and the child
to Glenburnie. Take with you her
trunk and the envelope addressed to
Miss Fairbanks, which leave with
this. Be good to Ninette, and stay with
her; it will be to your interest"
The third envelope was addressed to
Miss Fairbanks. To her she said:
81 am not conducting my project in
the way had planned before coming to
White Cliffs. But, after all. we are the
merest puppets in the hands OF fate. l
had meant my little Ninette should win
her own way with you before I made
for her the startling claims of kinship.
She is Sibley Fairbanks daughter-his
only child, born in holy wedlock. Her
mother and father did not live together
happily. He deserted her: she had to
make her own support AS all of the
papers were in his possession, it may be
some time yet before the child's legal
claim upon you or upon your father can
be established. She is the child of my
only sister-a younger sister, to whom
was idolatrously attached. John Lori
mer's suit for my hand carried no weight
with it until he accidentally mentioned
the fact of having the Fairbanks, of
Glenburnie, as neighbors. I meant to
have kept Ninette myself until her
claim upon her grandfather had been
made so clear that he would gladly have
recognized it; but it has been ordered
otherwise. If your first impulse should
be to order Celeste, the child's nurse, to
leave your presence and take the child
with her, stop and deliberate twice be-
fore you send your brother Sibley;s in
FAINT daughter adrift in an unfriendly
world. Until procure the proofs of
what say, you must take my simple
assertion. Every word in this letter is
absolutely true"
CHAPTER TX.
Flowers! flowers everywhere! The
most expensive sort at the most expen-
sive season! But expense was never
taken into account in the Norcross es-
tablishment. Did Mrs. Norcross desire
thing? And was that thing the very
best of it's kind? Those were the only
two questions worth the asking or the
answering.
Friday was Mrs. Eugene Norcross'
day. Not that every DAY was not en-
tirely at her own frivolous disposal, but
even butterflies are subject to exhaus-
ton, and If Mrs. Norcross had not set
apart one day out of the seven for ''spe-
cial observances,' the gayest butterfly
of fashion that all Esplanade street, in
the city of New Orleans, could boast,
would have succumbed to the burden of
it's own popularity.
On Friday, therefore, one was sure OF
finding Mrs. Norcross at home, clothed
in one of those marvels of French cos
TUNES that all her ''set~ was raving
over.' One was also sure of finding the
house converted into bower of roses,
while from every corner Of the spacious
lower floor, during the regulation
hours, hoated the mingled aroma of
English breakfast tea and feminine
gossip. @
Apparently no one enjoyed Mrs. Nor
cross Friday afternoons more thor
.oughly than she did herself. No child
freshly admitted into fairy-land could
have outdone her in joyous gayety, as
she flashed from group to group of the
tea-drinkers, moving her 1.-the form
with it's glistening satin train. and her
jeweled arms and hands, with an efec-
tive grace not altogether unstudied.
All of those who drank her tea were
not good-natured towards Eugene Nor
cross young wife. Some of them, per-
haps, had not yet got over the secret
smart of his detection from the ranks
of their own possible suitors. Some of
them, perhaps, would have preferred
his marrying a woman whom "some-
body knew" Among these was his aunt,
Mrs. Mellicent Norcross, who conf1den-
TALLY assured his married sister, Mrs.
Delaney Delany, on the Friday in ques
ton, that ....
IF Norcross had not brought her di-
rect from Paris, one would be tempted
to accuse her of gaucherie.
mot gaucherie! Anything but that.
For woman in her first winter here,
she is the most absolutely self-pos-
sessed young thing ever saw"
"Well, then, provincialism, if you
prefer. l imagine she has seen very
little. of this sort of thing. Her enjoy
ment of it is too undisguised, too abb
surdly genuine
.It is rather patent. She is pretty
creature, though, Mellicent. One can
scarcely blame Eugene for becoming in
fatuated so late in life
.'She is exquisite! Chic from the
crown of her blonde hair to the tips OF
those little twinkling yellow satin
slippers. It is her ELUSIVE gayety I
condemn. l should prefer more repose