The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-09-21

the house of Milbrey. after many ominous
mutterings, delays and frank rebellions, has
declared at last her readiness TO be credit
to her training by comforting her family
prestige. distinction of manner and charms
of person upon one equipped for their suit
able maintenance.
ALREADY her imaginative father is ravish-
ing in fancy the modest wine cellars OF
continental Europe. Already the fond moth
er has idealized house in Millionaire
Row east of the Park, where there snall De
twenty servants instead of three and there
shall cease that gnawing worry lest the
treacherouS north-Setting current sweep
them west of the park into one or those
hideously new apartment houses. where the
halls done in marble that seems 10 have
been sliced from huge Roquefort cheese,
and where one must vie, perhaps with
shopkeeper for the favors of an irreverent
and materialiStic Janitor.
The young woman herself entertains pri-
vately a state of mind which she has no in
tention of making public. 1t is enough, she
reasons, that her action should Outwardly
accord with the best traditions of her class;
and, indeed, her family would never dream
of demanding more.
Her gown tonight is OF orchard green,
trimmed with apple blossoms, a single pink
spray of them caught in her hair. The
rounding, satin grace of her slender arms,
sloping to the opal-tipped fingers, the eX-
quiste line from to shoulder strap, the
melting ripeness of her chin and throat, the
tender pink and white of her fine SKIN, the
capricious melting tilt of her small head,
the dainty lift OF her short nose-these al
lurements she has inventoried with calcu-
lating and satisfied eye. She Is glad TO be,
lieve that there is every reason why 1t VIII
soon be over.
And. since the whole loaf is VIGOROUSLY
better than half, here Is the engaging son
of the house, also firmly bent upon the high
emprise of matrimony; handsome, with the
chin, il may be, slightly receding; out an
uneXcelled leader of cotilli0ns, a SURPRISING
with an a effect that has long made him re
marked In polite circles, which no mere
money can achieve. Money, indeed, II GER
tain ill-natured gossip of tradesmen be true.
has been an inconsiderabe factor in the en-
compassment of this sartorial distinction.
He waits now, eager for first glimpse OF
the young woman whose charms, even py
report, have already won the pest deVotlon
he has to give. A grievous error it is to sup
pose that Cupid's artillery is limited TO
bow and arrows.
horde that laughed loudly and ate uncouthly
at the board of the Barbarian, we shall sit
at table with people born to the only man
ner said to be worth possessing-n We ex-
cept, indeed, the visiting tribe of Bines, who
may be relied upon, however, to behave at
least unobtrusively.
matron from Kansas City, here is Mistress
Fidelia Oldaker on the arm of her attentive
son. She would be very old but for the cir
cumstance that she began early in life to
be belle, and age cannot stale such wom-
en-. Brought up with board at her back,
books on her head, to guard her complies ion
IL
at harp practice and conscientious with the
dancing master, she is almost the last of
school that nursed but the single aim Of
subjugating rtan. Tonight, at seventy
something she is a bit of pink bisque fragil-
ity, bubbling tirelessly with "reminiscences,
her vivacity unimpaired, her energy amaz-
ing and her coQuetry faultless. From which
we should learn and be grateful therefor.
that when a girl is brought up in the way
she ought to go she will never be able to de-
part from It,
Here also is Cornelia Van Geist sister of
our admirable hostess-relict of a gentle
man who had been first or second cousin to
half the people in society ii were really de-
sirable to know, and whose taste In wines;
dinners and sports had been widely praised
at his death by those who had had the for
tune to be numbered among his friends.
Mrs. Van Geist has kind, shrewd face, and
her hair, which turned prematurely gray
while she was yet wife. gave her look of
age that her actual years belied.
Here, too, is Rulon Shepler. the money
immense shoulders without the aid of neck
-sharp-eyed, grizZled fifty, short OF stat
ure and with as few illusions concerning life
as the New York hnancier is apt TO retain at
his age.
If We be forced to wait for another guest
OF note 1T is hardly more than her due; for
Mrs. Gwilt-Athelstan is truly parsonage,
and the best people on more than one con-
tinent do not become unduly provoked at
| being made to wait for her. Those less than
| the very best frankly esteem 1T privilege.
Yet the great lady is not careless of engage
ments, and the wait is never prolonged.
| Mrs. Milbrey has time to say to her sister,
Yes, we think its's going; and really, IL will
do very well, you know. The girl has had
some nonsense in her mind for year past
none of US can tell what-but now she seems
actually sensible, and she's promised to ac-
| cept when the chap proposes" But there
| is time for no more gossip.
| The belated guest arrives, 'enveloped in
vast cloak and accompanied by her two
| nephews. whom Percival Bines recognizes
for the solemn and taciturn young men he
had met in Shepler's party at the mine.
Mrs. Gwilt-Athelstan, albeit a decorative
personality, is constructed the same
broad and generously graceful lines as her
own victoria. The great lady has not only
two chins. but what any fair-minded OBJ
server would accept as sufficient promise of
| a good third. Yet hardly could a slighter
person display to advantage the famous
| diamonds with pigeon.bloo rnbies strung
between them, which she wears wound over
her corsage, would asSuredly overweight the
frail Ftdelia Oldaker; the tiara of emeralds
| and diamonds was never meant for brow
less majestic; would the stomacher of
lustrous gray pearls and glinting diamonds
| ever have clasped becomingly figure that
herself is frank enough to term all persons
even remotely inclined to be svelte.
But let us sit and enliven a poor dinner
with talk upon topics of legitimate interest
| and genuine propriety.
| Here will be discussion of the vulgar
| matter of markets, staples and prices, such
| as we perforce endured through the over
wined and too-abundant repast of Higbee
| Instead of learning what beef on the hoof
| brings per hundred-weight, (. o. b. at Chey-
enne, we shall here CLEAN at once the inval-
| liable fact that while good society in Lon
| don used to be limited to those who had
| been presented at court, the presentations
have now become so numerous that the lin
| itation has lost its significance. Mrs. Gwilt-
Athelstan thus discloSes, as IL il were a.
| trifie, something we should never learn at
| the table of Higbee though we ate his
| heavy dinners to the day of ultimate chaos
And while we learned Al that distressingly
new table that one should keep ones heifers
and sell of ones steer calves, we never
| should have been informed there that Din
| ard had just enjoyed the gayest season Of
| Its history under the patronage of this en-
| terprising American; nor that Lady De
| Muzzy had opened tearoom in Grafton
| street, and Cynthia, Warehouses Of Angle
| berry. beauty improvement parlor on the
| Strand because she needs the money
Lots of 'em takin to trade nowadays:
/ it's a smart sayin' there now that all the
peers are marryin actresses and all the
| peeresses goin' into business" Mrs. Gwilt-
| Athelstan nodded little shocks of brilliance
| from her tiara and hungrily speared anoth-
| er oysetr.
"Only trouble is, it's such rotton hard
work collectin' bills from their intimate
| friends; they simply won't pay"
Nor at the barbaric Higbee's should we
have been vouchsafed, to treasure for our
| own, the knowledge that Mrs. Gwilt-Athel-
| stan had merely run over for the cup-fort-
night, meaning to return directly to her
| mere in time for the Melton Mowbray
| I'm pp on. no ba haH haa "A.