Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-05-19
i'm
the
Oven?

The world said Eleanor Carey would
never marry again. Her first matri-
monial experience had not been Strewn
with roses, though money for their
purchase had not been lacking. And
the events of her widowhood had been
enough TO turn any woman hard. Gym
ical and unromantic.
Not that Eleanor Carey looked either
hard or imbittered as she presided
over Mrs. DE Witt Smiths tea table
one balmy April afternoon. ROBBED in
soft. clinging topaz colored silk, with
heavy incrustations of lace-the famed
Carey laces-she looked not day older
than the daughter of the household
who was that day making her social
debut. And. indeed. in point of years
the fair debutante had little advantage
over the fairer widow whose coming
out had been followed almost directly
by her marriage with Henry Carey. re-
tired broker, multimillionaire and con-
firIned bachelor
Younger men had envied the fishy
eyed groom. Older women had envied
the radiant bride who rumor said had
acquiesced smilingly in her bold sale
in the matrimonial market.
That she had paid the price of fami-
ly honor and her fathers good name
with outward calm and inward revul-
sion was something Dame Grundy new
er guessed
Her reward came sooner than she
had dared to hope. Henry Carey died
within year of their marriage, and
then came what rumor said was enough
to harden any woman Ghosts of Ca
rey's ugly past trouped forth after the
reading of the will. His first cousin.
apparently we'll started on his elder rel
ative's downward path. first laid siege
to the widows heart and, being re-
pulsed. then started the contest which
had made Eleanor's face familiar to ev-
cry newspaper reader in America and
arraigned the dead man in all the bald
ness of money drunk eccentricities.
That any woman could believe in
any man after going through what
Eleanor Carey had gone through was
past even the belief of her own some
what cynical social set.
So far Eleanor's attorneys had held
out against the siege for the millions
left entirely to her. So far Eleanor
Carey had never been interviewed by
either public reporter or private friend.
She had simply resumed her place in
society after laying aside her mourning
and let the legal and social tongues wag
So it happened that three men who
had come to pay their respects to Mrs.
De Witt Smith and her youngest
| daughter fingered to play court to the
presiding genius at the tea table.
| One of these was DR.. Dalton, a mar
| who had won his spurs in the world of
| medicine despite a large family fortune
and assured social position.
The second. Jimmy Darnton, was a
newly made copper king from the north
| west. whose family. well known in the
eastern social whirl. had sent him west
to be forgotten as the family ne'er-do
well and were now only too glad to re-
member him and receive him with
open arms.
Neither of these men could be &C
cused of caring how Henry Carey's for
| tune was finally disposed of.
The third man was Donald Gregory
born of stern Scotch father and q
mercurial French mother in the storrf
locked New England town where
Eleanor Carey had lived in her girl
hood. In his fathers eyes the young
chap had wasted what should have
been useful youth.
Today the stern old father >unfortu
nately was not alive to witness the
artistic triumphs of his son. but the
mercurial little mother was waiting Il
welcome him in the New England
town. He would have Joined her day,
before but for having met Eieane
Carey the very day of his arrival ii
| New York from Paris.