Crittenden press. [volume] (Marion, Ky.) 1879-1907, 1902-04-24
GIRL WAS TOO RICH.


Nobody who hasn't gonethrough it
know kew horrid it is to be rich. |
mean very rich--so rich that people
say: There goes the rich Mis-, E.
ice. Not pretty Miss El.ice" or
~nice Mss El.ice. though it does
seem to me that have some claim to
both those descriptive adjectives. but
always that inevitable rich Miss E.
lice"
l was as nearly born an orphan as
anybody could be. for my mother died
when ! was a day old and my father
a few months later, leaving me with
all those oppressive millions and no
blood relations Il always hated tba,
expression. it sounds so murderous)
to look after me, so was made
ward in chancery.
Ny nurse used to toady to me, and
as for the children | was allowed 10
know, several of them admitted re-
garding me as a kind Of natural curl
osity because ] was IAN heiress'
When was 10 chaperon was en-
gagged to live with me and travel about
the world. HAD longed to travel. but
i soon found out it was just as bad
being abroad as at home.
How the facts about me leaked out
everywhere | don't know. | wanted
to take a false name and have a lit
tie peace, but my chaperon, who was
a bishops widow and rather rigid in
her ideas, would not hear Of passing
under false pretenses' as she called it.
If the truth were known | believe that
Mrs. De Selwyn in her quiet way en-
joyed the kind Of triumphal progress
We made wandering about Europe.
People never failed TO find Us out
at hotels. Whispers and glances went
round, and mothers with sons scraped
acquaintance with us and were un-
pleasantly maternal. In England and
France | was fairly mobbed with i'm
pecunious young noblemen and Off
GERS, and would have been amused if
j hadn't been furious. In Germany
it was much the same, and in Italy
narrowly escaped being kidnapped.
When | couldn't stand it any longer
we went back. 1t was just at the be-
ginning Of the season, and Mrs. De
Selwyn was determined that should
be presented. / was presented, and
the inevitable consequences ensued.
In the first month / had 4S proposals.
BY the end of the season | had quite
lost count, and | was so sick of il all
so deadly sick, knowing only too
well that not one of the men who
had asked me to marry them would
have dreamed Of doing it if it had not
been fer my millions.
l could have been two duchesses-
] mean, that two English dukes were
among the moths who burned their
wings at the golden lamp; and there
was even a lesserroyalty-but it seems
like Boosting to enumerate them;
whereas, in reality, with each pro-
posal | had one more point of my van
ity broken off until finally l had none
left at all.
Things went on in this way, grow
ing worse instead of better, for two
years. / felt old and had lost my
faith in the disinterestedness Of men
and women. ! was not intended by
nature to be cynical, but experience
was thwarting nature, and the peo-
pie who made themselves so charm
iag must often have disliked me in
tensely, though all the while was
starving for love-honest love with
out the suspicion Of a mercenary twist,
When | was 81, and free-as much |
as a girl can be free-to do as chose, |
Mrs. De Selwyn and ! had a quarrel.
1t was a silly quarrel about an equal
" silly young man, my chaperon's
nephew, whom she'd been scheming |
for years, it seeF~-1--a-s-have me mar
nv. / wa, so disgustsR ,.',.- threwi