The record-union., 1898-01-02
PRETTY MRS. ST. CLAIR.

| PhSttS, 6VAoCA4-AfdllCd illAiC WluO" III
ing our sojourn at a German health re-
sort. My Wife and I are not, as a rule,
given to picking up chance dcquaint-
ances during our travels, but Fanny
had been very much fascinated by the
sweet-looking little woman; and when,
in course of casual conversation-be-
gun during a day of pitiless rain, which
confined us, all three, to the hotel
discovered that Mrs. ST. Clair had been
very Intimate with my dear old friends,
the St. Ledgers of Blankshire, our ac-
quaintance with the pretty widow rap
idly ripened.
Fanny and I have been married many
years now, and get on well enough to-
gether; but if sweet Helen ST. Ledger
mad lived, instead of joining the angels
some fifteen years ago-well a different
Lady Sefton might have reigned at the
| Grange. l can never forget what
might have BEEN; and, though Mrs. ST.
Clair's acquaintance with the st. Ledg-
ers dated long after poor Helen's death,
it was still interesting to me to chat
with her about my old friends-of whom
l had seen very little, since they had
practically taken up their residence in
| Italy. 1t was at Florence that Mrs.
ST. Clair had known them, stayed with
| them for months at a time she said ;
and, indeed she must have been on
very intimate terms with the family,
to nave noted SO many of dear old Sir
Georges quaint crochets and fancies
little peculiarities to which she play
| fully alluded, and at which 1 smiled,
with the sly amusement which one feels
for the foibles of ones best friends
/ To make short long story, before we
| left, Fanny had invited Mrs. ST. Clair
to pay US a visit at the Grange; and
| the little widow Joined us there a few
weeks after our return home. A most
accomplished and delightful guest she
proved. She had ''been alone nearly
two years now,'' ais she phrased it, and
had laid aside all the heavy trappings of
woe, only retaining those delicate mix
lures of black, and white, and gray,
which We're particularly becoming to
| her roSe-leaf complexion and golden
| hair.
| We had learned that her late husband
| "a baIker-had been considerably her
senior, and, to judge from appearances,
had left her very comfortably off as re-
CARDS worldly goods; her bereavement
| was confessedly no crushing sorrow,
| and l like her all the better for not be-
| ing hypocrite in the matter, and pre-
| tending to be heart-broken for the loss
| of an elderly man, when, from what she
| has told me-the poor child was an
orphan-she was really forced into mar
| rying him While but a girl just out of
the schoolroom," remarked my wife.
In addition to her undeniably good
looks Mrs. st. Clair was possessed of a
number of small accomplishments, which
made her valuable addition to a
country-house party. She was musical
an admirable tennis and billiard play
| er, could make creditable- figure at
| the whist table, and was always charm
| lngly dressed, in excellent spirits, and
full of pleasant ripple of society small
| talk; bright and lively, with just that
| little suspicion of malice which gives
zest TO such gossip.
| 1t was, indeed, most unfortunate that
/ we could not invite our fascinating
guest to remain with us for the great
annual excitement of our neighbor-
hood-our county ball; but every room
in our house had been bespoken for this
| event long before We met Mrs St Clair
Fanny kissed the little widow affection
ately when they parted; and as we our
| selVSs We're shortly coming to London
| for the winter, and Mrs St Clair had
taken fiat in town, we expected to
| see much of each other while in the me-
| tropolis.
/ And remember that I shall count
upon you to assist me in arranging
my tableaux, dear Mrs. St Clair" said
my wife, who was intending to organize
a series Of living pictures" shortly
after our arrival in London, in aid of
some charity of which she was one of
the patronesses.
| Il VIII design some effective group in
which you shall figure as a Queen
wearing your magnificent tiara of dia-
monds," laughed Mrs. ST. Clair, as she
waved her last adieu from the carriage
window
Magnificent was certainly hardly
an exaggerated epithet to apply to the
beautiful ornament, in which We're set
some jewels which had descended to
me from an ancestor who had been in
India in the days when shaking the
pagoda-tree'' was in vogue. The dia-
monds which now flashed amid my
wife's dark braids had once been the
property Of an Indian Begun, and East
I
jewelry.
Il should like to see you wearing
those lovely diamonds, dear Lady Sef-
| ton," our guest had cried, when on a
wet afternoon Fanny had held one of
those private exhibitions of personal
possessions to which women appear to
be so fond of inviting their feminine
friends. Men, by the way, never do
the like. / should never dream of ask
! ing my dearest male associate to turn
| over my stock of studs and coats. but
women will spend hours in the seclu-
sion of one another's bedrooms scrutin-
izing 'frocks" and jewels.
Il should feel quite anxious il I kept
such valuables in my room," added
Mrs. st. Clair, as Fanny, after the show
was over, had locked up the precious
| casket in one of the drawers of her
| wardrobe-"a very unsafe place fer
such treasures as our guest warming
| ly exclaimed. But we knew the hon
| esty of all our servants-old family re-
| tainers most of then-and also, though
| the Blankshire folks always admired
| the luster of the jewels, which / had
| fetched from their usual resting-place
at our London bankers In order that
Fanny might. as usual wear the tiara
at our local ball, probably not one of
our rustic neighbors, or domestics,
guessed at the real value of those dia-
monds. Mrs. st. Clair, however. "who
4 adored Jewels" as she frankly admit
| ted, was better critic, and appraised
the true value of the stones at glance.
| Our guest had left us, and we went to
the ball without her, Fanny resplendent
/