The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1915-01-21

There was a time when I did you an
injustice. ] suspected you OF keeping
your mistress here. Pray forgive my
error"
Five days later I was snugly
%ensconced in the ducal suite at the
Bristol, overlooking the Kartnerring-
strasse. bereft of my baronial posses
sions but not at all sorry. My romance
had been short-lived. 1t is one thing
to write novels about medieval castles
and quite another thing to try to write
a novel in one of them. / trust | may
never again be guilty Of such arrant
stupidity as to think that an American
by virtue of his dollars and cents, any
more thar an American-born girl can
hope to be a real dyed-in-the-Wool
Countess or Duchess because some one
needs the money more than she does.
1t would be quite as impossible. con-
trari-wise, to transform a noble Duke
into a plain American citizen, so there
you are, even up.
My plans were made. After a fort
night in Vienna, I expected to go west
back to New York. Strange to relate.
| was homesick. Never before had my
thoughts turned so restlessly, so visit.
fully to the haunts of my boyhood
days. began to long for the ights
despised in other days.. and the gay
peacockery Of Fifth avenue at four in
the afternoon. 1t seemed to me that
nowhere in all the world was life so
joyous and blithe and worth while as
theaters so attractive, nowhere such
restaurants. Even, in retrospect. the
subway looked alluring, and as for the
F~ifth-avenue stages they. were too
er of unreal things a spell of home-
sickness may become if one gives 1t
half a chance! -.
As for Schloss ~Rothhoefen, ! had it
on excellent authority (no less a person
barely had l shaken the dust Of the
place from myself before the new mas
Ter put into execution a most extra
ordinary and incomprehensible plan of
reconstruction. In the first place, he
gave all the servants two weeks no
tice, and her began to rae the castle
from the bottom upward instead of the
other way round, as a sensible person
might have been expected TO DO. lie
was knocking out the walls IN the
cellars and digging up the stone floors
with splendid disregard for that omin-
Gus thing known as a cataclysm. The
grave question in the minds OF the
servants was whether the usual and
somewhat mandatory two weeks no
after all. In fact, Hawkes., with ar
inspiration worthy of an office boy
managed to produce a sick grand
mother and got away, from the place
at the end Of one week. although a
The day on Which I left for Paris
still saw T~arnowsy at work with his
masons, heroically battering down the
walls Of the grim old stronghold. ane
ev fhnTkl that 'f he m hyadn't found 1a Tt he ' hid.
ing place up to that time.
After several days in Paris. I took
. myself off to London. l was expect
!, ing letters at Claridge's, where al.
it is the best hotel in London but be.
cause l am. to some extent a creature @
/, habit. My mother took me to Claridge'.
3. when l was a boy and saw a-wonder
full parsonage at the door whom wa
) then | have been going to Claridge':
l and while my first king is dead there II
: one in his place who bids fair TO lv
g long, albeit no n shouts encourage
9 ment to him. He wears the mos
: / doubt if King Solomon himself coult
| have been more regal. Certainly no
| Nebuchadnezzar. He works from seve
4 in the morning until seven at night
!, and he has an imperial scorn Tor any
[ thing smaller than half a sovereign.
There were many letters waitin,
t there for me, but not one from TIL
0 Countess Aline. had encouraged
the hope that she might write TO me
ii was the least she could do in return
d for all that I had done for her. not
a wi%thstanding my wretched behavio
on the last day of our association
/, While | had undoubtedly offended il
Q the most fragrant manner, still my &C
8 was not unpardonable. There wa
= tribute, not outrage in my behavior.
Poopendyke fidgeted a good dea
with the scanty results of my literar,
e labors, rafting the typed pages in
e most in%sinuating way. He oiled hi
= machine With %accusative- frequency
but ] failed TO respond. was in n
d mood for writing. He said to me on
I II don't see why you keep a secre
r tary, Mr.. Smart. l. don't begin to ear
e my salt" ~
d the cheapest thing l know OF. Now
= you had said pepper ! might AUS I
n reflect. But / am absolutely, inexoI
ably opposed to rating anything on
: salt basis. If YOU
v You know what 1 mean." he sal
stiffly. II am Of no use to you"
It An" said I triumphantly,. but yo
6 forget! Who Is it that draws II
salary checks for yourself and Brit
= ton, and who keeps the account
j. mir. P~oopendyke. You draw the check
Isn't that somethingg"
Tiff ! didn't know you so well.
81 ing fool. Mr., Smart" said he, but I
grinned as he said it.
t. Blu he who hesitates Is lost So