St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1898-04-16
Her Laurel ): !:
:: Crowned Defeat.
By Ida Rose McCabe.
Copyright, 1880

DAULlNEDET was dismal fail
ure. If her bewildered little brain
had indulged misgiying to the con.
trary, it was ruthlessly dispelled as she
followed Mrs. Col. Raget and the Miss
Kaget with her retinue of gallants from
the ballroom of the Patriarchs
Social successes are born, not made, :
remarked AIRS. Raget sententiously as
the family carriage rolled down the
avenue
Miss Raget. the superb" to quote
the society column, yawncd acquies-
cence.
"Men are such stupid lot" said the
belle of two seasons.
When Pauline had been dismissed
with an osculatory good night, mother
and daughter sat down in their night
dresses, after the manner Of woman
kind, to talk it over.
..She was by all odds the loveliest
GIRL said Miss Raget, tossing her pink
satin slipper to the farthest end of the
room.
sUnquestionably," said the colonel's
wife. "And manners so refreshingly
artless and winsome-the manners of
her mother. Lucretia was thoroughly
well-bred woman"
"And yet" said the superb
Pauline fell fiat. hopelessly fiat. Off
like rocket, down like stick"
Mrs. Raget sighed. Not a man
sought her for a second dance after
midnight"
Mrs. Col. Ragct's supremacy in
the ''slnart set" was invincible. Not
only had she successfully launched the
innumerable daughters of her own
household on the capricious upper crust
OF the social wave and piloted each to
snug harbors in tae way of well APP
pointed establishments and presentable
figure heads that served all the pur-
poses of husbands, but she was the
adored social sponsor of scores of pret-
ty women, who owed to her manipu-
lations their title Of Madam. While
Mrs. Raget's tactics elected admiration,
they eluded analysis. This lady was
credited with being able to determine,
twenty minutes after girl crossed a
ballroom for the first time, whether
she was destined for success or failure
So unerring was her Judgment in this
pivotal matter that-she is said to have
sent home on the occasion of her debut
no less a parsonage than the fourth Miss
Raget; and never was the latter per-
mitted, during her maidenhood, to make
a second appearance at a Patriarch.
But for once in her long reign Mrs.
Ragct had miscalculated.
The Louis XIV. pendulum chimed
three.
''Well?" said the superb"
Again the colonel's wife sighed.
There's no alternative. We must
send her home"
The place was a stuffy gable cham
Der in third-rate hotel at a popular
Virginia summer resort. In all the
loveliness of its Partisan artful artless-
ness it lay-the gown in which an ambi-
tious mother had dreamed that her be-
AosSa WYNN hIid
that would restore them to the station
they once held in the gay world. 1t
was the first time the gown had been
taken from its box since Pauline's
summary departure from the Raget
mansion. Mother and daughter gazed
at the airy, illusive creation which Mrs.
Raget's generosity had provided, but
only with fha n .hc1 ,,.%. SO
itors to mnsem; it did not appeal to
them as personal possession. Nothing
could be more out of touch with the
life they had been leading in the shab-
by little hostelrY in which they were
grateful to have found shelter for the
summer Notwithstanding, like the
sparrows, to Providence for winter
nest. But as her eyes rested on the La
France roses encircling the low bodice
the mother revived in fancy the tri-
umphs of her youth, quenched all too
quickly by widowhood and poverty. A
last desperate effort to save the old
homestead had emboldened her TO
make her way TO the metropolis and
seek the advice of a discarded suitor,
Col. Raget, who in the interval had
grown rich beyond the dream of ay-
arice. In her calculations she had over
looked the colonel's wife-for she who
had attained that enviable dignity was
an obscure, unconsidered factor in the
bellehood of Lucretia Detmar. Had the
widow been less guileless she might
have OWNED in Mrs. Col Raget's ad
miration of Pauline's beauty, to which
her attention had been called by the
colonel, and her offer to launch the
girl at the Raget expense in the .ssmart
set" q hint of malicious self-satisfac-
tion. rather than sincere desire to bet
ter their fortunes.
But unsuspecting Lucretia was CRATE
fnl then, and grateful she remained
despite Pauline's failure to meet expec
tatiuns and Mrs. Raget's inability to
account for it
..She was beautiful as a dream"
wnote the colonels wife, but times
md standard have changed, my dear
Incnetia- There's no counting on the
vaDaries OF the modern wife hunter"
ssYou must have looked lovely, dear
.st.r said the. mother, venturing to
ehake. ont the rosy ruffies. How
ehould love to have seen you"
But Pauline heard not. For her. the
] etu1sy room, the sultry August day. the