The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1896-10-03

death. You who have lived in Lon
don all your life have no idea what
Mudcastle is, what Mudcastle socio-
ty thinks and talks about. You
would laugh, LOttie, if you could see
the dignataries of the church. Their
dignity consists chiefly in the size of
their persons and the slowness of
their speech. The poor curate slav-
ing in his populous parish has more
true dignity about him than the
whole lot put together. He is at
least a man doing a mans work
And then the minor canons, dear
Perhaps you don't know what they
are. They are a sort of cathedral
o%urate, with nothing to do but sing
and talk to ladies. They all wanted
to marry me. Of course now |
have disgraced myself, they would
not dream of it. They would look
down on a poor playactress who
earns their annual income in a fort
night and who has had half the aris-
tocracy of London at her feet. And
then conversation at dinners and at
homes, my fathers sermons, who
will get the bishopric of Rodney, the
singing of the new minor canon, the
missionary progress in .Timbuktu,
the last new theological work and
all the cathedral shop you can i'm
agine. Is it surprising that l want
ed to escape and see the world?"
Lottie laughed. you are very
bitter" she said. Arc you sure
you have no other reason besides be-
ing bored:'
Elsie turned "a sharp glance upon
her companion. what do you
mean? Do you not think that is a
sufficient one?"
"Oh, yes, dear, amply sufficient,
but still
"Still WHAT"
There are other reasons, you
know, why girls go on the stage"
And she laughed slyly.
Elsie turned away from her con-
temptuously and began to open some
notes that were lying on the table
and fling them one by one into the
waste paper basket.
"'The same old thing, Elsie, I sup
pose" Lottie said in tone of envy.
II wonder people don't get tired OF
sending them. And, as for the flow
ers, l call it a sinful waste not to
veal them. l wish 1 could get a
quarter of the number
Yes, the same old thing, Lottie,"
she said, almost YEARLY, and then,
as she took up a note and opened it,
q CLEAN of triumph came into her
eyes, and her whole face wa lit up
with a smile. She threw the rest of
the notes unopened into a basket
and read this n again and again.
1t was as follows:
MY DEAR Miss MILTON-Well, of
all the ** x I came up to town last
night, and, hearing of the attraction
of London, came to the Jollity. Like
every one else, l have fallen a VIC
tim. I hear that you never wear the
flowers that are sent you, but per-
haps you will mako an exception in
favor of an old friend. May I SEQ
you after the performance and tell
you the Mudcastle news? / will
take your wearing the flowers as
Yes Yours sincerely, B.
That night Elsie Milton wore flow
ers for the first time on the stage,
and the whole house burned with q
desire to know who was the lucky
man that had given them to her.
Three months after all Mudcastle
was intoxicated with the excitement
of an normou bazaar. For weeks
the cathedral ladies had been work.
ing at impossible articles of apparel
and decoration. Gum, cardboard
and silk We're scarcely procurable sc
large had been the demand on those
Indispensable commodities. Flags
had been gathered from the four
quarters of the globe to represent
every nation and proclaim the world.
wide Importance of the undertaking.
The mind of the ecclesiastical fe.
male a riot in the wickedness oil
fancy dress designs, for this was tc
be no ordinary sale of work, but 8
gigantic fraud for the cathedral res.
toration fund, and every woman had
to be sufficiently bewitching to snare
the gold of unwary and susceptible
man.
The Duchess of Marlborough haC
been asked to open it. She said she
greatly regretted her inability to at
tend, but that they had given VI
their house for a time to their son
the young Marquis of B~aaucaster
who had just been married ant
wished to spend part of his honey
moon there. She was, however
sure that the young marchioness
though she only arrived the day be
fore the bazaar, would be charmed
to take her place.
. The cathedral authorities were de
lighted. A marchioness is not S,