Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1904-09-12


teeth"
ooh, confound it!'' exclaimed Jack,
brusquely. 'You needn't run over her
points as if she were a horse; don't
want to buy her."
| AS a matter of fact, he had only
caught the last word or two, for while
Arkroyd had been talking he had been
thinking of that other beautiful girl
not doll, with teeth and a smile, but
an angel, pure and ethereal-a dream
not fascinating heiress.
"But her!" exclaimed Arkroyd.
Listen to him! Don't I tell you she's
worth a million?'
"And I'd make her Countess of Dali
rymple tomorrow if she hadn't penny,
and would have me-" said Dalrymple.
''Try her." said Jack, CURLY.
"No use, my dear Savage he said,
tugging at his incipient fringe of down
ruefully. "She won't have anything to
say to yours truly, or to any one OF us
for that matter. She only smiles
when we say pretty things, and shows
her teeth at us. Besides, the title
wouldn' tempt her. She's got one al
ready Don't tell you she's one Of
the Earlsley lot? No; we've all had
try, even Arkroyd. He even went so
far as to get fellow to write poem
about her in one of the society jour-
nails, and signed it A. H.; but she told
him to his face that she didn't care for
poetry. 1t was a pretty piece, too,
wasn't it, Ark?'
''First-rate," said Arkroyd, with as
much modesty as il he had written it.
But it was all thrown away on Lady
Bell"
"On whom?" said Jack, waking UP
again.
"On Lady Bell-Isabel Earlsley is
her name. You're gool-gathering to-
night, Jack"
ooh, Lady Bell, is it?" said Jack,
carelessly. GO ahead. Anything
else?"
mo, that's all, excepting that I'll
wager a cool thousand to a china
orange that you'll change your tone
when you see her, Savage"
Perhaps" said Jack, but your de-
Ark. You're not good at that sort OF
thing. 1t isn't in your line. The
only things you seem to have remarked
are her smile and her teeth"
Savage, you are, as usual, blunt,
not TO say rude. Let us have another
bottle of Cliquot.'
Jack shook his head, but another
his share in silence, and, indeed, al
most unconsciously. For all the at
tention he paid to the chatter of his
two friends they might not have been
present.
His thoughts flew backward to the
shady grove of Warden Forest, to the
girl who, like vision of purity and III
nocence and loneliness, had foated
like a dream across his life.
i He gave one passing thought to Len,
too, and his story.
1t was strange coincidence that
they should both have met their fates
at one and the same time, or nearly so.
He would have thought it stranger
still if he could have lifted the veil of
I11S AueuIO oiAAu own INV C4O0Cly Tic
web Of his life was woven with the
wool, not only of Una's, but of Laura
Treherne, and also of Lady Bell
Earlsley.
4 All unconscious he had turned leaf
of his life's book, and had begun a
new chapter in which these three wo-
men were to take part.
But he sat and drank the champagne,
knowing nothing of this, and am
sorry to have to say 1.-THE was rapid
ly arriving at that condition to which
it is dangerous to be within a mile of
that fascinating fluid. When man
passes from a state of half-feverish
restlessness and dissatisfaction to one
Of comparative comfort, and that by
the aid of the cheering glass, it is time
to put the cheering glass aside and go
home,
Jack did not go home; on the con-
trary, he went isto the billiard-room,
and Ciiquot followed, as a matter of
course.
For time Jack had managed to for
get everything excepting his promise
to Len; he would not enter the card
room, but he stuck to pool and cham
payne.