The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1908-04-07
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SIX s
ETTERS of introduction for

tldl PSi
SEFG sons attached to the
Rhaetian court were
necessarily part of the wonderful
plan concocted in the English garden.
though they were among the details
thought out afterward.
The widow of the hereditary Grand
Duke of Baumenburg- DriDpe was re-
ported in the journals Of various coun-
tries to be travelling with the Princess
Virginia and a small suit through Can
ada and the United States, and, fortu-
nately for the success Of the innocent
plot. the grand duchess had spent so
many years Of seclusion in England
and had even in her youth met so few
Rhaetians that there was little fear of
detection. Her objections to VirSinia's
scheme for winning lover instead OF
thanking heaven quietly for mere
husband were based on other grounds.
but Virginia had overcome them. and
eventually the grand duchess had prov
ed not only docile. but positively fertile
in eXpedient.
The choosing Of the borrowed flag
under which to sail had at first been
a difficulty. It was pointed out by a
friend taken into their confidence, a
lady whose husband had been ambas-
sador to Rhaetia. that real name
and a name of some dignity must be
adopted if proper introductions were
to be given. And it was the grand
duchess who suggested the name of
Mowbray on the plea that she had in
q way the right to annex it.
The mother Of the late Duke of
Northumberland had been Miss Now
bray, and there were still several emf
nently respectable, inconspicuous Now
bray cousins. Among these cousins
was a certain Lady Mowbray. widow
of baron Of that ilk and possessing
a daughter some years older and In
Vulnerable degrees palmer than the
Princess Virginia.
To this Lady Mowbray the grand
duchess had gone out Of her way to be
kind in Germany long years ago, when
she was very grand parsonage in
deed and Lady Mowbray comparative
ly nobody. The humble connection
had expressed herself as unspeakablT
grateful. and the two had kept up 4
friendship ever since. Therefore when
the difficulty Of realism in name pre-
sented itself the grand duchess thought
Of Lady Mowbray and Miss Helen
Mowbray. They were about to leave
England for India, but had not yet
left, and the widow Of the baron was
hattered as we'll as amused by the ro-
mantle confidence reposed in her by
the widow of the grand duke. She was
dehstted to lend her name and her
daughters name, and who could blame
the lady If her mind rushed forward to
the time when she should have earned
gratitude from the young empress OF
Rhaetia? For Of course she had no
doubt Of the way in which the adven-
ture would end.
AS for the wife Of the late British
ambassador to the Rhaetian court, she
was not sentimental and therefore was
not cutie as comfortably sure OF the
sequel. AS far as concerned her own
part in the plot. however. she felt safe
enough, for. though she was after a
fashion deceiving her old acquaint-
ances at Kronburg, she was not foist-
ing adventuresses upon them. On
the contrary, she was giving them a
chance Of entertaining angels un-
awares by sending them letters to
ladies who were in reality the Grand
Duchess Of Baumenburg-Drippe and
the Princess Virginia.
The four mysterious gentlemen left
Alleheiligen the day after Virginia's
encounter with the chamois hunter.
But the Mowbrays fingered on. The
adventure had begun so gloriously that
the girl feared an anticlimax for the
next step. Though she longed for the
second meeting, she dreaded it as well
and put off the chance Of it from day
to day. The stay Of the Mowbrays at
Alleheiligen heightened into q week.
and when they left at last it was only
Just in time for the great festivities
at Kronburg which were to cele-
brate the emperor's thirty-frst birth
day, an event enhanced in national
Importance by the fact that the eighth
anniversary Of his coronation would
fall on the same date.
On the morning Of the journey the
grand duchess had neuralgia and was
frankly cross.
"I don't see, after all, what you've
accomplished so far by this mad freak
which has dragged u across Europe"
she said fretfully in the train which
they had taken at town twenty miles
from Aleheiligen. "We've perched on
a mountain top, like the ark on Ara
rat, for a week, freezing. The adven-
ture you had there Is only complica-
ton. What have we to show for our
trouble-unless incipient rheumatism:
Virginia had nothing to show for it,
at least nothing that she meant to
show, even to her mother, but in a
little scented bag Of silk which lay
next her heart was folded bit Of
blotting paper. If you looked at its
reflection in mirror you saw written
twice over in a firm individual hand
the name "Helen Mowbray."
The princess had found II IN table
in the best sitting room ;.-ter Frau
Yorvan had made that room read% for
&c r,nrr nccnnants TherafnrN she loved