Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-06

the Varian girls when her marriage took
place. She had done very we'll for por-
tionless bride. In marrying Lord Scarsdale,
last Baron Whittiford, she would gain a
high position. an old title and a husband
well past seventy who certainly could not
live many years. AS Stella had argued:
IF you worry him good and plenty, Bell
he won't last any time, and it's really the
best you can do. And you know you ought
to do something for poor dear mamma 8
sake and ours 1t would never do for you
to marry nobody at all. Boris would simply
die If he had to be called brother-in-law
by a nobody
And acknowledging her debt to Boris and
poor. dear mamma, Isabel Varian had taken
as her husband the stately, white-haired
courtly old man who worshiped every hair
semblance Of a honeymoon along the RI
vtera and through Algeria, and then, pla-
ctdly and without annoyance to any one
Lord Scarsdale had died on board his pri-
vate yacht, and had left a two months
widow behind him. who had nothing in
the world except her title and her dow
ager portion in a worthless, WORKOUT,
lovely old ruin of an estate.
Much Of this was private history, I'M
known to Washington when the Julian
Quintards had brought her back with
them for the winter season. 1t was quite
enough to know that Isabel Lady Scars
dale, was a widow at twenty-one and a
credit to the land of her birth in looks
and manner. Also that those who called
Lady Scarsdale friend might also speak in
! familiar fashion of her highness the Prin-
| cess Dzirian and the little ultra fashionable
Marquise d'Aiguiles.
| 60 in for all you're worth, Belle" Mrs.
| Varian had said when she kissed her
| youngest daughter farewell at Cherbourg.
Il don't see what you can do except try to
| marry American money. Your father
| wasn't so very bad. and after you have
married again you can always come back
| to US, you know"
| /,
tractable, had smiled and kissed her mother
| goodbye without committing herself in
| any way. That two months honeymoon
| had given her few new ideals Of life that
| did not harmonic with the Varian code
| MCGOWAN had met her at one Of the
| Quintard dinners. She had heard of him
| as her fathers successor in Congress, and
also as the richest man from the west that
season. He was large, and hearty, and
masterful. She was not in the least in love
| with him, but he was so wholesome, sc
strong and reliable, willing to give her
| his whole heart and wealth, that she found
| herself taking a certain comfort out of the
situation. Somehow he typifed her home
| country to her. She had never known the
west very WELL but she had heard Of it
and dreamed of 1t, and MCGOWAN seemed
! to embody all her conception Of its vast
| ness, and freedom, and wealth.
And now, with a tacit betrothal between
them, she was seeing Wyoming for the
| first time In fifteen years as the guest OF
! MCGOWAN and his sister, AS she leaned
| forward, watching Sunset draw nearer. She
| wondered how Prince Boris and the Mar
| quis Louis Serapon Auguste would like
| their brother-in-law, and she laughed
| softly.
You are happy. aren't you, dear?' asked
Mrs. Danforth Wickes, with quick solicit
tude. Just wait till you get on the ranch
and you'll forget all about Europe and
| everything horrid."
| Sunset station is merely pine packing
box turned sideways, with a telegraph desk
! inside, and a tank Of drinking water on the
| shady corner. On the north side of the
| tracks were drawn up a couple of what
! Sunset called conveyances One was a
| blackboard, the other was an automobile
| large deep, bright red and mighty
| comfy" as Nell Wickes said when she
| caught sight Of 1t.
| II like local color" she said. but not
| applied in chunks. I'll take mine as an i'm.