Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 1886-1927, 1902-05-15
CUPID AT
WATERLOO
BY WIhnIAN Bhoss.
nHIsrREss MARGuERTTE

M TOINETTE CARROLL was q so
phisticated and wholly worldly person
of six or seven and twenty years.
To begin, she had money, more
money than any single woman needs;
more money than forty millonE OF
American women ever dream OF in
their hopes, or hope for in their
dreams. To continue, her social posi-
tion was impregnable. II had an edge
81 gilt and full morocco binding;
ii was eighteen carat; the real thing;
very Kohnoor among social posi-
tions. Mistress Marguerite Antoinette
Carroll was not only Daughter OF the
American Revolution but a Colonial
Dame as well, not only had ancestors
Of hers Haunted their curls through
the Carolnas at the heels OF the hard
riding Swamp Fox and helped to pen
the unlucky CORVALLIS into the bear
trap at Yorktown, but other ancestors
more remote had brayed red warriors
from Virginia stockades and pursued
them into the rank tanghs back Of
the Chesapeake, for the greater glory
OF the king. and the greater safety OF
the sucking colonies, long before ever
washington had trodden a cisatlan-
,ic sbore Now these things be but
vanity, 1t may be, but Marguerite Car
roll bugged them not the less To her
heart and held high her head because
OF them. But le. us proceed with this
schedule Of possessions.
item, An education which EN-
braeed familiar knowledge with half
the capitals md courts OF Europe.
Item. A face and figure that artists
raved over; crown ofshining hair that
seemed n thicket TO entanRle even Gu
Did himself.
Item: Miss Carroll was her own
mistress having neither parent nor
Guardian nor trustee. TO ooerce her
bumors or advise her vagaries.
She resided. when she felt like It,
with her Uncle Henshaw and her aunt,
In Washington. Sometimes she paid TO
New York and her grandmother a
winter visit long enough to make her
an admired spectator at the horse
show or the opera. Then she would
fee TO California or the Riviera, to the
CITY OF Mexico or up the Nile; any
where her fancy pleased dragging
along by Rilded chain her cousin,
julia Henshaw, and some conventional I
chaperon OF eminent respectabihty
and impartial blindness
Nevertheless, however much one
might think TO the contrary, Mnrgue-
rite Carroll was as wholly dissatisfied
with existence rs could be n woman
who possessed neither wealth nor
health, birth nor beauty. She did ex-
actly as she wished, yet would have
preferred TO be one mans loving slave.
She loved the world, yet would rather
have been shut within some cage OF
home, subject TO the beck and call OF a
lord and master Her soul was starved
for love. She sighed for the heart ties
OF an adorer whom she could herself
ndore--and found II not. The ennui
OF safety which has drunk up the
wine OF pleasure until one looks upon
the very bottom OF the glass possessed
her restless spirit and rendered petu-
liant her strenuous nature, hungry for
love. Under the blue Ice OF her habit
ual demeanor smouldered sapphire
passions needing only vent to rise TO
devourlng volcanic flames.
Wooers, yea in scores, she had had,
and toyed with archly, but not one
had come benath whose mask OF words
and conventional protsstations she
had not read, or fanced she could read,
the insincerity Of the hunter OF for
tunes, the perfunctory laudaion OF
her undeniahle but marble beauty.
She had no soul, all her suitors said, as
one by one they relinquished the seem
ingly impossible task Of kindhng fire
upon the frigid altar Of her heart.
Therefore, at last, from the cruelble
OF her discomfort, OF her increasing
years, Of the unrequited cravings OF a
nature ardent at the core, had
emerged a woman who sought to re-
venge herself upon mankind by art
fully awakening passions shd did not
return, by arousing hopes she nur-
'Na'N 'hAl NhoN wv ihihhN hHitbNs ph'
declared a secret war against the race
OF what Nine. Sarah Grand has dubbed
mere man." and pursued her cam
paigns Nindictively Since It WAS de-
MED TO her, alone among women, 20
find the soul mate she would select, she
would at least be happy In the making
of mankind miserable
Thus II was, as the season waned,
that Miss Carroll, her cousin Julia, the
discreet Mrs Sylvester Beaumont,
their travelling sacrifice to the propri-
eties, hurrying eastward from a sum
mer voyage to the great Muir glacier,
SitkA and Alaskan waters, stopped at
Minneapolis to catch their breath, and