Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-04-23
SUNDAY MAGAZINE FOR APRIL %. 1911

he eyed her thOughtfully. Have you al
ways felt that way about them?"
"No, it was different before today. They
were-wel, amusing"
"And now they're accusing?" he sug-
gested Every well, I'll discontinue them.
But aren't you letting your conscience be-
come nuisance to you?'
Ann threw him troubled glance across
the flowers. at hasn't been easy to face my
family" she said. "If they disiked or mis-
Judged YOU, it might be simpler; but | have
no such consolation. They like you exceed
ingly. You made a conquest of my uncle"
"Your uncle made conquest of me, for
that matter. | should even like to tell him
my plans =.
"No. If he was twenty years younger,
should risk it. AS it is, he must wait till
everybody knows. He will be the first to
understand and approve my course"
"He will never understand NINE" said
Ann. at is mystery even to me.
Rodoslav drew one of the roses from its
fellows and peered into it's red heart as if he
searched an omen. "If you were Servian
you would call it Destiny he returned.
"Why not?"
DESTINY, if it was Destiny, seemed to
- thrust it's memorable hand into her life
from that day forth. Thus, no ordinary
thirst for gossip could to her mind account
for the Juror stirred up by the announcement
of her engagement. She expected a local
furry. The exuberant fluctuations of Vir-
ginia Truscott and the reproachful gaze of
Price Buckley-who left Pau forthwith
were as easy of prediction as sunrise. She
also anticipated certain amount of Partisan
comment with apcat1antic echo wherein,
Rodoslav's name would be grotesquely mis-
spelled and her private fortune grossly mis-
stated. This was her utmost flight of con-
lecture. In the actual issue, she found her
self an international sensation.
Rodoslav's rank, Justin Blair's money and
political affiliations, and the memory of her
own transit, a radiant debutante, across a
Washington season, were the groundwork.
The rest was chromatic journalism. They
received their first warning New Years of
the giant mushroom that had sprung up in
America. A reporter crossed France ex-
pressly to ask Justin if it was true that he
had refused a Dukedom. Details more than
ample reached them with the next bundle of
New York papers, Read at haphazard, they
presented a whirlwind of rubbish as sudden,
as capricious, as inexplicable, as flying
cloud of dust. Rodoslav was by turns
Ouida hero and a brainless degenerate; his
ancestral home was both barn and castle
straight out of medieval romance.
Ann was variously described as chic, stat
uesque, petite, blond, and brunette, Juno
and a Dresden shepherdess. There was gal
liant agreement as to her charm, brilliance,
and cultivation, with the less chivalrous inn
plication that she was throwing it all away
on a foreigner. The match itself was roundly
denounced as a mere vulgar act of barter.
1t was said to have reused the bitter hostility
of the Pope on account of the difference of
religion, and of the Austrian Emperor by
reason of the disparity in rank. Both, how
ever, had given reluctant assent. The
bride to be would forswear the faith of her
fathers and donate large sums to the church,
while Franz Josef, in order to make her
worthy of marriage with his subject, would
on her wedding day confer upon her title
which was severally described as Baroness,
Countess, Duchess, and Princess. The
journal that held to the Duchess myth con-
trived to make the dignity retroactive and
include Justin Blair, which proved that the
Young man who crossed France for an inter-
| view was not so irresponsible as he seemed.
| So much for the news columns and edl-
torials scanned at random. Traced back
dav by day, the riot of unreason was found
| to have its source in the speech of Member
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