Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1903-09-24


sential preliminary to the steady trot
or gallop over the conversational road
way, and now the lady said to Jim
mic, You are an old friend of Mrs.
Vanderveer's and must know every
n here, will you not tell me who
some Of them are? / know almost no
one."
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 we're 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 revasse 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 rel remotely
worthy of the bestowal of her hand,
and who, now, at 29, 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 then 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. LIE
Clair"
There was the slightest possible
pause, then the lady said in a tone be-
tokening mild interest, Mrs. -"
MRS. LIE Clair; haven't you heard of
herr"
81 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
was written up in the Day You
don't see that delectable sheet | fancy?
Well, you are so much to the good.
She is known as the 'much-married.'
1t seems she was welded first at the
tender age of IS. A few years after
ward her husband went north to the
Klondike gold fields, and, as he did
not return, he was given up for lost.
After an interval OF, three years or so
she married again, a wealthy mine
owner from the coast, but the mar
riage did not turn out well. She was
unhappy and left him. Afterward it
was discovered that the wealthy mine
owner had a wife living somewhere
at the time of his marriage to Mrs.
LIE Clair, SO when later a young bust
ness man of San Jose fell in love with
her it was not necessary for her to
get a divorce in order to marry him.
This was rather a pretty complication
as it stood, but the strangest thing is
that after another year the original
husband turned up alive and well, with
a thrilling story of capture by Indians,
shipwreck or something. There al
an affecting meeting between husband
and wife, for she loved him still. The
new Enoch Arden did not hold the
San Jose spouse against his wife-he
thought it quite natural and right for
her to wed again, but when, in the
course of narration No. THAT is No.
Pits really somewhat complex
mean the wealthy miner husband, had
to be unveiled, the returned n ragged.
Two successors to himself in so COM
paratively short a space of time were
himself off in a huff. And now see
tie predicament this fair one is in.
At the early age of rs Or so she finds
herself married to three men, all liv-
ing, none divorced, yet hone available
as a husband. It's a strange story,
isn't it,"
Every strange-as you tell it. The
woman appears in a most unpleasant
light. Are there no circumstances eX-
%tenuating or making more natural her
conduct? For example, might she not
have been left very poor when her
first husband did not come back, and
might she not have married the mine
owner for a home and his protection?
Then, when that turned out SO i'll, may
not the poor woman have been des-
perate, and willing to go to great
lengths for a name and an honest
mans love?"
"Ah, on these subjects l am not in
formed"
"Would it not be well to be informed
thoroughly before repeating a story
like this?" she asked gently. 81 mean,
would it not be simple justice to the
woman, for whom things must be hard
enough at the best?"
perhaps so-no doubt, indeed
had not gone into it seriously" jim
mie was conscious Of being rather I'M
comfortable.
ut is a serious story-for her. There
should be an ending of some kind"
swell, I hope it may be a good one,"
said Jimmie, fervently.
The lady smiled and spoke of some
thing else.
A diversion was created by the little
fair-haired woman on Jimmie's left
dropping a rose which the young man
picked up and restored to her. This
led to a little conversation between the
two, lasting for, perhaps, three or four
minutes, during which the dark lady
talked with George Nesbitt, who sat
IN her right.
A servant brought a note to Mrs.
Vanderveer. She opened and read it,