The Aberdeen Democrat. (Aberdeen, South Dakota) 1???-1909, 1903-10-02
der tho soft shaded lights. he saw

er looking than he had at frs
thought. She looked to be rather I'm
der than over 25, was slender and ele
CANT in figure, her head small an,
shapeiy, her large dark eyes far apar
and her nose short and straight.
Conversation languished until afte
the fish. Jimmie was not in his mos
talkative vein--it was a little awk
ward not knowing his companion;
name-and she herself was not com
municative.
With the entree matters looked III
a little. They bad cantered easily
through the conventionalities which
with all but the very rare, are an es'
sential preliminary to the steady tro'
or gallop over the conversational road.
way, and now the lady said to Jim.
ME, "You are an old friend of Mrs
V~anderveer's and must know every
one here, will you not tell me who
some of them are? l know almost no
one.n
Jimmie. by a carefully careless
| glance of eye and cunning nod, indi-
Gated Mrs. Aldgate, the celebrated
leader, and told the story of her ia
nous necklace, which she wore to-
night, which had been stolen in Paris
and mysteriously recovered in st. Pc
tersburg; Mrs. Swan, the marriage Of
whose daughter with a coachman had
turned her hair white in a single
night-there were those malicious
enough to say that the hair she wore
now did not undergo the chameleon
change on Mrs. Swans own head, but
Of this Jimmie said nothing. Then
he pointed out Mr.. Asiel, whose bride
fell into a crevasses in the Alps during
their honeymoon 20 years ago, and
who had never married again; Miss
Allaire, so beautiful, rich and intel
%lectual, no sutton had appeared whom
her parents considered even remotely
worthy of the bestowal of her hand,
and who, now, at 90, was threatened
with old ~maidenhood through very ex-
cess of the gifts of fortune. Of all these
and more Jimmie told the handsome
dark lady, and chen he added: There
are just three strange faces here to-
night, the blonde lady on my left, the
little brunette in a white lace dress
and the stout lady in green. One of
these must be the celebrated Mrs. Lc
Clair"
There was the slightest possible
pause, then the lady said in a toni be-
tokening mild interest, Mrs. -"
Mrs. LIE Clair; haven't you heard of
Il have been in New York a very
short time"
$50 has she-about four weeks or
so. She comes from California and is
said to be young and beautiful. She
vas written up in the Day You
lon't see that delectable sheet | fancy?
Well, you are so much to the good.
is known as the 'much-married.'
t seems she was welded first at the
ender age of IS. A few years after
yard her husband went north to the
llondike gold fields, and, as he did
Iot return, he was given up for lost. )
an interval of three years or so
he married again, a wealthy mine
Wner from the coast, but the mar .
iage did not turn out we'll. She was .
Unhappy and left him. Afterward it
1as discovered that the wealthy mine
wner had a wife living somewhere
t the time of his marriage to Mrs.
4e Clair, SO when later a young bust
less man Of San Jose fell in love with
Ter it was not necessary for her to
ret a divorce in order to marry him.
was rather a pretty complication
Is it stood, but the strangest thing is
hat after another year the original
husband turned up alive and well, with
thrilling story of capture by Indians,
'hipwreck or something. There was
IN affecting meeting between husband
wife, for she loved him still. The
lew Enoch Arden did not hold the
San Jose spouse against his. wife-he
bought it quite natural and right for
Ter to wed again, but when, in the
of narration No. THAT is No.
its really somewhat COMPLEX
mean the wealthy miner husband, had
o be unveiled, the returned one ragged.
successors to himself in so com
'aratiYely short a space of time were
more than he could forgive, so he took
limseif off in a hun. And now see
he predicament this fair one is in.
the early age of rs or so she finds
lerself married to three men, all lfy-
ng, none divorced. yet none available
s a husband. It's a strange story.
sn't it,"
Very strange-as you tell fl. The
appears in a most unpleasant
lght. Are there no circumstances ex-
enuating or making more natural her
onduct? For example, might she not
ave been left very poor when her
lrst husband did not come back. and
night she not have married the mine
'Wner for a home and his protection?
hen, when that turned out SO i'll, NAV
lot the poor woman have been des-
crate, and willing to go to great
engths for a name and an honest
mans love?"
"Ah, on these subjects l am not in
ormed."
Would it not be we'll to be informed
thoroughly before repeating a story
Ike this" she asked gently. II mean.