The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-04-02
CHAPTER II.
A Family Party.

" order to answer the question Of
where the Dale House people were
going on that Sunday afternoon
an incident which gave rise to SO much
discussion in Arundale-we must go
back to the previous afternoon.
Lady Muriel is sitting in her own
particular boudoir with all the rose
colored blinds pulled down, partly to
shelter the room from the rays of the
sun. but chiefly to cast over it a be-
coming light. 1t is a very pretty room,
full of articles of vertu and art treas
ures of much worth, all tastefully, even
artistically, arranged. There are two
or three pictures on the walls, of the
decided Burne Jones type; yet Lady
Muriel regards aetheticism as a vice.
She delights in art in all its most recos-
nized forms; in fact, the potentates in
the factory almost wish Lady Muriel
was not such an art dabbler, since she
interferes with the designs of the work
that has to be executed, in a manner
which rather binders than accelerates
labor.
To such a degree has this Interior
enee extended that about three weeks
before the Sunday afternoon on which
the carriage passed the Urskes' cot
tage, the chief draughtsman and diree-
tor of the designs generally had thrown
up his appointment in a huff, to Lady
Muriel's no small delight. but rather
to the CONSERVATION &C the partners
who, although they had a firm belief in
Lady Muriel's taste, were yet a little
puzzled to know where to turn for Il
man competent to fill so important a
position.
Lady Muriel was, however, quite
equal to the occasion. She knew where
to find the very artist who would make
the beauty of their designs the talk
Of Europe she said; perhaps, indeed
she had had this very man in her mind
when she made Arundale too hot for
the crushed Individual whom she called
that cramped, old-fashioned, would-be
artist, Mr.. Richard Jones'"
Lady Muriel's protege was a French
man, Paul Brumeau by name. 1t was
to meet Paul Brumeau tina Lady
Murlel had committed the somewhat
heinous crime, in the eyes of the
Arundale people, of having the car
riage out on Sunday.
AS she sits in her boudoir on the
previous day a footman in a rather gor-
geous blue and red livery brings in
the midday letters by the second post,
Lady Muriel gives a little cry of de-
light when she reads the top one bear
ing a French mark. While she is thus
engaged we may as well sketch her
as she reclines in the corner of her
dark satin sofa.
She is a woman of about eight and
twenty; tall and graceful in figure. but
possessing no actual beauty. Her face
cannot boast of one good feature, save
a pair of flashing eyes. and the COM
plexion is so colorless as to be called s
by her detractors, pasty. And Of course
Lady Muriel has detractors. What Gle,
CANT, artistic-looking woman has not2
And that she can lay claim 10 these
adjectives there is little doubt. Her
black flossy hair is always perfectly
dressed, lying close to her head in thick
plaits. Her dresses. exquisite in fit
and style, are, for the most part, models
from La Ferriere, or copies turned out
with wonderful faithfulness by q
French maid who came to Lady Muriel
from one of the great French houses
when she married Mr.. Aston. In the
hands of these two able artistes, Lady
Muriel is never either over or under
dressed. Silks and satins for home
wear in the morning she would as soon
think of DOMINIC as sackcloth for a
ball. More han one connoisseur has
believed in Lady MurieIs artistic pro-
clivities from the simple fact that she
so thoroughly understands the art Of
appropriate clothes.
Cro Be Continued Tomorrou.)