The Falls City tribune., 1906-03-02
THE SPENDERS
A TALE OF THE THIRD GENERATION
By HARRY LEON WILSON
By HARRY LEON WILSON
Copyright, by Lothrop Publishing Company.

Ing upon his immense shoulders with
out the aid of neck-sharp-eye
grizzled. fifty. short of stature, and
with as few illusions concerning life
as the New York financier is apt to
retain at his age.
If we be forced to wait for another
guest of note, it is hardly more than
her due; for Mrs. Gwilt-Athlestan is
truly a parsonage. and the best people
on more than one continent do not be-
come unduly provoked at being made
to wait for her. Those less than the
very best frankly esteem it a privilege.
Yet the great lady is not careless of
engagements. and the wait is never
prolonged. Mrs. Milbrey has time to
say to her sister. "Yes. we think it's
going; and really. it will do very well,
you know. The girl has had some
nonsense in her mind for a year past
none of us can tell what-but now
she seems actually sensible, and she's
promised to accept when the chap pro-
poses" But there is time for no more
gossip.
The belated guest arrives. enveloped
in vast cloak. and accompanied by
her two nephews. whom Percival Bines
recognizes for the solemn and taciturn
young men he had met in Shepler's
party at the mine.
Mrs. Gwilt-Athlestan. albeit a dec
Orative personality, is constructed on
the same broad and generously grace
full lines as her own victoria The
fair minded observer would accept as
sufficient promise of a good third. Yet
hardly could a slighter person display
to advantage the famous Gwilt-Athles-
tan jewels The rope of pierced dia-
monds with pigeon-blood rubies strung
between them. which she wears wound
over her corsage. would assuredly over
weight the frail Fidelia Oldaker the
tiara of emeralds and diamonds was
never meant for a brow less majestic;
nor would the stomacher of lustrous
gray pearls and glinting diamonds ever
have clasped becomingly figure that
was svelte-or skinny" as the great
lady herself is frank enough to term
all persons even remotely inclined to
be svelte.
But let us sit and enliven a proper
dinner with talk upon topics of legit-
innate interest and genuine propriety.
Here will he no discussion of the
vulgar matter of markets, staples, and
prices, such as we perforce endured
through the overwined and too-abun-
dant repast of Higbee. Instead of
learning what beef on the hoof brings
per hundred weight. f. o. b.. at Chey-
enne, we shall here CLEAN at once the
invaluable fact that while good society
in London used to be limited to those
who had been presented at court, the
presentations have now become so nu-
merous that the limitation has lost it's
significance. Mrs. Gwilt-Athlestan thus
disclOses, as II II were a trife, some
thing we should never learn at the
table of Higbee though we ate his
heavy dinners to the day of ultimate
chaos. And while we learned at that
distressingly new table that one should
keep ones heifers and sell off ones
steer calves, we never should have been
informed there that Dinard had Just
enjoyed the gayest season of it's his
tory under the patronage of this enter
prislng American; nor that Lady de
MuZZy had opened tea-room in Graf
ton street, and Cynthia. Marchone IS
Of Angleberry, eauty-improvement
parlor on the Strand because she
needs the money"
Lots OF 'em takin' to trade nova
days; it's smart sayin' there now
that all the peers are marryin' act
resses and all the peeresses goin' into
business" Mrs. Gwilt-Athelstan nod
ded little shocks OF brilliance from her
tiara and hungrily speared another
oyster.
only trouble is, it's such rotten
work collectin' bills from their in
innate friends; they simply won't
pay"
Nor at the barbaric Higbee's should
We have been vouchsafed, to treasure
for our own, the knowledge that Mrs.
Gwilt-Athlestan had merely run over
for the cup-fortnight. meaning to re-
turn directly to her daughter, Kathar-
inc, Duchess of Blanchmere, in time
for the Melton Mowbray hunting sea-
son; nor that she had been rather
taken by the new way of country life
among us, and so tempted to protract
her gracious sojourn
Really" she admits, we're comm
70 do the right thing over here; a few
years were all we needed. Hardly a
own house to be opened before
Thanksgivin', | understand; and down
at the Hills some of the houses will
stay open all winter. It's coacbin'
ridin'. and golf and auto-racin' and
polo and squash; really the Young
folks don't go in at all except to dance
and eat; and it's quite right Won
know. It's quite decently English
now. Why, at Morris Park the other
day. the crowd on the lawn looked
quite like Ascot, actually"
Non could we have learned in the
hostile camp the current gossip OF
Tuxedo, Meadowbrook, Lenox, Morris
town and Ardsley; of the mishap ia
hra .Iipouiai INhattin twioa ,,nsaot