Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1909-11-04

AOl Iuu0 SSCdUiIS1Su Ill L dl ID, duu al
most as well known to art collectors
as to needy governments, wouldbe
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 weekend party at Craythew,
Lord Creedmores place in Derbyshire,
where they had apparently come to a
final 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 a tremendous ovation before
she opened her handsome lips, and
another when she had finished the
air; and she spent one of the happiest
L
Though she was at heart a nice
English girl not much over "a years
of age, the orphan daughter of an Ok
ford 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 a certain amount
of adulation. Even the envy they ex-
cite in their rivals is delicious, if not
almost necessary to them
Margarets real nature had not been
changed by success that had been
altogether phenomenal and had prob
ably not been approached by any
sOrranO since Nine. Bonanni; but a
second nature had grown upon it and
threatened to hide it from all but
those who knew her very well indeed.
The inward Margaret was honest and
brave, rather sensitive, and still gener-
GUS; the outward woman, the prima
donna whom most people saw, was
sClf-pOSsessed to a fault, imperious
when cOntradicted, and coolly ruthless
when her artistic fame was at stake.
The two natures did not agree well
together, and made her wretched when
they Quarreled but Logotheti, who
was going to take her for better, for
worse, professed 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
CT having refused him about a dozen
times.
She had loved another man as much
as she was capable of loving, and al
one time he had loved her, but a 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 if 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
gether So LogOtheti, brilliant, very
rich, gifted, gay, and rather exotic in
appearance and manner, but tenaci
Gus as a 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.
Let's try it," she had said, and he
had been more than satisfied
After a time, therefore, they told
fri hot ff
"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 il
the diplomacy, and, after vainly try
| ing to divorce her, had been killed il
| St. Petersburg by bomb meant fol
a minister. The explosion had beer
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 a childless widow of eight-and
! twenty. Her father, when he had NJ
prospect of ever succeeding to the
title, had been a successful barrister
and then a Woodworking member o
| parliament, and he had been from boy
| hood the close friend of Margaret
father Hence the intimacy that grew
up quickly between the two womel
when they at last met, though the!
had not known each other as children
because the lawyer had lived in towl
and his friend in Oxford.
so you're going to try it, m.
dear." said Lady Maud, when sh,
heard the news.
! She had a sweet low voice, an,
when she spoke now it was littl
sad; for she had tried it," and it hal
failed miserably But she knew tina
the trial had not been fair one; tn
only man she had ever cared for ha,
been killed in South Africa, and a
she had not even the excuse of havin
been engaged to him, she had marrie'
with Indifference the first handsom
/ man with good name and fair fo1
tune who offered himself. He chances
to be a Russian diplomatist, and h
turned out a spendthrift and an ur
faithful husband. She was too kind
hearted to be glad that he had bee
blown to atoms by dynamite, but sh
was much too natural not to enjoy tn
liberty restored to her by his destrue
ton; and she had not the least inter
ton of ever trying it" again.
"You don't sound very enthusiastic,
, laughed Margaret, who had no mis-
givings to speak of, and was general
, a cheerful person. IF you don't Ell