Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-02-22

in the moonlight, fountains Splashed coolly
amid the greenery.
@Act Two" muttered Minot. "The
grounds surrounding the castle of the Fairy
Princess"
@You have to come down here, don't you"
replied Paddock, ito realize that old Mother
Nature has little on Belasco, after ALP
THE whir of motor behind them caused
the two young men to turn. Then
Minot saw her coming up the path toward
him-coming up that fantastic avenue of
palms-tall, fair, white, a lovely figure in
lovely setting
All, yes-Iord Harrowby! He walked at
her side, nonchalant, distinguished, almost
as tall as popular illustrator thinks man
in evening clothes should be. Truly they
made handsome couple! They were to wed
-Minot himself had sworn they were to wed!
He kept the bitterness from his tone as he
greeted them there amid the soft magic of
the Florida night. Together they went in
side In the center of a magnificent hallway
they found Mrs. Bruce standing, like stout
Balboa on his Darien peak, triumphant amid
the glory of her gold.
Minot thought Mrs. Bruce's manner of
greeting somewhat harr1ed and oppressed.
Poor lady, every function was first night
for her! Would the glare of the footlights
frighten her? Would she falter in her lines
forget them completely? Only her sisters
of the stage could sympathize with her I'm
derstandingly now.
$50 you are to carry Cynthia away?"
Minot heard her saying to Lord Harrowby.
@Such lot of my friends have married into
the peerage! Indeed, l have sometimes
thought YOU English have no other pastimes
save that of slipping engagement rings on
hands across the Sea
A soft voice spoke in Minot's ear. AMine!"
Paddock was saying 3Not bad, Ell? But
look at that Englishman. Why should 1
have sat up all last night writing lines to try
on him9 Can you tell me that?'
Lord Harrowby, indeed, seemed oblivious
of Mrs. Bruce's little bon mot. He hemmed
| and hawed, and said he was lucky man. But
he did not mean that he was lucky because
he had the privilege of hearing Mrs. Bruce
Bruce slipped out of the shadows into the
WEAKNESS of another formal dinner. Mrs.
Bruce glittered, and he wrote the checks.
He was scraggly little man, who sometimes
sat for hours at a time in silence. There
were those unkind enough to say that he
sought back, trying to recall the reason that
had led him to marry Mrs. Bruce.
When he beheld Cynthia Meyrick, and
knew that he was to take her in to dinner,
Bruce frightened perceptibly. None save
blind and deaf man could have failed to.
COCKTAILS consumed, the party turned
- toward the dining room. Except for the
Meyricks, Martin Wall, Lord Harrowby, and
Paddock, Dick Minot knew none of them.
There were couple of colorless men from
New York who, when they died, would be
referred to as prominent clubmen"; a
horsy girl from Westminster, an ex-Ambassa-
doris wife and daughter, number of names
from Boston and Philadelphia with their
respective bearers; and last but not least, the
two Bond girls from Omaha, blond, lovely,
but inclined to be snobbish even in that COM
pany; for their mother was Van Reypan,
and Van Reypans are rare birds in Omaha
and elsewhere.
| Minot took in the elder of the Bond girls,
and found that Cynthia Meyrick sat on his
left. He glanced at her throat as they sat
down. 1t was bare of ornament. And then
he beheld, sparkling in her lovely hair, the
perfect diamonds of Chain Lightning's col
lar. As he turned back to the table he caught
the eye of Martin Wall. Walls eye happened
to be coming away from the same locality.
The girl from Omaha gossiped of plays
and players, like dramatic page from some
old Sunday newspaper.
1I'm mad about the stage she conided.
3Of course we get all the best shows in
Omaha. Why, Maxine Elliott and Nat
Goodwin come there every year"