Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1896-02-15
SYNOPSIS OF PRECEDING CHAPTERS.

CouucIte, Is invited 10 NleIt OeT aunt,
Lady Appnldurcombe. that she NAV
be satisfied on her return to marry
Bob Heatherley. She is welcomed
by her cousin, Ronald Kilmurray.
lI-Lesley meets Miss Cynthia de
Sails. IlI-And is interviewed by
her aunt. IV-Mr. Yelverton tells
Lesley that Ronny is the best gentle
man horseman in England. V-Les-
ley rides out with Mr.. Yelverton and
is criticised for SO doing. VI
Ronny buys Yelverton's mare for
Lesley. Wellesley desires to see
Ronny brought to sue for Cynthia de
Sails, who is in love with him. VIII
But Lesley's aunt suspects her of
wishing Miss de Sails out OF the way
that she may have Ronny herself.
IX-Lesley walks with Ronny in
Leicester square early in the morn
ing and is seen by Graham Dash
wood, whom she had snubbed. "
Cynthia faints at the races On ac-
count of Ronny's attentions to Lesley.
CHAPTER XII
No one who does not wish his social
pretensions found out should venture
into the park on Sunday morning be-
tween the hours Of IL and 2. The pro-
portion of nobodies to somebodies is
that of q thousand to one, and the un-
desirable acquaintance will crowd up
on the ambitious one thick as leaves in
Vallambrosa, while the minor circle Of
great ones, all more or less closely tied,
will serenely dawdle between Grosven-
or and Stanhope gates, freshet of
pure water as they imagine, dividing a
very Red sea Of counter jumpers and
suburb ban hostesses.
Lady Appuldurcombe's dictum, that
it was quite impossible to miss anybody
you wanted to see on q Sunday morn
ing If you kept within sight of Park
lane, seemed about correct, as, with
Lesley on one side and Ronny ON the
other, she walked under the trees that,
thanks to the wet summer, had kept
their green longer than usual this year.
The smiles that greeted her on all
sides from her intimates only threw in
to greater relief the GOODNESS of the
glances cast on Lesley, and the spiteful
ones of those younger and disappointed
women who have not known how to at
tract and keep mems love and who
would ultimately go to swell the great
army of unwomanly prosecutors Of their
own sex, that is one Of the crying dis
graces Of the day.
They are all sisters-they should help
one another, not strive with cruel hands
to thrust them down, but until true
Christianity is practiced more than it
is preached and woman becomes the
chief friend Of woman, SO long will
men look on aghast at the barbarities
inflicted by the SO called gentler sex on
each other in the name of virtue, though
spite would be truer word.
Lesley endured the small cuts and
things administered TO her with no dim
mutton whatever in her usual air of
irrepressible youth, for the simple rea-
son that she did not observe them, be-
ing really much exercised in her mind
about Cynthia. whose sudden illness
yesterday had alarmed and troubled her.
What had she done that Cynthia
should wildly push her away when she
went to her side and barely say Good
| by" when they set her down, still white
and trembling, at the house in Gros-
venor place?
Cynthia could not be angry, surely,
because Ronny had come to his cousin
FIRST to be congratulated. And then Les
| ley uttered an exclamation of pleasure,
for there, just beside the low rail, was
| Cynthia, sitting by her mother, SO ex-
quisitely dressed that few people would
| pause to notice the dullness of her usu-
ally creamy skin or the lifeless look in
her warm, red brown eyes.
Lesley skipped over the railing, and
saluting Lady de Sails looked about for
a chair, which Ronny, after some search,
found.
Lady Appuldurcombe, absorbed by
some friends, disappeared, and Ronny,
finding himself one too many, also beat
q retreat, SO that the girls were virtual
ly alone.
| "You are better, Cynthia:" she said,
with that rare tenderness in her voice
which apparently only q woman had
power to call forth, since no man had
ever heard it.
For a moment the dark eyes, pride
covering their anguish, looked into her
loyal blue ones, searching what was
there. Then, with strange culver in
her face, Cynthia said:
II am Quite-quite we'll. 7"
eft was the heat" said Lesley, with
conviction, for her conscience accused
her not ut all.
She was leaning her chin ON her hand,
elbow on knee, her wide, white skirts
of chiffon spreading out snowily around
her, the little face serious under her
broad white hat, for Cynthia was suf-
fering acutely, and Lesley wanted to
know the reason why.
Many people looked at the beautiful
pair, while Lady de Sails saw enough
in some Of the glances thrown on her
daughters friend to make her vaguely
uneasy, as if she had not had trouble
enough on Cynthia's account before.
Cynthia's mother was stout, and con-
sequently we'll padded against the un-
kind knocks Of fate, but this nonsense
about Ronny had lasted quite long
enough, and if he meant to marry his
cousin, why had Cynthia let the whole