Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1896-02-11
SYNOPSIS OF PRECEDING CHAPTERS.

CHAPTER Leslie Malincourt, a
coquette, is invited to visit her aunt,
Lady Appuldurcombe. that she may
be satisfied on her return to marry
Bob Heatherley. She is welcomed
by her cousin, Ronald Kilmurray.
II-Lesley meets Miss Cynthia de
Sails. III-And is interviewed by
her aunt.
CHAPTER ".
Ranelagh nowadays stands in much
| the same relation to Nottingham as rus
tic young beauty in a cotton gown wash
ing her face in the morning dew does to
o court belle all powder and patches and
trailing, brocaded skirts, and the world
seems to prefer the rustic for the present
but will it last?
The quaint house. through which
you pass to the grounds, sets your
thoughts and memory working. and
many q famous scene rises unbidden to
the eye, but to young folks who have
not destroyed the pleasures of reality by
the overstudy of books Ranelagh is sim
ply a charmingly sylvan spot conven-
iently near town, in which one might
spend . few hours very pleasantly
without tho inducements Of those eccen-
trio sports that everybody has ostensibly
come to see.
By the time Mr.. Yelverton had
brought his team, with flourish, round
the wide sweep of grass opposite the
] seats arranged for spectators, the little
hurt had gone out Of Lesley's heart and
that pucker from her brow which had
made Ronny shake his head at his
mother in way that the latter felt IN
kind when they We're starting.
Lesley was herself again-a most re-
ireshing self, Judging by Yelverton's
fits of laughter and the occasional diff
culties he had got into coming down,
through listening to her, instead Of
minding his own business.
Luckily the horses knew theirs, and
when at last they stopped Ronny climb
ed up behind the box seat and asked the
two what they had 5een laughing at.
Lesley refused to tell, and Mr.. yell
verton backed her up, while his mother,
now the grooms were gone, was at lib
thought fit to the men ON the coach, who
displayed great thirst for information
about "the lovely Malincourt," as the
world had already named her.
| ''She has a will of her own, and she
had never heard of Ronny in her life, :"
she confided, by and by, to a vieille
mustache, when the others had got down
to examine the ponies and dummies and
other odds and ends that make gymk-
hama such huge joke to the lockers on.
"And now she won't listen to him, -
said the old boy, grinning and looking
at the three before him and thinking
that Master Ronny, who had gone scot
free all his life, might get rap from a
slip of girl over the knuck'es yet.
~ believe you were laughing at my
expense" Ronny was insisting, and ad-
dressing the back of Lesley's head.
"Your'
Lesley turned q little, scornful face
ever SO slightly toward him, the face
upon which, she instinctively felt, he
was always looking for those marks that
the kisses Of half a county should, by
rights. have left upon it.
"Ishall call you Aristides. she said
Didn't the people Danish him because
they were sick Of hearing Of his virtues?'
The words were rode. but u certain
quality in her voice made them merely
piquant.
Meaning that I'm dull dog" said
Ronny imperturbably. "Well, go I am.
But I'm very tenacious too. What were
you laughing at?"
Lesley glanced down and saw Cynthia
walking past. This, then, was the rea-
son she could not dislodge him.
"H you really must know" she said
eve were talking about-frills
"Frills!'
Yelverton threw himself back and
laughed. He had met nothing SO much
to his taste as Lesley the entire season.
"Frills" repeated Lesley solemnly,
who, like a real woman, wanted to visit
on Ronny some Of the discomfort his
mother had caused her that morning.
"You men are SO fond Of them. You
like heaps and heaps Of them, and the
more frills and the more lace we can
cram on to our skirts the nicer you think
We look and the more you love us! I'm
sure that half the wife assertions end
domestic tragedies in the world are
| C0uSeu W u cCnHClty O AHiA1ss II tuo
contrast, / suppose, Of your strength and
the frivolity of our-frills that intoxi-
Gates you'll"
Pom my word. Miss Malincourt, ~
eaid Mr.. Yelverton gravcly, 1--WE often
thought that it's all that foam Of lace
that makes the dancing girls catch on
SOL
you've hit the right nail on the
head. It's not them we love; it's their
frills! Just as the more respectable a
woman is the less frill and the more leg
she shows in the street..
But Lesley did not seem to hear. and
Ronny, at the risk of breaking his neck,
had precipitously descended and was
seen marching OF with disgust strongly
imprinted all down his back.
Lesley drew in her breath.
"l've done it now !" she said, nodding
and looking up into the kind, ugly face
Of her companioA like . naughty child
who is asking q bigger and naughtier
one what he thinks her punishment will
be-
81 did it on purpose, you know. TO