The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1902-04-20

WRITTEN FOR IL SUNDAY
There was no reason why she should NOT
have been called a beautiful girl. though her
shines was such that when seen In her
slipshod home attire she looked more like
the N-ray picture Of one. But in the street.
built out to the fashionable size. and
equipped with that self-assurance neces-
sary to complete effectiveness. she would
have been noticeable anywhere.
Very tail, with a smooth. low forehead. an
exceptionally straight nose and large brown
eyes that looked at men and women with
the same glance-often Of disapproval. some
times of easy friendlincss. but never of CO.
quetry or sentiment-it required a hyper
critical observer to remark the expression
Of fretfulness that often marred her small.
J rather th!n-ipped mouth. But for this
there was some excuse.
Brought up in comparatively easy circum-
stances. upon her graduation from a fash
ionable school, whose educational value may
be judged by the comment Of a friend that
Life is too short to realize what Elizabeth
doesn't know" she had anticipated several
years of Uninterrupted pleasure, and had
| been met by the failure of her father
business. and. six months later, by his
death.
For the first disaster Mr.. Coles held one
man alone responsible. the Honorable Read
ing Payne, a politician welded to his art,
and, incidentally. married to 4 pocketbook.
Their enmity was of long standing. Having
come to New York from a Western town,
they had known each other as boys, had
lived in the same boarding-house In the
city, and, possibly from the difficulty of
making outside ac%quaintances, had both
fallen in love with the %landlady's pretty
daughter. And Coles had married her.
The disappointed lover had subsequently
congratulated himself upon an escape which
made it possible for him to wed Miss Long
streth. whose father owned the best paying
patent medicine in Alerica. But it had
been widely said that Miss Longstreth must
have sat for the "before-taking'' pictures of
the celebrated anti-dyspeptic tablets, and
OFTEN. in looking at the blooming and eff
fective Mrs. Coles, the Honorable Reading
Payne would momentarily forget his father
in-law's ten millions and feel the old hatred
of his rival rise hot and insistent in his
heart.
He had been one of the first to know of
the threatened failure OF the large whole
sale business the Coles had established in
the city. and at the outbreak of the Span
ish War. when the firm was making fever
ish efforts for Government contracts. his
political pull had turned the scale in favor
of another New York bidder, and made the
Coles failure inevitable.
1t was in the midst OF the confusion at
tending the firms assignment that Eliza
beth had returned home to a mother wholly
occupied by the demands of a peevish son
and a father almost hysterical with rage,
and hatred. The debut, the fine gowns. the
pleasant attentions to which she had looked
forward for three years were now, of
course, out of the question. and when her
father died and she emerged from two
years q mourning. it was into a society of
smaller requirements and lower tone.
She had dropped from the plane where the
young women spend money on the Young
men to that lower grade where the young
men spend money on the young women, and