The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-09-12
TILE MINNEAPOLIS JOURNAL

deela1ed he1seM to DO his pa1ent. His
brilliant gafts had reaped their reward,
feiat1Ons nalther near nor dead had
died. and while not yet 40 he. was next
of Villars, and ambassador to the Eng
lish court. To the world at large the
sitnation which just now was rather
+ largely discussed had elements Of in
teTeat; 1T was knewn Of course that
lilly Thurso and her husband were
not ronantieally attached to each 9th
er; It YEAS eonisctuEed that since Count
Vllara had remained single he was sta
romantically attached TO her, and it
vas impossible not to help wondering
whether at last Lady Thurso would
show signs OF being attached to any
body To the world she was, in one
aspect, in spite of her caehet, her bril-
Lance, her charm, a somewhat irritating
enigma All that qneenliness of beau.
ty belonged to nobody; she did not.
care for her husband, but she cared
had been wildly devoted to her, and
none had had a single particle Of sue
cess She was not shocked at their
declarations of love; had she been
shocked her attitude would at any rate
have been moral and an ineligible
enc. But she merely laughed at them.
and told them not 70 be silly e they
1 ~
about It, too, q week afterward. even
= they had made her yawn very much,
asked them to the house just as usual,
and was as friendly as possible. $
Llly Thnrso, as will have been gath
cred, dad her duty in the state Of life
to which her mother, in the main. had
called her, with extraordinary fulness.
She had grasped as soon as she mar
neg Almost the sort of life that her
position entailed If she was to- ell st
adequately and with any credit to her
Of bedy and mind, she lived up to a
really high ideal Of IL Her time. her
Lalents, her money, were always at the
SerVlee OF any scheme which she be-
heVed to be one which should be sn1,-
ported BY those In her position, and
she brought to the task not the bare
sense OF duty only, but most warm
hearted kindhness. The sense of duty
alone Is barren road to tread, but her
kind iness, her interest in those who
We're in need, made it for her to break
ont into flowers. She genuinely cared
TOR the causes to which she SO devoted
herself; she wanted everybody to have
q good time, and she knew that It was
her own tlreless efforts that gave her
good time herself But this kindi-
ness which peFvaded her nature was
the highest motive she knew: she did
everything warmly but nothing pas
sionately, because it seemed as If pas
sion had been left out Of her nature.
Yet sometimes, as this afternoon, She
wondered whether that was absolutely
the case: for tho she had certainly not
felt passion in all the years Of her
married life, she still remembered that
blissfuf perplexity, which was half
piss, half unhappiness, which she had
known IN those few months which had
euiminated IN her promise to marry
Rudolf Vlllars. Whatever that feeling
was, it had been a bud only. and had
never expanded into a flower, for swift
maternal hands had, without any figure
OF speech, nipped it off. She had been
called a sentimental schoolgirl with
such assurance that it had convinced
her for the time being. But today.
when she knew that this evening the
man who had at any rate reused In her
the sent!mentahty of a schoolgirl would
after this long lapse Of years come to
her house again, she wondered (tho this
was useless emotional ba ggage) what SHE
would feel She had not seen him
since; probably he was rather bald.
rather stout, rather of the diplomatist
type which seemed to her to be cause
lessly selfimportant. Very likely, when
ms name was announced, she would
shake hands with stranger. She almost
hoped that this would prove to be so.
For. she did not want to- feel again that
trembling uncertainty, that sense Of un-
known possibilities Of overmastering
emotion, that she had felt twelve years ].
ago: Her life was very full, she en- 3
ioyed it enormously, she was happy.
she was nearly content And she did
not, as far as she knew herself, wish to :
risk terrible agitation and upheaval in /.
order to be possibly quite content. She .
had seen love, in fact, like distant
lightning on the horizon: she did not 4
want the thunderstorm to come closer.
Yet, yet. already in her
herself, ssIss this alla'' It seemed a
sorry comedy; to be gifted, with so
much and to be able to realize 50 little
was poor task for the appointed
threeseores years and ten Of life. IF
she had been Really tempted to be what
moralists called 8 wicked, that would
have been something, but she knew
quite clearly and calmly that she had