Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1899-05-13

lerie in n selfish, narrow fashion; or, more
correctly, he was dazzled and infatuated,
and wanted her beauty to crown the ediice
Of his wealth-and shed, by its fame, a kind
Of halo over himself.
His gentle blood and good-breeding saved
him from being a snob in the worst and
most vulgar sense; but there is a kind OF
sno5bery which may be found among
well-born men and women, and is more or
less offensive to fine senses; and to this
class Aston Lawford belonged; a pride, moi
of wealth, but of those things which wealth
procures-his pictures, his horses, his
establishment generally. 1.-THE iron enter.
ed into his soul" Max Beauregard said OF
him once; and, 1t may be added, the witty
p%araphrase in application, but not of words,
was somehow repeated to Aston Lawford,
and then he never forgave it.
Now you are cross said Valerie, very
coolly, and struggling her shoulders; but
inwardly she quailed. Was she going too
far with this man? She had never sup.
posed that he really cared for her. Could
it be that he did-that she was trifling with
himf
And you-cruell' returned Lawford,
lowering his colors at once. Valerie would
IdNC lCopCIlCu mn bollGI IL hc hdu OCtu
less ready to yield. As it was she answer.
ed by another shrug, and bowed with un.
necessary er>,reSSement to Harry Dallas,
who was on horseback among the specta
tors.
Some Of the coaches, among them Law.
ford's and Gerald Beauregard's, drove
down to the Crystal Palace for luncheon,
and there, as everywhere, Valerie Herbert
was the centre Of attraction. II homage
and fattery could make happiness, she
ought to have been sublimeiy happy.
Lady Elinor remarked to her husband that
the girl firted outrageously, and he smiled.
What can be expected" he said, when
a girl is so fascinating, and men make such
n fuss with herr But 'outrageously' Is a
strong term. Is the Lawford affair set
tled?"
Her aunt told me yes. Valerie has gone
almost too far to recede; besides, why
should she, unless some duke or earl came
forward-and there are none eligible at
present"
And when Gerald and his wife returned
to Whitehall Gardens, Max threw down
the book he had been holding, but not
reading, the last ten minutes, and asked
them, smiling, how the meet had gone OFF,
"Splendidly!' said Lady Elinor. why,
ave you heard nothing about it?"
81 was at the Wa Office" he answered,
until three o'clock, and then I had a lot
of letters to write, so | came straight home.
You seem tired, Gerald" he added, to his
brother.
81 am; you know how little / care for
London life. | shall take myself off to Alb
bots Leigh very soon, and leave you to
take care of Nellie"
Then Lady Elinor began to tell oil about
the meet and the luncheon, and Of course
Valerie came to the front. How she look
ed, what she wore, how everyone said it
would be "a match" with Lawford; how
she hirted, and al the rest of it. To which
Colonel Beauregard listened wEh a due
amount of interest, and gave no hin that
he was on the rack the whole time; and
Lady Elinor afterward said complacently
to her husband:
at is lucky Max doesn't seem TO have
taken a fancy to Valerie Herbert. He
wouldn't get over it as most men get over
disappointments."
If she had seen Max Beauregard when
he was alone ~again-seen the gray agony
Of his face, heard the whisper: 'Oh, Heay-
en-! oh, Valerie! my love, my ~love!"-her
shrewd ladyship, who fiatteredh herself that
few men or women could deceive her,
might save owned that one a at least,
knew how to keep the pcnstert Strettt be-
hind the UOlto SCtlto.