Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1914-08-15

naDiL OF uOlngI some OF Jne snopS Sofd
window space to sight-seers, just SIS
they do at a coronation.'
"I dare say all this should let in
light, but it doesn't"
"Don't you read the newspapersi"
she cried impatiently. She actually re-
sented my ignorance.
"Rehgiously," 1 said, stung to re-
volt. "But make ii a point never to
read the criminal news"
"Criminal newsf" she gasped, spot
of red leaping to her cheek. ''what
do you meant"
"It is merely my way of saying that
I put marriages of that character in
the category of crime.
"Oh!" she cried, staring at me with
unbelieving eyes.
"Every time a sweet, lovely Amer
lean girl is delivered into the hands of
"a foreign bounder who happens to pos
sess title that needs fixing, l call the
transaction crime that puts white
slavery in class with the most tKifIing
Imisdemcanors. You did not love this
IpusiIlanimous Count, nor did he care a
hang for you. You were too young in
the ways of the world to have any feel
ling for him, and he was too old to have
Eany for you. The whole hateful busi-
ness therefore resolved itself into a
case of give and take-and he took ev-
Ierything. He took you and your IA
ther's millions and now you are both
back where you began. Some ore de-
lliberately committed crime, and as it
wasn't you or the Count,-who evied
his legitimate toh,-it must have been
the person who planned the conspiracy.
| take it, of course, that the whole af
fair was arranged behind youi back, so
to speak. To make it perfectly fash
onable and up-tod date delivery it would
have been entirely out of place to con
suit the unsophisticated girl who was
thrown in to make the title good. Yor
were not sold to this bounder It was
the other way round. By the goesr
madam, he was actually paid to take
you'll"
Her face was quite pale. Her eyes
did not leave mine during the long and
crazy dfatribe,-of which ! was already
beginning to feel heartily ashamed, =
land there was a dark, ominous. fire in
them that should have warned me.
She arose from her chair. 1t seemed
to me she was taller than before.
elf nothing else came to me out Of
this transaction" she said levelly, seat
least a certain amount Of dignity WIS
acquired. Pray remember that am
no longer the unsuphisticated girl you
50 graeiously describe. I am a woman.
"True," said /, senselessly dagged;
7 "a woman with the power to think for
Yourself. That is my point. If the
same situation arose at your present
age 1 fancy you'd be able to select a
husband without assistance, and I vent
ure to say You wouldn't pick up the
first dissolute nobIeinar that came
your way. No, my dear countess, you
were not to blame. You thought, as
your parents did, that marriage with a
count would make a real countess Of
lyou. What rotl You are a simple,
lovable American girl and that's all
there ever can be to it. To the end
[of your days you will be an American.
| 1t is not within the powers Of scape-
grace count to put you or any other
American girl on plane with the
women who are born countesses, or
duehesses, or anything of the sort. II
don T say that you suffer by compari-
son with these noble ladies. As a mat
ter of fact you are surprisingly finer
in every way than ninety-nine per cent.
Eaf them-poor thingsl Marrying an
English duke doesn't make a genuine
duchess out of an American girl, not
by long shot. She merely becomes a
figure of speech. Your own experience
should tell you that. Well, it's the
same with all of them. They aeduire
a title, but not the homage that should
go with it. !"
We were both standing now. She was
still measuring me with somewhat in
icredulous eyes, rather more talerant