The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-04-01

| 1here comes the Lady of Quality, :"
could be heard in strong English as they
entered the little church adjoining May
Thanh Hall. The Lady of Quality" You
heard the name stridenly mingling with
the rattle of omnibuses in London. In
| Washington the Southern whispers were
| distinctly audible. In New York the
gamins were again ubiquitous. But this
time they concerned themselves only
with the Lady of Quality Her com
/ panien, the original Little Lord Fauntle-
roy'' had outgrown his fame.
| V.
! ct have long admired your novels. 1
am honored by this meeting"
Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett was
quite accustomed to these phrases. They
had all the SAVIOR of conventionalism to
her, but she liked the frank. kindly face
| of Stephen Townsend, F. R. A. S. She
met him at one of her brilliant at homes
in her town house in London
He had the physique of the average
English college-bred athlete. In his face
was that which indicated the artistic
spirit. Some wemen's ideal of god
The late Rev. George Tyler Townsend,
Of St Michaels, chaplain to the Duke Of
northumberland. he'd designed that his
son should be a physician The young
man was graduated with high honors,
but he disliked the practice of medicine,
and inclined to the stage.
At this juncture he met and greatly
admired Mrs Burnett. His intelligence
and appreciation were so remarkable that
Mrs. Burnett decided to employ him as
her private secretary
A week after he was engaged in this
capacity, Mrs. Burnett, while driving,
was run away with and thrown violent
ly from her carriage. 1t was thought
for hours that she was dead. The pri-
vate secretarys despised medical skill
was most useful Had it not been for
his prompt measures, while two great
specialists were speeding up from London
America would have lost it's greatest
woman novelist.
Scarcely had she recovered enough to
leave her bed when a cablegram arrived
with the news that her son, Lionel, the
Little Lord Fauntleroy, was dangerously
i'll Ill aS she was she took passage to
America, returning within the month
with her son.
Consumption, said the private secre-
tary, hesitatingly. sorrowfully. Cen
sumption" said the great London special
lists with professional finality.
The Lady of Quality" wept pitifuIly in
secret, but always presented a hopeful,
smiling face to her son. She took him
to Baden. There the three, Lionel, his
mother. and the private secretary, bat
ell. 81.
devotion awakened gratitude in the sor-
rowing mother, affection in the dying son,
admiring respect on the part of the
watching world at the German resort
THE sick boys brother?" inquired one
half of the watching world "Only a pri-
vate secretary said the other half
Death proved stronger than love. The
real little Lord Fauntleroy' followed
the mimic one to the heaven of boys and
the Lady of Quality mourned like
creature distraught. There was no one
near to comfort her but the private Sec
rotary.
Mrs. Burnett spent the first poignant
stage of her grief in London. She came
to Washington to give the sorrow wound
the balm OF distance
Last month she returned to Europe to
wed her private secretary, whom she
calls Her Comforter" They were mar
ried at Genoa, February 10. They are
spending their honeymoon at Maytham
Hall
Sordid calculators say that Mrs. Bur !
nett is fifty-f1ve years old. that her hus-
band is thirty, They fippantly speak |
of the Springtime of love" and "love's |
afternoon"
But there will always be critics, and |
Love is always young. 1t is enough for |
the Lady of nleeeatio arerencrftFre: |
the admirers of That Lass o Low |
rie's' that the Lady of Quality is
happy. ADA PATTERSON.
Some passionate utterances from Mrs. |
Burnett's novels are as follows:
1T is dangerous work for women to
plaE with souls
you and 1, my friends, are bodies He !
is q soul. 1t is such men who die young"
when man loves woman wholly, /
truly. purely. and to her highest honor
such love is the highest and Modest |
thing in the world. and nothing should |
lead TO its sacriice-no ambition, no
hope. no friendship"
"It is not Her way TO care for men
as they are likely to care for Her though
it Will come some day, I suppose, with
the coming man"
IF I could shut my eyes to the right
and see only the wrong I might enjoy
blind happiness, but 1 canEot-I cannot"
Nothing Of his conscientious labor was
lost upon her; nothing Of his self-sacri-
fee and trial was passed indifferently
in her thoughts Of him; his pain and his
effort went to her very heart"
He was never exactly comfortable /
when her views did no; strictly accord
with his own To find that she was re-
garding a favorite within with question
ing. was for sim to begin to faiter
bellious he might feel
ut was non "a fair wind and no favor
with him He wanted both the fair wind
and the favor, and if either failed him
he felt himself badly used
He found it delicious pain to go to
the house. day after day, feeling himself l
50 near to her, yet knowing himself 50
far from any hope Of reaching the
sealed chamber of her heart"
''Give me the time 10 make myself
worthy Give mo rho tfYna 70 work and /
strive They say am not slow TO learn.
wait and see how can work for the
mantle man 1 love-