Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1902-11-06
Ct Woman' S F ace
FLORENCE WARDEN
Continued.

a third who has by some chance
missed the family squint and who is
in consequence to be considered
beauty before whom Venus pales.
You must be very careful, for If you
meet Lady Croydon in the hall before
you have been introduced to her, you
will certainly give her your hat and
ask her the way to the drawing-room.
She is extremely Low Church and
very particular, so that the girls are
miserable and silent before her, and
insufferably indiscreet chatterboXes as
soon as she goes out Of the room.
Then there is Sydney Mason, who was
christened Samuel, but who slipped
into a different name and an effemi-
nate manner as soon as his father,
who was drysalter, or a billsticker,
or one of those things where you be-
gin with half crown and end with
half a million-dropped the outer
skin of trade and developed the wings
of the Millionaire. That's quite
poetfcal bit, isn't it,"
Charming. If you were to re-write
,
flow of popular imagery, there would
be a great future for those works"
e feel sure of it myself. Then
there's a plain young man named
South, who is said to be very clever
andrather fast, though he hasn't shown
the clOyen foot in either instance yet
But he can make lots of things out
of an orange, and l can't find out any
other reason for my husbands asking
him here. Of course he and Sydney
profess to be in love with me; per
haps my husband considers t hat
excitement enough. You shall judge
when you see them. Look! we are
coming to my favorite view"
Instead of driving straight up to the
house, she had taken a road to the
right and made a tour of the park,
brushing under bOughs bent down
with the weight Of snow, which some
times discharged their load on the oc-
cupants of the sleigh; an accident
which Lady KildOnan bore with I'M
disturbed good-humor on one occasion
requesting the doctor to take her
handkerchief out of her coat-pocket
and wipe the snow from her hat with
it. He obeyed very carefully and
then she held her face towards him
with perfect nOnchalance. A little
rlvulet of melted snow was trickling
down slowly from her white forehead.
He wiped the pretty cheek rather
aWlWardly, for she was so very
beautiful and yet was so straightfor-
ward and simple, that the action per-
turbed him and made his own manner
stiff and shy. Seen thus quite close,
her skin, one of those thick white
skins which appear so delicate and
yet are the hardest, affected by
neither sun nor wind nor cold to any
unbecoming redness or rOughness, was
bright as satin and soft as velvet.
while a certain languishing droop of
the outer corners of her eyelids proved
at close quarters quite an Intoxicating
charm. But Lady Kildonan herself
appeared to know none of these things.
She thanked him briefly and simply
and pointed with her whip to a view
which certainly merited her ecstatic
praises.
They were on ground higher than
the house, the tall red chimneys and
gables of which rose to the left above
bare trees from which the bright sun
was dlslOdging the snow in a glitter
ing shower. On the right the hill still
rose above them, growing bare of
tTnpS dc 70,
and majestic in outline. Below them
the ground slOped away, and gaps had
been made in the plantation, so that
peeps and stretches of the grey lake
were visible and the roofs and chin
neys Of Mereside on the opposite
shore. In the flood of bright morning
light ArmathWaite, who had keen eve
sight, even fancied that he could dis
tlnguish the sQuare-built, ivy-mantled
house which had been the scene of
his adventures Of the night. He
strained his eyes in the endeavor to
be sure of this, and Lady Kildonan
noticed the direction of them.
You can see Ned Crosmont's house
from here" she said, Watching him.
What pretty woman Mrs. Cros-
mont is, isn't she?''
'He-es, I suppose she is" answered
Armathwaite, who was not naif
enough to be led astray by woman's
praise into enthusiasm over another
woman's beauty. And more inter
esting than pretty
Yes, little too interesting poor
Ned has found her. l understand that
some allowances must be made for the
poor little woman, as she comes of
an eccentric family. But it is a pity
she doesn't put her fancy and origin
aIlty into novels or poems or some
thing of that sort, for a fanciful and
original wife becomes rather irving
sometimes. I'm sorry for old Ned. I
have always been very fond OF poor
Ned. she continued frankly. turning
to look into the young doctors face
with smile. 'If they had left me I
think | would have married him once.
But papa wouldn't hear of it. He had
great notions about the rights and
duties OF property, and other things I
didn't care a straw about. So he fer
feted out a steady-going gentleman of
his own age, who might be supposed
to look we'll after the family acres
and | was thrown in to close the con
tract And so Ned married somebody
else, and I'm dreadfully afraid he isn't
happy, though to do him justice he
never tells me So"