Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-09
CHAPTER w.

1t was June. but no Londoner could posi-
bly, have guessed 1t, because instead of the
temperature being absolutely arctic, 1t was
extremely warm. a condition of things
which we do not in England associate with
June.
The haze of heat which made plum of
Piccadilly, which the London county coun-
Gil. after their instructive visit to Paris, had
wdened at least six inches, at enormous
expense. deaIed still more magically, having
better material to work upon, with st.
James Park. as seen from the windows of
Thurso House and also with Thurso House
and its windows as seen from st. James
For it was house that looked as II IT had
been taken straight off the Grand Canal at
Venice. with its stately white walls, It's
rows of long windows and its noble pro-
portions In front of the dining room a
huge terrace built above the offices thrust
out its broad, square front onto the edge
of the park itself, so that the roadway or
the Mall was invisible to anybody sitting
underneath the big awnings that Mapped
gently in the warm wind, and the eye
looked straight across to the haZy green
of the grass and trees and the shimmering
surface of the lake, where ridiculous pell-
cans and sea gulls bckered and screeched
over the fragments of bread and biscuit
thrown them by the animal-loving Lon
doner as he passed over the bridge from
and toward Queen Anne's gate. On the
other side, the dining room and the Dig
drawing room above it looked out over the
private gardens, and beyond a screen or
lilacs over the Green Park, so that the
house was planted even though the whole
metropolis hummed and clattered round 1t,
In the center of green and growing Things.
The dining room was at the corner of the
house commanding both parks. and today
the windows were open on both sides, so
that the lace curtains swayed and bulged
in the wind. while the bourbon note of the
busy sunny town came In like the sound of
I,aaG hIIrr nIxin n
The room itself was p2rquetted in oak ana
walnut, and was left bare, as behtted these
summer months, except for some MALT
dozen of silk Persian rugs that made SHIN
mering islands on the sea of it's shining
surface. The two walls which faced the
park were. to tell the truth, rather window
than wall. and eight lights on the longer
wall and four on the shorter made other
adornments except for the brocaded cur
tains looped back to allow the greatest
manageable ingress of light and ar, I'M
possible. but the other two walls gloWed
with the portraits of bygone STATIONS. The
first Marquis of ThurP was there, por-
trait in peers robes by>Reynolds. who also
had done the picture of his wife and the
great family group OF them with Their Two
young sons that hung over the Italian
chimneypiece: the second marquis, the
eldest boy in the family group. was there,
too, grown to mans estate and painted by
Gainsborough; the picture of his wife was
a Romney. while Lawrence the artist
for the third generation. Then after
long gap of years came the present Thurso
and his wife. two brilliant canvases claim
ing kinshp by right of their exquisite art
with the earlier portraits.
Otherwise, for nothing could spoil these
glorious decorations of the walls, or the
more. smouldering briliance of the moulded
ceiling, the room did not at this moment
appear to advantage, for its floor was oc-
cupied by multitude of small round tables
In preparation for the ball that was to take
place tonight. and at the end in front of the
chimney-piece was a long. narrow table for
the very elect. These were to be very elect.
indeed, and heaps of stars and carriers and
ambassadors would not find place there
tonight, but be relegated to round tables.
In any case, however, everybody was going
to have proper things to eat and drink,
which should be presented to their notice
in decent fashion. There to be buff
fet supper, where. as at railway station,
Lady Thurso's guests would scramble for