Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-10-29
CHAPTER IL.

There was good copy for the news. |
papers on both sides Of the Atlantic |
in the news that the famous lyric so.
prano. Margarita da Cordova, whose
real name was Miss Margaret Dome,
was engaged to Mons. Konstantin
Logotheti, Greek financier Of large
fortune established in Paris, and al
most as we'll known to art collectors
as to needy governments. would-be
promoters, and mothers of marriage.
able daughters. ~
The engagement was made known
during the height of the London sea.
son, not long after they had both been
at a weekend party at Craythew,
Lord Creedmore's place in Derbyshire,
where they had apparently come to a
fnal understanding after knowing
each other more than two years. Mar.
garet was engaged to sing at Covent
Garden that summer, and the first
mention Of the match was coupled
with the information that she intended
to cancel all her engagements and
never appear in public again. The re.
suit was that the next time she came
down the stage to sing the Waltz
Song in Romeo and Juliet" she re-
ceived q tremendous ovation before
she opened her handsome lips. and
another when she had finished the
air; and she spent one of the happiest
evenings she remembered.
Though she was at heart a nice
English girl, not much over "a years
OF age. the orphan daughter Of an Ok
Iord don who had married an Ameri-
can, she had developed. or fallen, to
the point at which very popular and
successful artists cannot live at all
without applause, and are not happy
unless they receive certain amount
OF adulation. Even the envy they ex-
cite In their rivals is delicious, II not
almost necessary to them.
Margaret's real nature had not been
changed by success that had been
altogether phenomenal and had prob
ably not been approached by any
soprano since Nine. Bonanni; but
second nature had grown upon 1t and
threatened to hide it from all but
those who knew her very we'll indeed.
The inward Margaret was honest and
brave. rasser sensitive, and still gener-
ous; the outward woman, the prima
donna whom most people saw, was
self-possessed to fault, imperious
when contradicted. and ceolly ruthless
when her artistic fame was at stake.
The two natures did not agree we'll
together, and made her wretched when
they quarreled, but Logotheti, who
was going to take her for better, for
worse. protested to like them both.
and was the only man she had ever
known who did. That was one reason
why she was going to marry him, aft
ler having refused him about q dozen
times.
She had loved another man as much
a. she was capable of loving, and at
one time he had loved her, but mis-
understanding and her devotion to her
art had temporarily separated them;
and later, when she had almost told
him that she would have him IL he
asked her, he had answered her quite
frankly that she was no longer the
girl he had cared for. and he had sud-
denly disappeared from her life alto.
lgether. So Logotheti. brilliant, very
rich, gifted, gay, and rather exotic in
appearance and manner, but tenaci-
Gus as bloodhound, had won the
prize after struggle that had lasted
two years. She had accepted him
without much enthusiasm at the last.
and without any great show of feel
ing.
Lets try It." she had said, and he
had been more than satisfied.
After time, therefore, they told
their friends that they were going to
"try it."
The only woman with whom the
great singer was at all intimate was
the Countess Leven, Lord Creedmore's
daughter, generally called Lady
Maud" whose husband had been in
the diplomacy, and, after vainly try
ing to divorce her, had been killed in
st. Petersburg by bomb meant for
ia minister. The explosion had been
so terrific that the dead mans identity
had only been established by means
of his pocket-book, which somehow es.
capped destruction. So Lady Maud
was childless widow Of eight-and.
twenty. Her father, when he had no
prospect Of ever succeeding to the
title. had been successful barrister,
and then a Woodworking member OF
parliament, and he had been from boy.
hood the close friend Of Margaret's
father. Hence the intimacy that grew
mp quickly between the two women
when they at last met, though they
had not known each other as children
becsuse the lawyer had lived in town
and friend in Oxford.
80 you're going to try 1t, my
idear!" said Lady Maud. when she
heard the news.
She had a sweet low, voice. and
when she spoke now 1t. was a little
sad; for she had tried IT." and It had
failed miserably. But she knew that
the trial had not beer Z fair one: the
only man she had ever cared for had
been killed In South Africa. and AZ
she had not even the excuse Of having
been engaged to him, she had married
with indifference the Arst handsome
man with good name and Q fair for.
tune who offered himself. He CHANGED
- ke Russian dipfomatist, and he
turned out gpendthrift and N IN,
faithful husband. She ives too KIND,
hearted to be glad that he 'hsd beer
blown to atoms by dynamite, but she
was much too naaural not to enjoy the
liberty restored to her. BY his dsstruc,
uou; and she had not the least inten'
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