Vernon Parish Democrat. (Leesville, La.) 1917-193?, 1922-03-16
CHAPTER |.

Richard Carter had called the place
"Crownlands," not to please himself,
or even his wife. But it was to his
mothers newly born family pride that
the idea of being the Carriers of
CrOwnlands made its appeal. The es-
tate, when he bought it, had belonged
to a Carter, and the tradition was that
two hundred years before it had been
a grant of the first George to the first
of the name in America. Madame
Carter as the old lady liked to be
called, Immediately adopted the I'M
known owner into vague cousinship,
spoke of him as "a kinsman of ours"
and proceeded to tell old friends that
Crownlands had always been 'in the
family"
M IS b home Of creamy brick, CO.
adflial in design, and set in splendid
lawns and great trees on the bank of
the blue Hudson. White driveways
circled it, great stables and garages
across q curve of green meadows had
their own invisible domain, and on the
shining highway there was a full mile
of high brick fence, a marching line Of
great naples and sycamOres, and
demure lodge beside the mighty iron
gates.
On one of the wide benches that
We're placed here and there on the de-
scending terraces, in the late hours Of
an exquisite summer afternoon, Isa-
belle Carter had seated herself, and
Anthony Pope, her cavalier, had
thrown himself on the steps at her
feet.
She was a woman worthy of the ex-
uuisite setting, and might we'll have
turned an older head than that of the
boy beside her Brunette, with smooth
cheeks deeply touched with rose, black
eyes, and a warmly crimson mouth
that could be at once provocative and
relentless, she glowed like a flower
herself in the sweet and enervating
heat of the summers first warm day.
She was the tiniest of women, and the
little foot, that, in It's transparent silk
stocking and buckled slipper, was
close to AnthOny's hand. was like a
child's.
The man was twice her size, and as
dark as she, earnest, eager, and today
with troubled expression clouding
bis face. 1t was to Danish that look,
4 q she might, that Isabelle had DELHI
erately stopped him here.
She had been behaving badly toward
him, and in her rather irresponsible
and shallow way she was sorry for it.
Isabelle was famous fiirt, her hus-
band knew it, everyone knew 1t.
There was always some man paying
desperate court to her, and always
half-a-dozen other men who we're
eager to be in his place. Isabelle
lived for this, went from one adven-
ture to another with the naive conf
dence of a woman whose husband
smiles upon her playing, and whose
position is impregnable.
But this boy, this Anthony, was diff
ferent. In the first place he was
voung-but twenty-six. In the second
rlace he was, or had been, her own
sons closest friend. Ward Carter was
twenty-five, and his mother nineteen
years older.
Anthony was young, and he was abb
aurdf hut lie did not know it, and Isa-
belle began to feel the difficulty Of
keeping the whole world from discov-
ering It before he did. He made no Sc
cret Of his passion He came straight
~ her in any company; he never
looked at anybody else. To her own
daughter Nina, seventeen years old,
bis attitude was almost paternal; he
IGNORED Ward as If their friendship
had never been.
TsaheIle saw that she had made a
mistake. She should have killed this
affair at the very beginning. Tony
was not like the older men, willing TO
MAY the game with just little scorch-
ing Of fingers. Appearances meant