Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1915-07-07

why seek for details, when these might
be sordid?
Singapore would see the end, and
she would become her normal self
again.
She clasped the necklace around her
lovely throat She was dressing for
dinner, really dressing. An impish
mood filled her with the irrepressible
desire to shine in all her splendor to-
night. Covertly she would watch the
eyes of mediocrity widen. Hitherto
they had seen her In the simple white
of travel. Tonight they should behold
the woman who had been notable
among the beauties In Paris, Vienna,
Rome, London; who had not married
duke simply because his title could
not have added to the security of her
position. socially or financially.
Into the little mirror above the wash
stand she peered. with smiling and ap-
proving eyes. Never had she looked
better. There was unusual color in
her cheeks and the clarity Of her eyes
spoke nluminatingly of superb health.
The tan on her face was not made
noticeable in contrast by her shoulders
and arms, old ivory In tint and as
smooth and glossy as ancient Carrara.
you lovely creature!" murmured
Martha, touching an arm with her lips.
you are foolish to dress like this"
She finished the hooking Of Elsa's
waist.
and why?"
"In the first place there's nobody
worth the trouble; and nobody but
duchess or :" Martha paused
embarrassedly.
COR what? An improper person."
Elsa laughed. my dear Martha, your
comparisons are faulty. know but
two duchesses in this wide world who
are not dowdies, and one of them is an
American. An improper person is gen.
orally the most proper, outside her Pc
culiar environments. Can't you sug-
gest something else?"
Martha searched but found no suit
| able reply. She believed that she saw
more clearly into the future than Elsa.
| Someone would talk, and in that
strange inscrutable fashion scandal
has of reaching the ends of the earth,
| the story would eventually arrive
home; and there, for all the profess
sions of friendship, it would find admit
lance. No door is latched when scan
dial knocks. Martha readily appreci-
ated that it was all harmless, to be ex-
, pressed by a single word, whim. But
| Martha herself never acted upon i'm
pulse; she first questioned what the
world would say. So run the sheep.
For years Martha had discharged her
duties, If mechanically yet with a
sense of pleasure and serenity. At
this moment she was as one pushed
unexpectedly to the brink of preci-
pice, over which the slightest misstep
would topple her. The world was out
Of joint.
II wish we had gone to Italy," she
remarked finally.
ut would not have served my pur-
pose in the least I should have been
dancing and playing bridge and going
to operas. I should have had no time
| for thinking"
"Thinking!" Martha elevated her
brows with an air that implied that
! she greatly doubted this statement.
eyes, thinking. 1t is not necessary
that / should nope and shut myself up
in a cell, Martha, in order to think.
have finally come to the end of my
doubts, if that will CRAFTY you. From
now on you may rely upon one thing,
to a certainty
| nth f0 yN11%% IN n0-
ton.
II am not going to marry Arthur.
He is charming, graceful, accom-
plished; but want man. I should
not be happy with him. I can twist
him too easily around my finger. I ad.
NIT that he exercises over me a GER
tain indefnable fascination; but when
he is out of sight it amounts to the
sum of all this doddering and doubt
ing. 1t is probable that I shall make
an admirable old maid. Wisdom has
its disadvantages. I might be very
happy with Arthur, were I not so
WISE" She smiled again at the refec-
ton in the mirror. "Now, let us go
and astonish the natives"
| 1uor0 was q milo uutLer OF eyouuS
as she sat down beside Warrington
and began to chatter to him In Italian.
He made a brave show Of following
her, but became hopelessly lost after
a few minutes. Elsa spoke 1uently;
twelve years had elapsed since his last
visit to Italy. He admitted his con-
fusion, and thereafter it was only oc-
casionally that she brought the tongue
into the conversation. This diversion,
which she employed mainly to annoy
her neighbors. was, in truth. the very
worst thing she could have done
They no longer conjectured; they as
sumed,
Warrington was too strongly daz
zled by her beauty tonight to be men