The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1912-01-12

a wa ftou her q q ~ tsTt ~ y,
she wss SICK ot hing tiIat she
didn't want any new Jew els oT ans
new clothes, and that she never want.
ed to see the stage a gain or any place
again; that there was nowhere abe
wanted to 90, nothing she wanted to,
see-that he must get some fresh girl
to whom he could show life, not one
whom .he must try to make forget 1t.
Then, again, she would say that she
loved the stage and her art-wouldn't
give 1t up for any one in the world
that 1t was fatal to marry an actress
that II was mad for him to think of
marrying her. anyway-that she didn't
want 10 marry any one and be tied
down--that she wanted to be her own
mistress and free.
He found her a creature Of a thou
sand whims and caprices. quick to cry,
quick to laugh, divine in everything
she did. He never knew what she
would want him to do next or how
her mood would change, and after one
Of their happiest hours, when she had
been like a girl with him, she would
burst into tears, beg him to leave the
room, telling him that she was tired
tired-tired, and wanted to go to sleep
and never to wake up again. Between
them was the figure Of Poniotowsky,
though neither spoke Of him. She ap-
peared to have forgotten him. Dan
would rather have cut out his tongue
than to speak his name, and yet he
was there in the mind of each, Dur
ing the fortnight Dan spent thousands
of pounds on her, bought her jewels
which she alternately raved over or
but half looked at. He had made his
arrangements with Galcrey peaceful
ly, coolly and between the two men
1t had been understood that the world
should think the, engagement broken
by the duchess, and Dams attention to
Lefty Lane, already the subject Of
much comment. already conspicuous,
vas enough to justify any woman in
taking offense.
One day, the pearl Of warm May
days, when England even In spring
time touches summer, Blair was SO
happy as TO persuade his sweetheart
to go with him for little row on the
river. The young fellow waited for
her in the boat he had secured, ami
she, motoring out with Higgins, had
appeared, running down TO the edge
of the water like girl, gay as child
let out from school, in simple frock,
IN maryelously fetching hat, white
gloves, White parasol, white shoes, and
as Dan helped her into the boat,
pushed it out, pushed away with her
on the crest ofthe sun.hecked waters,
spring was in his heart, and he
found the moment almost too great
to bear.
The actress had been girl with
him all day, giving herself to his
moods, doing what he liked without
demur, talking of their mutual past.
telling him one amusing story after
another, proving herself an ideal COM
panion, fresh, varied, reposeful; and
no one to have seen Lefty Lane with
the boy on that afternoon would have
dreamed that she ever had known an
other love. They had moored their
boat down near Maidenhead, and he
had helped her up the bank to the
little inn, where tea had been made
for them, and served to him by her
own beautiful white hands. He had
called for Strawberries, and, Ike a
shepherd in a pastoral, had fed them
to her, and as they fingered the sun
set came creeping steadily in through
the windows where they sat.
AS they neither called for their ac-
count nor to have the tea things taken
away, after while the woman stealth
lily opened the door and, unknown,
looked at one of the prettiest pictures
ever within her walls. Lefty Lane
sat on the window seat, her golden
head, her white form against the
glow, and the boy by her side had his
arms around her, and her head was
on his breast They we're both young.
They might have been white birds
blown in there, nesting in the humble