Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-04-24
CHAPTER TIT

| tAAiNiAiA2. D1L LIS lame I'LL
She knew who he was!
CHAPTER III.
IN fashionable quarter of the city
tnefe stood brownstone house, with
srotesque turrets, winding steps and
slarlng polished red tiles here was
touch of the Gothic, of the Renais
sance, of the old English manor. lust
touch. however, a kind of blind
man 's-bluff OF a house. A very rich
man lived there, but for ten months in
the year ne and his family f1uttered
about the social centers of the world
ana with house like this on his
hands one could scarce blame him
i"lce week, during this absence, a
caretaker came in. fiourished a feather
custer, and went away again. Society
reporters always referred to this
mouse as "the palatial residence"
This morning a woman stood in the
a.coVe window and looked down into
tne ghstenlng street. There was a
smile Oh her lips, in her eyes, in the
temporary little wrinkles on either
side OF her nose. The Venetian red Of
her hair trapped the reflected sun.
ilght IRON the opposite windows. and
Two little points of silver danced in
her blue eyes. All, but her eyes wera
plue; blue as spring-water in the
morning, blue as the summer sky seen
lnroueh cleft in the mountains. blue
as lapls-lazuli. with the same fibers Of
gold. And every feature and contour
or me race harmonized with the mar.
Vicious hair and the wonderful ewes.
d oeautlful face, warm. dreamy, enaae.
Ing, mobile. 1t was not the face of a
worldly woman; neither was IL the
race OF girl. 1t was too emotional for
the second, and there was not enough
control for the first. 1t seemed rs if
she stood on the threshold of life
wlthone hand lingering regretfaliy in
the clasp OF youth and the other
doubtfully greeting womanhoo;I. alto.
gether something of puzzle
But the prophecy of laughts- did
not come to pass; the little wrinkles
faded, the mouth grew sad. and the
SILVER nolnts no lonfer danced in her
eyes. The pain in her heart vas al.
WAYS shadowing; like TALLER Il ieai-
ouslv watched ard repressed the ma
tural galety which was a part OF her
Those who have been in serious
wrecks are never quite the same aft
erward: and she had seen her f,irest
dream beaten and crumpled upon the
reef of disillusion.
Yet again the smile renewed itself
she was creature Of varying moods.
She twisted and UNFINISHED the news.
naper. Should she? Ought she? Was
It not dreadfully improper and hi
zarre? Had she not always regretted
these singular impulses? And vet,
what harm to read this letter and re.
turn it to the sender? She was so
lonely here; 1t was like being among
O. strange people. SO long ago was it.
That her foot had touched this soil.
Was It possible that she was twenty
hVe? was there not some miscount.
and was it not fifteen instead? AS old
and as wise as the Cumaean Sybil at
one moment, as light and careless as
a Hebe the next Would not this war
of wisdom and folly be decided ere
long?
She opened the paner and smooth
ed ont the folds Madame Angot
There is letter for you in the mail
department of this Office 1t was So
droll. 1t was unlike anything she had
ever heard Of. A personal inquiry col
umn, where Cupids and Psyches bill
ed and cooed, and anxious Junos
searched for recreant Jupiters, The
merest chance had thrown the origin
al inquiry under her notice. Her an
swer was an impulse to which she had
given no second thought till too late
orb ~
since she had taken the first step she
might as we'll take the second. She
was lonely; the people she knew were
out Of town; and the jest might
amuse her.
This man was, in all probability,
gentleman, since he was a member of
a gentlemen's club. But second
thought convinced her that this
meant nothing. Men are often called
gentleman out of compliment to their
ancestors. Still, if this man only saw
the affair from her angle of vision, the
grotesque humor of it and not the
common vulgar intrigue! She nesitat-
ed, as well she might Supposing that
eventually he found out who she was?
That would never. never do. No one
must know that she was in America,
about to step into the widest of wild
adventures. No; she must not be
found out The king, who had been
kind to her, and the court must never
know. From their viewpoint they
would have declared that she was
about to tarnish distinguished name,
to outrage the oldest aristocracy in
| Europe, the court OF Italy. But she had
her own opinion: what she proposed
to do was in itself harmless and inno-
cent. But this gentleman who leaned
out of the window? What would she
do with him? A block above or below
his window, and no one would have
heard. not even the policeman This
time the laughter dubbed. 1t was all
SO funny. She had heard every word