The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-05-18
CHAPTER XVII

CHAPTER XVII
A Sensational Turn In the Mllbrey For-
! tunes.
It was morning early in November. In
the sedate Milbrey dining-room a brisk
wood fire dulled the edge of the first
autumn chill. At the breakfast table,
comfortably the hearth, sat Horace
Milbrey With pointed spoon he had
daintily scooped the golden pulp from a
| Florida orange. touched the tips of his
slender white fingers to the surface of the
water in the bowl. and was now glancing
leisurely at the headlines of his paper,
while his breakfast appetite gained agree
able zest from the acid fruit
| On the second page of the paper the
names in a brief item arrested his Grant
glance. It disclosed that Mr.. Percival
Bines had left New York the day before
with a party Of guests on his special car,
| to shoot quail in North Carolina. Mr..
| Milbrey glanced at the two shells of the
| orange which the butler was then remov-
ing.
What a hopeless brute that fellow
Was!" he reflected. He was recalling
dictum once pronounced by Mr.. Bines.
| Oranges should never be eaten in public
he had said with that lordly air of dogma
tism characteristic Of him. "The only
right way to eat a juicy orange is to dis
rope, grasp the fruit firmly in both hands
and climb into a bath tub half full of
wa ter ,s.
The finished epicure shuddered at the
recollection poignantly. quite as II saw
were being filed in the next room.
The disagreeable emotion was allayed,
however, by the sight of his next course
oeufs aux saucissons. Tender poetic
memories stirred within him. The little
truff1ed French SauSages aroused his bet
ter nature. Two of them reposed luxuri-
| 1c1% iyoo In ha ia r1tv
French baking dish fdull green Over
| them-a fitting baptism, was the rich
wine sauce Of golden brown-a sauce that
might have been the tears5of envious an
gels, wept over a mortal creation so fault
lessly precious. = .-1..
Mrs Milbrey entered. news of impor-
lance visihly animating her. Her husband
arose mechanically, placed the chair for
her, and resumed his fork in an ecstasy Of
concentration. Yet. tho Mrs. Milbrey was
full of talk, like a charged siphon, needing
but slight pressure to pour forth matters
of grave moment, she observed the en-
grossment of her husband, and began on
the half Of an orange. She knew from ex-
perience that he would be deaf, for the
moment, to anything less than an alarm OF
fire. IT, > 90. .- -
When he had lovingly consumed the last
morsel he aWoke to her presence and
smiled benignantly.
MY dear, don't fail to try them; they're
Iexquisitely perfect
"You really must talk to Avice," his
wife replied. -
Mr. Mibrey sighed. .deprecatingly. He!
! could remember no time within Ave years
when that necessity had not weighed upon
his fathers sense of duty like a vast
boulder of granite He turned to welcome
the diversion provided by the rognons
sautees which Jarvis at that moment I'M
covered. before him with a discreet -four
ish. '
Now you really must continued his
wife, .'and you'll agree with me when I
tell you why"
But. my dear, I've already talked to
the girl exhaustively. I've pointed out
that her treatment of Mrs. Wybert-her
perverse refusal to meet the lady at all,
is quite as absurd as it is rude, and that
if Fred chooses to marry Mrs. Wybert it
is her duty to act the part of a sister if
: she cannot bring herself to feel it. I've
assured her that Mrs. Wyberts antece-
dents are all they should be; not illus
, trious, perhaps, but eminently respectable.
Indeed, I quite approve of the Southern
aristocracy. But she constantly recalls
what that snobbish Bnes was unfair
enough to tell her. I've done my utmost
, to convince her that Bines spoke in the
way he did about Mrs. Wybert because he
, knew she was aware Of those ridiculous
,, tales of his mothers illiteracy. But Avice
is-er-ny dear, she is like her mother In
more ways than one. Assuredly she
doesn't take it from me-
He became interested in the kidneys eli
Marie had been man." he remarked
feelingly II often suspect that her fame
as chef would have been second to none
Really the suavity of her sauces is a new
=. er-ending delight to me-
II haven't told you yet the reason-a
new reasonably you must talk to Avice. "
q T
we all know Indeed, I've put it to her
; plainly. She knows how sorely Fred needs
, it.. She knows how that beast Of tailor
: is threatening to be nasty-and I've ex-
planned how invaluable Mrs. Wybert would
be, reminding her of that lady's generous
hint about the rise in Federal Steel, which
enabled me to net the neat little profit OF
> ten thousand dollars a month ago, and
how. but for that, we might have been
acutely distressed. Yet she stubbornly
clings to the notion that this marriage
would be mesalliance for the Milbreys.
II agree with her. replied his wife
! tersely.
Mr.. Milbrey looked perplexed but polite
Il quite agree with Avice'' continued
the lady. '"That woman hasn't been right
Horace, and she isn't right Young Bines
knew what he was talking about
:. haven't lived my years without being able
to tell that after five minutes with her
cl.H
so many of those women, she has an in.
: tense passion to be thought respectable
Q and she's come into money enough-Goc
+ only knows how-to crafty it. I could
! tell it, If nothing else showed 1t, by the
/ way in which she overdoes re.
spectability. She has the thousand ant
( one artificial little rules for pro,
[ priety that one never does have
/ when one has been bred to it. That kind
+ of woman is certain to lapse sooner OF
later. She would marry Fred because Of
\ his standing. because he's favorite with
the smart people she thinks she's like tc
be pally with Then, after a little
she'd run off with a German dialect
comedian or something, like that appaIl.
ing person Normie Whitmund married
But the desire to be respectable. my
dear-and you say this woman has it's
a mighty lever. I'm no cynic about youl
sex, but shudder to think of their-ah-
eccentricities If it should cease to be q
factor in the feminine equation
Its nothing more than passing fac
with this person-besides, that not what
4 I've to tell you.
But you. yourself, were; not averse tt
Fred's marrying her. in spite of these
opinions you must secretly have held,
mot while 1t seemed absolutely neces
sary-not while the case was so br,ltally
desperate, when we were actual.
i pressed
Remember. my dear, there's nothins
i magic in those ten thousand dollars
They're winged dollars like all thei
II mates, and most of them, I'm sorry t.