The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1896-03-28
Dining at the Hammond b first

see Is5'
cure . cool hand, George. How
do you know r.,
by, Of course, our fellow stuck
/ it@Out there. thought perhaps YOU
| mi ght have been going to the ope "a. 81
If you mean to Mrs Macdo nald,s
box, she has not done me the homo 1T ia
ask me ]; but even if she had 4 could
mot SO.
81 vely. last night, wasn't ii, y said
| George, after a short silence.
have seen it worse at the Berke-
Hey.
forgot You left before Jack Daw-
son took the BAN Good Lord, twas
a futter! The way to win a t baccarat
is to tai e the bank rs IS ss.
Then the talk drifted to racing.
Some one had come mo end Of a cop
per- over Thund erbolt for the Ascot
cup, another had won a pot of
money over Creased ightning at
SandeWn. After half an hour of this
Iexhilarating conversation George, hay
I ing a polo pony to exercise in the park,
sauntered off as he had come S..
4; Mr.. Mcdonald and his sister had
been that afternoo to a lecture at the
Royal institution on 8 Tree and Serpent
Worship. !" The Hon. W HE was wrapt
up in ancient religions and peoples,
and spent most of his time, when in
London, listening to learned disquisi-
tons, When in Wiltshire in opening
sbarroWs'' and excavating encamp-
ments. He was tall and near GIFTED,
with the expression of dwelling, as
EtheFs goYerness used to express it,
.szWischen himmel und erde. George
T Falkner's letter lay on the slab as he
passed down the hall. Ethel raised it
and followed her brother into the
study.
am certain that fellow was mac
curate in his statement on the subject
of the theological views of the Anda-
man islanders Z said the Hon. Willie,
undoing the Mcdonald tartan that he
habitually Wore as neckerchief.
Whats that letter you've got?''
Il Imagine it is from one of the men
Cissie wrote to for this evening"
You had better open It, then, hadn't
you q I. d Il. .s..s h. s.4., .s35
Il think So There is not very much
time left in case Of a refusal to ask
any one else and nothing is SO de
pressing as two women alone in an
opera box 81. !.
Ethel was as fresh and pure as the
white hyacinths that were sent from
the Mersham Conservatives to deck
the; Grosvenor palace drawing room.
In spite of it's seal she opened the let
ter, read the first few lines turned
scarlet and dropped it on the table.
Her brother, slow in the observation
OF most things. was quick to see d
change of expression on the faces Of
those he loved. Taking the letter, he
read it also. For those few seconds
Ethel felt as though she We're living
through Some Emotions and a
Moral When he had done he sat
down on the edge of a chair, brushing
his nat the wrong, way; his was not a
quick-moving intellect
Those are Mr.. Fane's initials, are
they not?'' he asked presently.
Yes h, /. .s rs, -
# ''''That is his address ~
Il think So
Deliberately he folded the Macdon-
aid tartan across his chest, put the
letter into his pocket and left the
room.
His feeling for Cecilia fac onald
was the one romance of Gerald Fane's
life She. was in Dresden with her
mother, studying art, as she phrased
it, when he first met her. Gerald was
also studying art to the extent Of play
ing the violin very much out Of tune.
He and she had many an evening
crunching the gravel of the tsBrah-
llsche Terasse" together, gazed at the
moonlight and the vine-clad hills and
talked of their respective pursuits
He rather bored her, but, as the only.
alternative was. conversation Il with
German officers, she, honored the En-
glishman with her undivided atten-
ton. His passion for her during these
few weeks. entered. Wedge-like. into
his life. He accepted his doom when
he heard that she was engaged to the
Hon. William Macdonald for he knew
that he was too poor to take the bur
den of her life as well as his own. In
course of time he became "a foreign
office clerk, and not "a model Young
man. He often drank more cham
payne than was good for him; he fire.
quented private gambling club in
St James, and lost larger sums on
horses, than he could afford; but, as
among the poor Indians rags and tat
ters was found hidden a diamond OF
great price, so among the rags and
tatters of Gerald Fane's life might be
found hidden his love for Cecilia Mac
donald Now he sat thinking Of her
and George Falkner with a certain
amount of perplexity and great deal
of detection, for, though constant to
his idea, he could not avoid hearing
the gossip of Mayfair drawing rooms.
The tinkle Of the electric bell,
step on the stairs, and the sudden
opening of the door, startled him from
his brown study. Disheyeled and agi-
tated the honorable Willie at that
moment formed as great a contrast to
the urbane man of letters he had been
accustomed to associate with Cissie's
husband as it was possible to mag
inc. The wrath Of a habitually calm
man is always more portentous than
the wrath of violent one Gerald
could not resist a passing feeling Of
amusement as, setting down his hat
among the cigars and cigar-ash, his
visitor fumbled in his pocket. rs a full
compre hension Of the situation, how
ever, when George Falkner's letter
was produced, soon chased away the
faintest nclination to the shadow Of a.
smile. s=
I'M. 80 Ifr