Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-09-10


short time a number of people came up
~ speak to Mrs Ess Kay and some to
Miss WOODBURY.. The water was as,
smooth as the floor of ballroom when
it's been well waxed for dance, and
there was no excuse for the most
sensitive person to be i'll; consequently
the deck was something like kaleido-
scope, with all its moving groups of
men and women, girls and children.
Most of the best looking and best
dressed ones were Americans. and a
great many seemed to know each 9th.
er. Some Of them laughed good deal
and talked in high voices, putting EN-.
'phasis on propositions, which Miss
Mackinstry and the others would never
let me do in writing compositions.
Somehow, though, when these people
spoke it sounded very nice and cordial.
more so than it does when English
people greet each other, though the
voices weren't so sweet, except a few
that drawled in pretty southern way,
like Sally Woodburn's.
/ could tell which We're the poor
| things that Mrs. Ess Kay wanted to
weed out of her acquaintance garden
| for next season, by the way she acted
| when they came TO say "How do you
do?" to her. She screwed up her eyes
till they looked hard and sharp enough
| to go through you like thin knife
| or more like a long. slender hatpin
| jabbing your head, and having waited
| an instant before returning tlSeir greet
| ing, slowly answered.: Very well,
| thank you. Yes, l am going home
| rather early. I'm due at Newport as
soon as possible;" then fingered her
| open book, which she hadn't peeped
into before, and made little, just
| noticeable gesture with her lorgnette.
| Then the poor people were too much
| crushed to stop and try to talk to Miss
| WOODBURY., though she always looked
| at them sweetly, as If she would make
| up for her cousin being dragon if she
could.
| By and by, somebody else would sail
up, perhaps not half as nice TO look at
as the one who had gone. But 10, Mrs.
/ Stuyvesant-KnoX would be suddenly
transformed. She would smile and
hold out her hand. To their How do
you do?" she would respond How do
| you do?' and though l don't think
| she's really much interested in any
one but herself, she would ask where
they had been, what they had been do
ing and how it happened they were
going back so soon. The next thing
she would say to me: Betty, dear,
should like you and Mrs. So-and-so Il
know each other, as / hope you'll meet
again, while you're staying with me
Lady Betty Buckley. etc, etc l won
der if you have ever met her brother
the Duke of Stanforth, and her cousin
the Marquis of Loveland, over in Lon
DOM"
Loveland would have had fit if he
could have heard her, for of course al
home only the lower middle classes OF
such people hurl marquis title a
his head in that fashion, but l sup
pose foreigners, unless they've been il
England a long time, don't know tn,
difference
When l got chance, l asked Sail.
Woodburn how Mrs. Stuyvasant-Kno,
made her distinctions in snubbins
some people and preening herself t.
others.
"My deah,", said Sally Q'm to cal
her sally" now; it's been understood
between us for some time), my deah
you're a poor, innocent child, and
reckon you've been brought up il
darkness, without even so much a
hearing of the Four Hundred?
"What are the Four Hundred? Ar
i they kind of light brigade, like TIL
Six Hundred?" l asked. "Or is it
4 sort of governing body like-like tn
q Council of Three?'
/ She laughed SO much at this, wit
D her charming, velvety laugh, that
o grew quite nervous, for it's embal
e RAISING to have said something funn
when you've meant to be rather int
q ligent. But soon she took pity on me
= you perfect love-" she said, that
Il really two sweet. 1t deserves to b
1t put in Life, or something And ye
L you're not so far wrong, when on
c. comes to think of it. The Four HUI
a dred is kind of governing body, onl
], believe it's really reduced to Tw
It Hundred now. They govern Ne,
e York, and Newport, and Lennox, an
d Bar Harbor, and several other place
" which are considered very nice an
re important"
a "Oh! Are they Republicans or Den
l. crats?" 1 inquired, sure that 1 reall
was being intelligent at last, for L
lie heard Stan say that in America I'll
is Republican party was rather like OIL
TT Conservatives, and the Democrats Liz
y our Liberals, and I'd remembered b.
IS cause 1 believe 1 should be very niue
IN interested in politics IL only l unde
b. stood more about them. But Sail
lie seemed to think that question funr
too.
re "They can be either, my poor lamb
a she exclaimed, land they can be a
ut most anything else they like if onl
10 they're just awfully, dreadfully ric
n, and can manage to scrape up fami
Id crest. 1t used to be the crest th'
III counted with the man who invente
the Four Hundred, but since his ds
I'd that idea has got buried under heal