Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1894-09-06
CHATTER XIV.

Sir Cyprian Davenant had not fo'-
notten that dinner at Richmond given
bv Gilbert Sinclair little while be-
fore his departure for Africa, at which
he had met the handsome widow To
whom Mr. Sinclair was then supposed
to be engaged. The fact was brought
more wildly back to his mind by a
circumstance that came under his no.
tice the evening after he had accepted
Lord Observation-Disclosures to March
brook.
lie had been dining at his club with
an old college friend, and had con-
scented, somewhat unwillingly, to an
adjournment to one OF the theaters
near the Strand, at which a popular
burlesque was being played for the
three hundred and sixty-fifth time.
Sir Cvprian entertained u cordial de-
testation of this kind of entertainment,
lin which the low comedian OF the ccm
panv enact5 distressed damsel in
short petticoats and llaXen wig, while
pretty actresses swa gger in costumes
of the cavalier period, and ape the
marners OF the mu ,ic-hall swell But
IL was 10 o'clock. The friends had re-
called all the old Oxford follies In the
days when they were undergraduates
together in Tom Quad They had eX-
hausted these "reminiscences and q
magnum OF LATTE, and though Sir
Cyprlan would have gladly gone back
to his chambers and his books, Jack
Dunster, his friend, was of livelier
temperament, and wanted to finish the
evening.
al ct 90 and see Hercules and ON
pha'e at the Kaleidoscope, he said.
~It's no end of fun. Jeem on plays
Omphale in a red wig, and Minnie
Vavasour looks awfully fascinating in
pink satin boots and lion-skin. We shall
be Just in time for the breakdown"
Sir Cyprian assented with yawn,
He had seen fifty such burlesques as
Hercules and Omphale" in the days
when such things had their charm for
him, too, when he could be pleased
with pretty girl in pank satin hes
siam, or be moved to laughter by
Jeemson's painted nose and falsetto
S ream.
They took hanson and drove to the
Kaleidoscope q handbook of theater
screwed into an awkward corner of one
of the narrow3st streets in London-a
street ut which well.bred carriage
horses acoustic ned to the broad thor.
Oughfares of Belgravia SHE'D furiously.
II was DeCemter, and there was no
one worth speaking Of in town; but the
little Kaleidosc pc was crowded, not
withstanding. J. ere were lust trace
OF empty stall1 in draughty corner
for Sir Cyprian and Mr. Dunster.
The breakdown was just on, the
pretty little Hercules hourishing his
club and exhibiting white round arm
with diamond bracelet above the ell
bow. Omphale was showing her an
kles, to the delight OF the groundlings,
che violin5 were racing one another,
and the flute squeaking its shrillest in
avulgar negro melody, accumulated by
rhythmical bangs on the big drum. The
audience were in raptures, and re.
@arded the exertions of band and
dancers with double recall. Sir Cyp-
rian stihed another yawn and looked
around the house.
Among the vacuOus countenances, all
Intent on the spectacle, there was one
face which wa out of the common, AM
which expressed a supreme wearine S.
a lady sitting alone in q stage box,
with one rounded arm resting indo-
1ently on the velvet cushiOn-an arm
Chat might have been carved in mar
BILE, bare to the elbow, its warm hui
man ivory relieved BY the yellow hue
of an old Spanish point ruttle. Where
had Cymian Dayenant cen that face
before?
The lady had passed the first bloom
of youth, but her beauty was of that
character that does not fade with
youth. She wa Of the Pauline Bor-
CHEESE type, woman worthy to be
modelled by new Canova,
81 remember" said Sir Cyprian to
himself. at was at that Richmond
dinner that met her. She is the lady
Gilbert Sinclair was to have married. "
He felt q curious interest in this
woman, whose name even he had for
gotten. Why had not Sinclair mar
cied her? she was strikingly hand
some, with holder, grander beauty
than Constance Clanyarde's fragile and
poetic loveliness-a woman whom such
a man as Sinclair might have natural
Cho en-. Just a. such man would
choose housekeeping chestnut horse,
without being too nice as to tinene5s
and delicacy Of line.
And | think from the little saw
that the lady was attached to him,
unused Sir Cyprian.
He glanced at the stage-box several
&imes before the end of the perform
ance The lady was quite alone, and
sat in the same attitude, tanning her
self languid'y, and hardly looking at
the stage. Just as the curtain fell, Sir
Cyprian heard the click of the box
door, ard looking up, isaw that gen.
tleman mad entered. The lady rose,
and he came forward little to assist
in the arrangement of her ermine-
lined mantle
The gentleman was Gilbert Sinclair,
What do you think of it?" asked
Jnck Dunster, as they went out into
the windy lobby, where pc )ple were
crow ed together waiting for their
Ca 1iages.
"Abominable, murmured Sir Cy'
prian.
Why, Minnie Vavasour is the pref
test actress in ondon, and Jeemson's
almost equal to Toole.