Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-08-25

HENRY aolTseo
Molly Randolph to Her Father.
Hotel Angst. Bordighera, December %.
Merry Christmas, my dear Santa Klaus
merry Christmas, This morning l sent you
n long cable expressing my sentiments. 1t
does seem strange to think that by this
time you have it. A thousand thousand
thanks for your letter and the Enclosure at
Cannes. You are the dearest dad!
Our first Christmas apart, and may 1t be
the last! Christmas isn't Christmas with
out you and a stocking to hang up and m
awfully homesIck. Still, If one can't be
spirited away home on magic carpet, this
is the sweetest place to spend Christmas in
you can imagine.
Speaking OF magic carpets recalls the
Arabian Nights and gives me a smile
FOR whole week I've been realizing what
Alaoolh must have felt when the genie took
MN into the wonderful cave of Jewels
IN, Inc hiviera But you know it, dear
lou spent your honeymoon with the beau
~ p n,Je no,her whom l never knew in
the hlFiera and in Italy. That is one
Ieason why want to Italy-why
l sent that question to you by cable
ne o'her day. Your one journey
aproad GEAR. dear, old dad. / can guess
now why you have never been keen to
come again, though you have always pre-
tended you preferred Wall street to all Eu-
rope. NO" L am seeing these fairylike
piaces know how you have wished to
Keep the memory unspoiIed: for they would
never, never be the same If you saw them
lor tne second time; even with me, though
you 90 rove me dearly, don't you? It's
Hrst tunes that are thrilling; and I'm
having my first times now though they're
dlrerent from yours. l don't suppose 1
shall ever have such a love in my life as
you had, or II l do, 1t will be sad and
No II
would be divided from me by an impassa-
Bile barrier, or something else horrid VIII
happen. l feel that. l shall never write
ike this again: but l can't help it tonight.
There! L won't go on about your past and
my future any more; but just about the
winged present.. And, ah, its wings are
Of rainbows!
Elderly people I've talked to at hotels
during the last few days tell me the
Riviera is being ruined" You would say
so too perhaps; but 1t seems heaven to me.
from Hyeres to Bordighera-as far as we've
gone. Just here l must stop and thank
you for your answer to my cable and say
ing Italy by all means" If 1t hadn't been
for that, we shouldn't be here.
l thought that we couldn't see anything
more beautiful than on the other side OF
Marseille; but the Riviera Is thing apart.
I'm gratefully glad to have come into such
enchanted land of sunshine and flowers
on an automobile instead Of stufry train.
There's nothing in the world to equal trav-
slow; you stop where you like and as
long you like; with little luggage on
your car you're as independent as bird;
and like bird you float through the open
air, with no thought for time tables. When
will the poet come who Will sing the song
of the motor car? Maeterlinck has sung
it in prose, but the song was too short.
OF course, after that horrd affair the
other side of Toulon l couldn't let Jimmy
drive any more. He realized that l dis
trusted him and rather sulkily resigned the
wheel. blaming the car for the accldent ana
declaring that 1T could not have happened
So Brown took the helm again, and Jimmy
sat in the tonneau with Aunt Mary, where
they whispered and chuckled good deal
together, appearing to have a real live mys-
terry up their sleeves, which I suppose had
something to do with the promised surprise
at Cannes.
1t was quite late in the day before the
steering-gear was mended and we could
take the road again, and then we all
thought 1t a pity to run through the dark
to Cannes. so decided to stay second
night in Toulon, at the same hotel where
had dinner with Brown; he, poor fellow,
being this time binlshed to some invisible
lower region, or another hotel. for Aunt
Mary and Jimmy would have had fits II
had proposed that he should make a fourth
at our table. / thought the people OF the
hotel and the head waiter looked curiously
at me; for one night they saw me dine with
a gentleman who the next night drives
TO the uOOT AS Ils u dsSuiS w.
dad it's no stretch of language to speak
of Brown as q gentleman" and you really
must get him a gentleman's berth, even II
It's way off In klondyke).
Early next morning we started for what
proved to be the most beautiful drive we
have yet had warm as summer and
sparkling with sunshine. We bowled
along at a gentle pace through fairy
land of flowers and rivers, with billowy
blue mountains rising into the sky, and
showing here and there distant ethereal
peak of snow. Very soon we passed
through Hyeres, which Brown called the
gate of the Riviera, and l should have
liked to turn aside for a peep at Coste-
belle, which Brown thinks one of the love
Hest places of all. But Aunt Mary and
Jimmy both opposed me, saying that we
ought to get on possible to
Cannes-"to Cannes was their constant
cry.
Beyond Hyeres the road became more
and more superb. We were travelling now
along the mountains of the Moors, gliding
through groves of oak and woods of SHIN
mering gray-green olives, with glimpses
of the glitterng sea on our right hand:
Presently the way dipped to the verge of
the sea as far as FreJus from which place
it rose again to wind up and up into the
heart of the Esterels. Though we mount
ed many hundreds or feet. the road was
so well engineered that gradients were not
very trying. Our agreeable Napier at
any rate, made nothing OF them, but sim
ply flew up at twelve or fourteen miles an
My heart comes into my mouth when l
think of it. IT'S quite SAFE said Brown;
but it looked the most breakneck thing
in the world, and my very toes seemed to
curl up not with fear, but with a kind
of awful Joy. ] think when bird takes
its great swoops through the air it must
feel like we felt that day. The car bound
ed down the long lengths of looped road
slowed up a little at the turns (where we
all had to throw our bodies sideways, like
sailors hanging over the gunwale of
racing yacht, bounded forward again
that the wind rushed by our ears like
hurricane slowed up once more, and so by
a series of these magnificent bird-like
swoops reached the level ground. 1t was
a fine piece of driving on Browns part
needing nerve, Judgment and a perfect
knowledge of the capabilities of his
I had scarcely recovered from the tingling
10Y of this wild mountain descent when
we were in Cannes. driving up an avenue
to our hotel. ;-
1t was a charming house, and fell in
love with Cannes at first sight but would
YOU believe it? Jimnny's wonderful sur
prise never came off at all!-and he
wouldn't even tell me what 1t was. Aunt
Mary wanted to- but he got quite red and
said. mo, Miss Kedison, 1t may make me
a great deal of trouble If you say anything
at present The whole position Is