The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1904-06-23
TREASURE
TROVE - ~
By MARTHA MccUlL0cH WILLIAMS
(Copyright, 1901. by Daily Story Pub. Col

(Copyright, 1904, by Daily Story Pub. Col
DERNICE had sudden inspiration
n she had been in despair since the
Invitation came Mrs. MacLean's party
vas to be the event of Manorton-not
only for this season, but for many 9TH
ers It was not every day, nor every
hostess that could show an heiress, an
army officer and a poet. Mrs. MacLean
was the proud possessor of all three
naturally she yearned to have her world
see them in all the glory of full canon
icals.
Then, too, the supper and music were
coming from the city-and there was
to be a ballroom quite apart from the
parlors and their Louis Quartorze splen-
doris. The ballroom, to be sure, had been
meant originally for hay loft-it was
over the carriage house, so Of undistin-
guished architecture. But crash upon
the floor, flags and eyergreens upon the
walls, to say nothing of electric lights,
put in specially for the occasion, would
make it as festive as any heart or foot
could desire. A covered passge had been
built to it-that was indeed the first
outward and visible sign Manorton got
of the MacLean plans. The passage ran
from the upper veranda, so was nearly
level and long enough to afford de-
lightful promenade. 49,
Certainly the MacLeans were not spar
ing money, although therefore they had
had the name ct being near, in spite Of
having so much to spend. Besides all
the otter things, Alice MacLean and her
mother had, it was whispered about,
span-new imported gowns. 1t was also
whispered that the MacLean diamonds
had been newly and fashionably set, for
the lady Of the house, and that her
daughter would dazzle beholders with
a necklace of fine pearls. Envious folk
said the pair were bent on outshinfng
Miss Bixby, the heiress-just as they
had been saying all along, there was a
social duel between the two young wom-
en- for the first place in Capt. Redmond's
regard. The poet was no sort of make
weight to the captain-it had been un-
derstood that he was bound hand and
foot to the Bixby chariot He was thin
and lank, with a washed-out color
scheme, but half the girls in Manorton
thought him wonderfully distinguished
looking. Bernice was not of their num-
Der. She was, you see, hetereodox
young person, who thought manliness
the properest attribute of a man.
Possibly that was because she was
herself so feminine, withal a beauty. 1t
was, for the most part, beauty una
dorned. She was nearly as poor as she
was pretty and we'll bred-her great
grandfather had founded Manorton, to
say nothing of being governor of the
state-then all down the line there were
judges, generals and learned men, en-
titled to write half the letters of the al
phabet after their names. They had
been rich, too, these ancestral digni-
taries, but somehow the money had all
slipped away before Bernice the last of
the Lyndons, was born She had known
nothing but saving and contriving, spar
ing here against modest outlay yon-
der, although in some fashion her
mother had managed to keep her from
being left out of things.
Commonly the make-shifts did not
daunt the girl. She had a merry heart
and brave one-brave enough tolaugh
at her own lacks. 1t may well be that
the fact Of having three beaux to any
other girls one had something to do
with the laughter. In spite of Ii, how
ever, In spite of all her humorous phi
losopy. she found herself crushed at
the thought of going to the MacL cam in
dancing frock-her only one-that had
seen hard service through two preceding
winters.
There you have the root of the in
spiration. Memory also had something
to do with it. When she had called on
Miss Bixby talk had somehow drifted
to miniatures-the heiress had dilated
upon her own collection of them, airily
naming prices of this or that specimen
in way that made Alice MacLean turn
green with envy. They were astounding
prices to Bernice's simple mind-fiye
hundred for Melbourne and double
that for unpronounceable foreign mas
tiers. But she had not remembered then
the two miniatures slowed at the very
bottom of her rusty treasure box. one a
beauty in stays and stomacher. with a
long curl lying upon her bare bust, the
other a young fellow in powder and ruff
fies, with just a glimpse of velvet coat
and Powered satin waistcoat.
Bernice had played dolls with them in
her solitary childhood-they were not
family portraits indeed, there was 4.
mystery behind them. They had been
found among the effects of great uncle
who. straying into the big world, sud-
denly died there. He had been an artist.
after . sort, but the miniatures were not
his handdwork. There was nothing to
explain his possession of them-for long
they were kept in state. in hope that q
claimant would arise Then they fell
TO be parlor ornaments. and later to the
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