The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-04-23

in THE Lady of Lyons" Nothing could
be more silken and satisfactory. The re-
puted father is wealthy enough to buy his
way into most of the circles. His re-
puted daughter Is herself key that
opens palace doors. 1t need not here be
remarked that American wealth is very
powerful anywhere and that in England
when 1t includes q lovely daughter it is
omnipctent.
1t was when Virginia Bonynge was ct
the height of her success in London as
the BEAUTIFUL American heiress who had
become the bosom friend OF the Princess
Christian and was soon to marry into the
peerage, that another American woman
who knew the facts about her birth, re-
solved to let the cat out, which she Gid
deliberately and circumstantially, much
to the CONSERVATION Of the Princess
Christians set and the hilarious delight
of many gilded youth who had tried TO
get into the train Of the California
heiress and failed.
WOMAN EVOLVED THE STORY.
To appreciate the force of the revela-
ton it Is necessary to remember that Col
Benynge. the supposed father, was re-
garded in the London clubs as a sort of
American Monte Cristo. Now 1t tran
spired that Miss Bonynge was not his
daughter. that she was not even an
American, but the daughter of a plain
ldlSD SdIuSIltT anu VI Il uOuSSIIdlu,
his wife, both emigrants from England
only twenty years before.
Some one wrote all these facts with
the minutest details as to the crimes of
Miss Bonynges father, Daniel, and of the
ignominiouS death, and sent the explana-
lions to the prospective bridegroom. The
effect was instantaneous. No explana-
lions could suffice. The engagement was
broken off by the scion of the noble Brit
ish house. The incident was soon lived
down by the man, but no one then
doubted that to the fair young creature,
who then for the first time learned the
true story of her own birth and heritage,
the end of life's young dream had come.
She had lived in a fairyland of delight.
and it seemed that the awakening was to
a nightmare reality.
ILL-FORTUNE'S EFFECT.
But Virginia Bonynge's fairy story was,
not ended. She was only nineteen, and
probably cared nothing for the noble
bridegroom whom her ambitious mother
had picked out for her.
1t is never possible to tell precisely
how or why misfortune which Is fatal
to one man is the making of another; or
how misstep or a grief which brushes
one woman awakens new resources in
another and leads to fresh triumphs.
1t is a mystery even to those in the
who was once an English housemaid,
and her daughter, the child of the gar
dener, overcame the social shock of the
revelation. The antecedents were not
in the least disgraceful to themselves.
but were greatly detrimental simply be-
cause they had been concealed. 1t Is
known that the Princess Christian, out
of deep regard for the young girl to
whom she was so much attached, cham
pioned Miss Bonynge against everybody
who presumed to challenge her right of
/ entire into the most aristocratic British
society.
| If the reader is interested In the ma
| chinations of mothers and the counter
plots of fathers who go from Dead Mans
Gulch to St. James he will find it all
| echoing in the state gossip Of the Cleve-
| land administration. The question Is
! writ large there: How did Minister
| Phelps succeed in getting Virginia Dan
| lei presented at the court where she had
already been presented to the queen
| undr the wrongful name of Bonynnge?
How was 1t that bluer blood of New
York and New England was ignored?
These questions were never answered
| Nor is 1t at all necessary to the interests