The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-09-12
"Wednesday, September u, 1906.

WITH ANc1eay DHc1HbS IHey were l4cn
and willing to spend their money on
aad drink, made great mistake. They
never got anywhere really: they never
got intime with the society they COW
eted. They thought they were found
ing centers Of smartness. AS q mat
ter of fact, they were only turning
their houses into free restaurants for
the wealthy unemployed, to which, with
to be fed. There were. Of course, " 9th.
ers, who had something else to back
their spending capacity, people who
to charm. Certainly their wealth
helped such of those who yearned for
social success, but it was not their
wealth that made it for them, but their
VT. People would always come to be
fed, if the food was decent: then they
wiped their mouths and went their
journey" while their poor, self-de-
ceived hostesses thought that they were
going hand after hand up the ladder.
Lily Thurso-being by birth half Amer
ican-was compatriot Of many Of
these, and her pretty little nose, slight
" tiptilted. instinctively went in the
air when she thought Of them. You
any Importance merely 81 spend spending
money. In New York you could, and
her compatriots she thought lacked a
proper sense Of moral geography.
Wealth in London brought to your
house the Hon. Mrs. Not-quite-in-it, in
shoals, but that was all. Or if you
few a little higher in the way of mere
Intelligence, eatable dinners would
bring to your house the keepers Of the
smaller national collections, plump lit
tie gentlemen, for the most part, of
harmless but Insignificant nature, who
seethed with seeond-rate and unreliable
information both about the world and
about their art, and discovered second
rate Titians and things. All that was
second rate, in fact, could easily be
secured by money, but nothing else.
At this moment she was sitting with
Jim Stratton, her husband g younger
brother. and Ruby Majendie,, who, She
hoped. was going to persuade Jim to
marry her, for the sake of the happi-
ness of them both, having lunch at one
at those little round tables, in order to
see how the room looked. and that
while they ate since hours were pre-
cious, Ruby and she could direct the
efforts Of those who j, were putting
decorating tables, ] LADY Thurso had
Just given orders that all the: hydran-
geas, of which q perfect copse had been
made at the far end Of the room,
should be taken away again, for really
the Italian fireplace was much more
decorative than these blue blossomed
shrubs. 5.5
Besides, hydrangeas always remind
me of Turner James, she said in par
enthesis.
And what s that9o asked Jim.
Oh, it a little: art gentleman; of
course You know him, because he is
a 4xuye,xy fho npo
lunches or dimes out whom one doesn It
know. He looks as if he was grown in
q pot in a moderately warm dollhouse.
! don t know why thought Of him at
this moment-oh, yes, because of the
hydrangeas. You know when hydran-
geas begin to get stout-Yes, take them
all away she called out to the for
il, who stin appeared to want to leave
The stchoicestO were therefore re-
moved also. and while this was being
done, they could talk of other things.
Lady Thurso, inheriting the American
love Of doing something which had
never been done before, a thing which
leads to failure IN dozen cases and to
brilliant success in the lucky thir-
teenth, had never been better inspired.
for the staircase, otherwise a, rather
heavy and not very admirable feature
IN the house, had been gIoriously trans
formed BY this feathery and rustic deco
ration. But poor Mr.. Hopkinson s ig-
norance of what wild flowers were, had
been capped by his ignorance Of how
wild flowers grew, and he had begun to
arrange the poor dears in neat rows.
as in a ribbon bee. - Conse quently he
and his assistant florists had, about
1870 that day. to begin all over again.
and under Lady Thurso s direct and
mordant supervision, had first 6 made
q salad of these fragrant hampers Of
flowers and grasses, and then stuck
them properly, that is to say, at ran
dom, into the trays of moist clay that
lined each side Of the stairway, and
would keep them alive and brighteyed
till morning. And as soon as lunch was
over, she went out to. see if poor Mr..
Hopkinson had at length understood.
BE had: the staircase was country
lane, exactly as she had visualized it.
And somehow with this adapfability
that was as natural to her as The, change
Of color is to the chameleon, as she