Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1905-06-22


finding some one to take hand of
cards with them, or to pick the grilled
homes which supply the place of break
! fast and supper to the man-about-
town, who. like the owl, knows no
night.
1t is long past midnight-the night
On which May had decided to accept
the situation of schoolmistress at
Warley--and the "Rookery" is at it's
height. Footmen in the gold and blue
of the club livery are hard at work
conveying the far-famed claret and
.rillod bones to the card-room.
Hard-worked members Of parliament
are grouped about smoking their last
cigar in the smoking room, harder.
worked do-nothings are lounging in
the drawingroom, the hardest-workcd
Of all, the card players are playing in
the ca,d-room.
Baccarat, that now famous game,
against which the judges of the land
have pronounced their august condem-
nation, is in full sway.
At one table sat a duke. a mere
1oy, with a rent-roli OF fifty thousand
year, which, large income as it is,
is all too small for his spendthrift
habits; with him is a legislator, one OF
the men to whom England looks with
confident hope, and next to him sits
Tane Vavasour
Handsome, beautiful as ever, We =
rcClines in the satin chair. without !
wrinkle on his smooth brow, or a
shade Of care in his eye.
He has been losing for two hours,
losing steadily, but his mind is I'M
changed, his light, buoyant air undis-
turbed. In between the details he
talks to the duke with careless non
chalance-talks Of politics, the drama,
anything and everything, with the
same airy grace; presently some one
near the duke mentions a familiar
dane.
Where is Letchford tonght?" 1t is
far beyond night, but 10 matter.
Vane stnlles and shrugs his Shout
d,rs. u don't know-he ought to be
here by this time. His mother is in
town, perhaps he is there
II hope he'll come" says the young
duke, that's the extraordinary part Of
it. You can ever take Il rise out of
Lctchford Win or lose it seems the
same to him. What's the matter with
him. Vane?"
Don't know says Vane, shuffling
the cal Is; hes a mystery. He's my
cousin, yes; but he's a mystery, all
the same"
Some love affair, l suppose" says
the duke, with a smile. Don't believe
in love affairs myself; make you I'M
fl for the cards. Sorry for Letchford,
he used to be such jolly good fellow.
Helloa! here he comes"
Notwithstanding their natural alb.
straction, there is an undercurrent of
interest among the card players, as a
tall figure enters the room, and stands
looking from one table to the other
and as he stands men look up with
curious glances.
been on many lips during the last
month, as the name of one who, IN
like the prodigal, had returned to the
world, which, after ringing with his
exploits, had been prepared to lose
and forget him.
1t is not often that the prodXal
loes return, but when he does return,
it may safely be affirmed that the last
state Is worse than the first, and with
this difference: that whereas he used
to take his wild pleasure with enjoy
mcnt, he now takes 1t YEARLY and
bitterly.
For the last month Sir Heron has
been as Vane puts it, going it." Not
'goins it, with the old buoyant hilar-
itv, with the old keen sense of enjoy
ment, but with a steady intensity that
is, Nane says again, "feroclous."
With a candid nconcealed earnest
ness he has plunged into all the
various modes of dissipation which
our modern fashionable world sup
plies us There is, perhaps, one form
which he avoids, and that is the in.
toNication of the flowing bowl He
drinks little-it would be better,
thinks Vane, if he would drink more,
for If the flowing bowl does no other
good, il certainly does drown the sor-
row of the moment, let the after cost
be what II may
Sir Heron doesn't drink, but he is
ready for anything else, and more
especially for the green tables in the
comfortable card-room of the "Rook-
cry"
Five weeks of bitter sorrow and cruel
disappointment have passed over
Mays head-and heart-and left her
hut little changed; but the same can
not be said for Sir Heron!
As he stands, tall and stalwart in
his evening dress, the carefully-toned
lights fall upon HIS face and show how
hard the time has gone with him.
He 10 thinner; he looks almost
gaunt in fact his dark eyes, some,
what stern at the best Of times. pleam