The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1923-12-14

comfortable there. We are very proud
of the Fifth Avenue. but after ala
hotel !" She shrugged her plump
shoulders scornfully. 1T would give
me great pleasure If you would take
dinner with us on Sunday. l am only
sorry that Mr. Cortlandt is not here to
make you welcome" Avezzana accept
ed with every symptom of decorous
delight, and took his departure with
out more than glance at Ann.
1t was all entirely incomprehensi-
BILE; had anyone except her guardian
been involved, she would have thought
| the whole thing gigantic hoax. Mrs.
Cortlandt, however, was decidedly i'm
pressed.
whatever he sees in you, Ann, ]
cannot imagine" she confided to the
girl. 'He is a charming young man.
Such beautiful manners! Such de-
lightful breeding!" Without going in
to it further, Ann understood that Mrs.
Cortlandt had been informed Of Avez-
zana's intentions.
Fanny was greatly excited at the
| prospect Of meeting a genuine Italian
count, for, In the sixties. titles were a
novelty in New York. She asked Ann
a great many questions about him, to
which that young woman replied, dry,
ly, "Oh, he is just man, Fanny, like
other men-blacker, perhaps"
The Theodore Renneslyers came to
the ceremonious mid-Sunday dinner
miraculously reconciled to Ann. Mrs
Renneslyer had not spoken to her
since she had Tilted Hendricks, and
his father, on the one or two occasions
when the girl had seen him, had been
so filed with kindly embarrassment in
her company, that she had minded II
more than his wife's icy displeasure
She wondered what sort Of a meal they
would have, all together with Avez
zana, and wished nervously that she
might be excluded from it, as she had
been in the rebellious days of heI
childhood. To her amazement, when
Mrs. Renneslyer came in, just on the
heels of the young italian, she was full
of pleasing, If shallow, affection to,
ward her; and her husband had re-
| turned gaily to his old lively comrade-
ship. 1t was as though nothing had
happened to discredit her with them.
Mrs. Renneslyer had bought herself
new dresses on abandoning her mourn.
| ing, and she seemed, on this bright
September afternoon, to have returned
miraculously to her youth. She wore
a filmy mauve frOck, covered with
frothy little ruffies of white lace, and a
purple bonnet with pansies on the wide
,brim, which poked forward over hel
vivaciOus face Her waist was per
haps little thicker and her cheeks q
trifie pinker than they had been or
the day, so long ago, when Ann had
first seen her, and if one were disa
greeable enough to look for them, one
might possibly find, In the shadow OF
her hat brim, a network of fine wrin
kles about the corners of her pretty
eyes, but her throat and her hands
were as white as ever, while the
glossy ringlets that clustered under
the wreath of pansies on her hat were
extraordinarily veracious.
Mrs. Cortlandt had asked no one
else to dinner. "Only the family" She
said archly to Avezzana, and he hat
responded with grave courtesy
which Ann thought made Mrs. William
seem bourgeois. The talk at the din
ner, however, was quite brilliant.
Mrs. Renneslyer had been to Italy
before her marriage. "How can yo,
bear to leave so beautiful a placer
she demanded oratorically. ut was II
the spring when was there, anC
there were roses everywhere-every
where, / assure you, Armand purpl,
flowers, great masses of them, forge
their name"
"Bogumvelia," Avezzana affirmed
smiling.
Eyes, that's 1t. So sweet OF course
/ was there long before any one hat
heard Of Garibaldi. am quite an OLE