The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1911-09-14

dene Park House, dressed for dinner
without the aid of valet When
Lord Galorey had asked him where
his man servant was" Dan had
grinned. Gosh, wouldn't have one
of those Johnnies hanging around me
never did have! l can put on my
stockings all right! There was a chap
on the boat came over in who let his
man put on his stockings Can you
beat that?" Blair had laughed again.
Il think if anybody tickled my feet
that way would be likely to kick him
in the eye"
Dressing in his room he whistled un-
der his breath song from a newly
popular comic opera; and he intoned
with a clear young voice a line of the
words:
MISUNDERSTANDING"
Out through his high window. If he
had looked, he would have seen the
misty sweep of the park under the
faint moonrise and fine shadows that
the leaves made in the yelled light,
but he did not look out. He was
dressing for dinner without a valet
and giving great deal of care to his
toilet; for the first time he was to
dine in the house of nobleman and
in the presence of duchess; not that
1t meant a great deal to him-he
thought it was funny"
In Dan Blairs twenty-five years of
utterly happy days his one grief had
been the death of his father. AS soon
as the old man had died Dan had gone
off into the Rockies with his guides
and not Shown up" for months. When
he came back to Blairtown, as he ex-
pressed it, "he packed his grip and
beat 1t while his shoes were good" for
the one place he could remember his
father had suggested for him to go.
Blairtown was very much impressed
when the heir came in from the Rock
les with "a big KILL" and the orphans
ease did not seem especially dis
turbed. But no one in the town knew
how the boys heart ached for the old
man. When Dan was six years old
his father had literally picked him up
by the nape of the neck and thrown
him into the water like a pup and
watched him swim. At eight he sent
the boy off with gun to rough camp.
Then he took Dan down in the mines
with the men. His education had been
won in Blairtown, at a school called
public, but which in reality was moth
ing more than a pioneer district
school.
On Sundays Dan dressed up and
went with his father to church twice
day and in the week days his father
took him to the prayer meetings, and
at sixteen Dan went to college in Cali
fornia. He had just completed his
course when old Blair died. Then he
inherited fifty million dollars.
On the day of the shoot at Osdene
Dan dropped sixty birds. He tried
very hard not to be too pleased.
Gosh" he thought to himself, those
birds fell as though they were trained
all right, and the other sports were
mad, l could see it." He then fell to
Whistling softly the air he had heard
Lady Galorey play the night before
from the new success at the Gaiety,
and finished it as his toilet completed
itself. He took up gardenia from his
dressing table and fastened it in his
coat, stopping on the stairs on the
way down to look over into the hall
where the men in their black clothes
and the women in their shining
dresses waited before going into the
dining-room. The lights fell on white
arms and necks, on jewels and on fine
proud heads. Dan Blair had been in
San Francisco and in New York, on
short journeys, however, which his
father, the year before, had directed
him to take, but he had never seen a
show" like this.
He came slowly down the broad
stairway of the Osdene Park House,
the last guest. In the corner, where,
behind her, piece of fourteenth CEN
tury tapestry cut green and pink
square against the rich black oak PAN
cling, the Duchess of Breakwater sat
waiting. She wore a dress of golden
tulle which was simply a sheath to
her slender body, and from her neck
hung long rope of diamonds caught
at the end by small black fan; there
was a wreath of diamonds like shining
water drops linked together in her
hair. She was the grandest lady at
Osdene, and renowned in more than
one sense of the word. AS Dan saw
her smile at him and rise, he thought:
She is none too sorry that l made
that record, but hope to heaven she
won't say anything to me about it,"
And the duchess did not speak of it.
Telling him that he was to take her
in to dinner, she laid first her fan on
his arm and then her hand. And Dan,
one of those fortunate creatures who
are born men of the world when they !
get into it, gave her his arm with
much grace, and as he leaned down |
toward her he thought to himself:
We'll, it's lucky for me l have my /;
head on tight; few more of those
goo-goo eyes of hers and it would be !
as we'll for me to light out for the |
woods"
Dan liked best at OSdene Park his (