Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1905-02-06

may come" o
A faint pink tinged the old aristo-
Gratis white face and the lace or hei
bosom rustled ominously.
Eyes. 1 think she will come, was al
she said. And Sir Heron's obvious
indifference pleased her. Dukes ana
oarls might bow down before the new
beauty, but her son-Sir Heron Letcli-
ford. one of the Wold-had evidently
not done so and the proud mother was
satisfied.
The invitation was dispatched anu
followed Miss Vavasour from one
,oh1eman's seat to another until II
found ner at the Earl of Storr's, WheIe
she reigned paramount queen among
the pick of the departed season.
At first the fashionable beauty nao
smiled-she never laughed-had slnli
cd the invitation to scOrn.
ssThe Wold," she said. Il remember
it. think papa took me there once
IN see a tall. thin old woman in black
satin and lace, who looked at me I'M
der her eyelids as if 1 were the dirt
under ner feet. Does she think am
dead and want to be buried? l would
as soon go and stay in a vault"
But Vane Vavasour, her brother
was at her side, and Vane was no
| fool.
LET me look at the letter. he SAID.
..Eo11 iovai She wants YOU to go. Take
NV advice and do SO, Rose. The
Letchford property is the finest in the
shire, and-Heron is at home"
"Heron!" calculated the beauty.
Eyes, Heron. Come, don't be a fool,
Rose. All this is very well, but now
long will it last? Just until the next
beauty turns up. Let us be reason
able What good has all this done for
you? Nothing at all. The season
! has gone by and you are still-Rose
Vavasour. Oh, yes, I know, he con-
tinued, waving his white hand-the
Vavasour hand was famous-"but
you'll admit it hasn't made a countess
of you, nor a baroness, even. Accept
the old woman's invitation and trust
| to Providence"
And Rose Vavasour, being too SEN
sible to undervalue her brothers
worldly wisdom, had sat down there
and then and written a most charming
letter of acceptation.
She came The Letchford charabanc,
vast as it was, was not large enough
to convey her imperials from the sta
| ton. She came and Lady Latchford
will never forget that evening OF her
arrival.
In the stiff satin and lace the old
patrician awaited her arrival in the
drawing room-in the rooms which
kings had honOred and sanctified by
their presence-had awaited her az
rival with all that stately old world
courtesy which had ever awed so many
and which she expected would ever
awe Rose Vavasour, their, so to speak,
poor relation.
The old lady will never forget
how, when the door opened, the tall,
! graceful figure, imperial in its beauty
and consciousness of power, came sail
ing, smiling, toward the exquisite face
as calm and royal as her own, the eyes
as cold and dominant as a queens,
meeting hers-hers, Lady Letchford's !!
with serene superiority, and the
-cice, low pitched and languidly COM
posed, murmured its stereotyped
phrases of polite greeting.
1t was as much as the old lady could
do to prevent herself gasping.
This-this-a Vavasour, one of the
Letchfords' poor relations! She was
more like a queen of Sheba coming to
visit SolOmons mother.
Sir Heron, whose sense of humor
was marked, had a smile behind his
dark mustache as he watched the
meeting between those two queens
the empress of the old and the en-
press of the new world.