The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1906-08-11
CHAPTER XVIII,
Countess llka Pleads,

Countess llka Pleads.
He looked earnestly, hoping she
would raise her eyes and let her
glance meet his across the room. She
could not have forgotten-it was so
unlike her. She could not have mis-
taken, surely, for she had specially
mentioned that extra, and he had writ
ten it himself on her card. He would
not have wondered had he heard lit
tie conversation that had passed just
before he came across to Countess
Ilka. She had called to her side Mr..
FELTON, and smiled upon him with one
of her most enchanting smiles.
Il think you know Miss Hamilton,
don't you-the girl who is standing
over there?"
Miss Hamilton? Rather! Awfully
jolly girl. You know her too, sup
pose?"
''No; I do not have the pleasure.
Will you tell her, then, that Captain
Winstanley has put down his name on
both my card and hers for the same
supper dance? He is in distress about
it. l think mine was the first card he
wrote on. Can we arrange anything to-
make it less uncomfortable for him?
He thinks Miss Hamilton will expect
him to take her in
"Oh, that's soon put right" said the
good natured sailor, anxious to make
things smooth for everybody con-
cerned. ''Tll ask her to go in with
me and tell her how it happened. She's
awfully good-tempered; she won't
mind bit" So off he sped on his
errand, feeling that luck was coming
his way.
and little disappointed, undeniably.
She had looked forward to this extra,
for extras, as everybory knows, are
the best dances of the whole night.
Yet there was nothing possible to say
but that of course Captain Winstanley
must not feel himself bound by any
mistake he had made, and to accept
Mr.. Felton's offer of himself as a sub
stitute. It was only a substitute, and
once more that vague, startled feeling
crossed her mind like breath. To-
day the races, twice this evening, Win
stanley had seemed to put Countess
Ilka's society before her own. Could
it be possible that he liked it better;
could there be any foundation in the
pang that just touched her heart, only
to be driven angrily away?
There is no position more trying
and more full Of discomfort to girl
than the one in which circumstances
had placed Ursula. without fault of
either hers or her lovers. To have ex-
changed the first confessions of love
that must be- admitted to others, to
have put ones lips to the cup of hap
piness, and then to hold it from one
with the resolute hand of waiting till
it can be drunk in the sight of the
world-it is a position so full of its
own doubts and fears that it needs no
augmenting in that direction from any
outside source. If Winstanley had
been her formally accepted lover it
would have made the whole position
different; she would have asked him
for an explanation, and have received
it. AS it was their lips were tied on
both sides.
She went in to, supper with Mr.. Eel
ton, hurt and wounded that her lover
had not made his own request. It was
so strange, so very strange, to send
such a message through any one un-
known to her, as Countess Illka was,
and not to bring 1t himself. Win
stanley, on the other side, was sur
prised and bewildered and dismayed.
Why should she have gone in to sup
per with FELTON, when she had prom
ised him that supper dance? why had
she not even waited till he came for
her? It was hardly kind.
The little rift within the lutte has
such slender beginnings! It comes
with hidden warp that no eye can
discern. It wldens at a touch-a
breath-the culver OF a heartbeat, and
10, when one looks again 1t has made
harsh the sound of the music, and
presently It will cease.
The corner where Winstanley and
Countess. Ika were sitting was the
farthest from the door. 1t had a screen
of carved wood about it, and, the clat'
ter and hum of the long supper table
came but family over to that little
cosy table set for two Countess Ilka
ate but sparingly, though she had de-
clared herself famished just now But
she zemptied her champagne glass: at
a draught and let it. be refilled. and
aha Fnledged Winatan1eV u In 1T I'm .