The Saint Paul globe., 1900-06-10
SHORT
OF The
Chicago Times-Herald.

Chicago Times-Herald.
''It was really most comieal situation
my dear" said Lady Sara to her friend
Lady GIenlyndon. "They were announc-
ed together just like husband and wife.
She came in looking ready to burst with
rage, and affecting not to notice the gen
eral grin. He came In, either not having
heard the announcement and quite un-
conscious Of the presence of his dear re-
lation, or else one of the finest actors l
have ever seen. think she would have
liked to have ordered him to be turned
out of the room on the spot, but as she
could not do that, she turned her back
on him instead and turned up her nose
and I am sure it turns up quite enough
of itself. Well, she sat down by me, and
he sat near and talked a:ably, obviously
trying to draw her in. She sat looking
daggers and claws and teeth all together
at him, refusing to be drawn, and then
at last snubbing him so savagely that
he gave her just one glance of utter
amazement and left her to herself She
went soon, and, I hope, felt ashamed of
herself, but I doubt it,
Nothing is less conducive to repent
ance," said Lady GIenlyndon, laughing,
than the knowledge that one is thor
oughly in the wrong"
Exactly. Well, then I said to him:
How did you like that lady who has
just left?' He smiled good humoredly-
what a pleasant smile he has!-and said,
One thing is quite certain, that I could
not like her less than she did me- Don't
you know who she was? I said, and
when he said No added, She is your
connection, Lady Whitney, His face was
a perfect study. Good Lordv he said,
the dowager! Do you suppose she knew
me?' Well she could have hardly helped
doing so, as that stupid Watkins an
nounced you together as Lord and Lady
Whitney, You should have seen how he
stared, and then he laughed Watkins
takes the cake he said. That's a record
since Count Monster and Count Beast
But I wish I hadn't been the hero Of It
and least Of all with the dowager. It's
odd. by the by, how different she is to
what I pictured herr What was that?
I naturally asked. oh, old and frumpy,
the regulation dowager, with a high
nose and plastered-down bands NO,
she's not that I agreed, though her
nose was high enough during the inter-
view, but not in the sense you mean"
But how did Watkins manage it?"
''Oh, he said of course he knew Lord
Whitney of old. and the lady gave her
name as Lady Whitney. SO he said he
thought his lordship had got married un-
beknownst. Therefore instead of announc-
ing Lady Whitney as he was told, he
played off his own baits as Jack says,
with disastrous results. Don't you know
those tiresOme people who will think,
instead of doing what they are told and
always think wrong?"
In this unIucky fashion began the per-
sonal acquaintance, if 1t may be so call
ed, between the new Lord Whitney and
the widow of his predecessor. The pi-
quancy of the situation from the specta-
tors point of view lay in the fact that
the two persons concerned were the op-
posing leaders of family feud. The old
Lord Whitney had always resented the
fact that he had no son, and Lady Wit
ney was even more indignant that her
daughter could not inherit to the exclu-
sion of the distant cousin. The fact that
the principal seat and estate were en-
tailed lent fuel TO the fire. When, there
fore, the event came, the distant cousin
succeeded, and it appeared that he was
quite unwilling to sell the property. and
only ready to act for a year or so. solely
to oblige Lady Whitney while she was ar
ranging matters. The lady's Indignation
reached white heat. She declared that
she would not be beholden to him for any
thing, and hurried ont of her old home
as soon as possible with the utmost
furry, fume and inconvenience-all of
which she set down to The 'interloper's"
account. Also she declared that she
would never see,e speak toe or hear from
him. They had never seen one another
owing to this "coolness''4 and Therefore
when they met for the first time at Lady
GlenlyndOn's it was inevitable that Lord
Whitney should not recognize the lady
Lord Whitney had pictured his dear
relation" as typical dowager with the
external appearance of a trump and the
manners of true virago. Lady Whitney,
as 1t happened, was one of those for