Evening Star Newspaper, March 15, 1890, Page 10

Written for Tae EVENtINe stan. WHOSE WAS THE HAND? BY MISS BRADDON. Anthor of “Lady Andley's Secret.” “Like and Unlike,’ “Ishmael,” “The Day Will Come,” &c. = 1ALL RIGHTS RESERVED) CHAPTER XV. ILBERT Florestan was among the idiers who sauntered in the Mall to watch the passing youth and beauty ‘on that particular afternoon on which Margaret Hatrell made her curtsey to the Queen. He who was not usually a fian- eur in fashionable places wasted a solid hour in waiting for Mra. Arden’s carriage. for although the ladies were early the gentleman's impatience made him earlier, and he had been standing about nearly an hour when the new neatly appointed Jandan came in view, and he wasted another haf hourin loitering along with the slowly crawling line of carriages and stop- Ping to talk to Mrs. Arden and her daughter whenever there was an opportunity. “I wanted to see you both in your court plumes,” he said, smiling at the two fair faces, framed in snowy feathers and flashing gems. “I could not conceive the notion of Miss Hat- Fell in a court train. “You should have come to Grosvenor Square for an early luncheon. and then you might have seen the train,” answered Clara, “Oh, 1 can see it now, only it is transformed into a billowy background for the young lady's throat and shoulders, like the drapery of a water nymph riding on a nautilus shell, as painters love to paint it, I assure you, Miss Hatrell, it is infinitely becoming.” “You hit: caught the tone of St. James Park im the days of Steele and Addison,” said Mrs, Arden. ‘It ts the influence of the genus loci, I feel as if I were one of the characters in “Love in a Wood.” Ab, those gallant, tender, light-hearted days are gone, Mrs. Arden—the days when love and gallantry ruled the worid—when bat- tles were won and lost for a petticoat and when all mankind lived and died for love. We are much wiser nowadays and ever 89 much more | prosaic. Tam going back to my den in the Champs Elysees tomorrow. Is there anything in this world I can do for you in Paris’ “Only jow up the inquiry you began 60 asfully,” Clara answered, gravely. “Be sure I will do my uttermost, but I fear the road has ended in a decided no_thorongh- fare. And for you, Miss Hatrell, will yon not | intrust me with some little commission which | shall be to me as a lady's glove ina knight's helmet? Have youno refractory shoe dilatory glover on the other side of the whom I may harry for you?” ». Mr. Floreston, mother and I are British enongh to find all we want in London.” “Another instance of the degener times, In Lady Mary Montagn’s day a man who went to Puris carried a string of delicate commissions from his fair young friends, The parcel post has demolished that partientar branch of gallantry. I shall send you a box of chocolate carameis as a reward for good | behavior if yon get yourself out of the royai presence without tripping over your train. Good by.” He stood with his hat lifted as the carriage moved slowly on. They were close to the | palace gates by this time “Why is he going back to Paris so soon. I wonder?” speculated Daisy, with a piteous lit- tle look which startled her mother with a sug- | gestion of danger that had never occurred to | her before. My dear Daisy, he lives in Paria, What more natural than that he should go back?" “Why should he prefer Paris to Fountain- | sofa on which Dolores was si ble.” head. “It seems unreason: : bead by and by, “He will settie at Foun! no doubt, when he marries. Is he engaged to be married, do you think, | mothe “I have no idea; but I fancy if he were en- | gaged he would have talked about his fiancee.” | “I don't know! Some men are so secret and | reserved. Uncle Ambrose, for instance. See how he went om adoring you in secret for | years.” “Mr. Florestan may have some attachment, but if he were engaged I think he would have spoken about his sweetheart. What does it matter, dearest?” He is nothing to us except a friendly neighbor.” “No. only a friendly neighbor, but one wants to know all about him.” Gilbert Florestan went back to the bachelor lodgings and the bachelor life. He had staved nearly three weeks at Fountainhead and he had seen a good deal of Duisy and her mother, both before and after their migration, for Grosvenor Square is within little more than an hour's | journey of Lamford for him who will take an | express train and a fast hansom, and Mr. Flor- estan had dined once and taken ‘afternoon tes three times in the new house and had hap- pened to meet the two ladies at three different picture galleries. He had studied Daisy's character and dispo- sition as if she had been one of Shakspeare heroines and he found her perfect as Desde- mona in her meek purity, spontaneous as Juliet in her girlish transparency of mind and soul. She wes all this, but she was the piighted wife of another mau. whom she no doubt adored. It was not because she was somewhat cold and careless in her treatment of her lover that she loved him the less, Mr. Florestan told himself. ‘They had been companions from childhood and love had become a matter of course. He went back to Paris, where the season was | still at its height, although the worldiings were beginning to talk of their favorite maladies and to discuss Anvergne and the Pyrenees, Aix and the Austrian Iyrol. Florestan in his present humor cured very little about fashion- jonable society. He had his friends and com- panions in the world of literature and art, and | 4m this particular world he tried to discover the | character and antecedents of Duverdier, the | man he met in Madame Quijada’s salon.’ He | also made certain inquiries about Madame | Quijada herself. The ultimate result of a good deal of trouble | | gate life in the very w | Seen her wear t dying of fever 1 would not give youa drink of water, NOW, LISTEN TO MEL Christian Innd, and yet I suppose you eall your- self a good Catholic. Now, listen tome; you are avirago and you are a monomaniac; but you have more hard common sense than your cousin or her mother, aud you know that I am not a man to be trifled with. I mast have £500 | before next Saturday. It is absurd for my aunt | to make any diffienlty about it. Old Perez isa gold mine and she has only to put in her hand and take out as much gold as she wants.” | “And you are despicable enougi to trade upon your cousin's infamy? “There is no infamy in the question. Icon- sider my cousin's position as the adored— | adopted danghter, let us say, of an old million- aire, eminently respectable. There are duch- esses in Paris who are not half so virtuous. And ifshe is ashamed of her position it only remains with her to regularize it. The old fool would marry her tomorrow if she were not too stupid and too indifferent to bring him to the poin ue hates that terrible old man too intensely to tie herself to him for life—she is weary of her existence as bis slave.” “Ieshe? Let her help me to make a fortune then and she shall be my queen. I only want a little capital to carry on experiments which must result ina mine of wealth—ves, as big a gold mine as old Perez has made for himself on the bourse and a more glorious fortune: for it will bring fame with it, the fame of the in- ventor. Toll her that I must have the money, Louise, or something desperate will come of her refusal tohelp me. I have tided over a month since Tasked her for a loan, but I can- not goon much longer. I am deeply in debt and all the most precious things in my labora- | tory will be seized by my creditors, and that will mean utter ruin. Tell her she must help me—teil her when you are alone with her. Leave that old harpy, my aunt, out of the dis- ussion. I know Dolores will find me the m if she is left to her own inclination.” will not be your intermed:ary. I will have nothing to do with you, and I only hope that Dolores will be wise enough to refuse you any further help. She must know that you have lied to her about your schemes and experi- nents, your speculations and wild dreams of wealth, not once, but many times. She must know that you have been leading an idle, profii- t company in Paris, while you were pretending to be a genius and an inventor and to live only for science. She does not know as much about you as I do, but she must know that you are false to the core; | she must know that you have traded upon her love for you and will go on trading upon it to the end; that there is no baseness, no depth of shame. to which yon will not stoop to gam your own base ends, She does not know what I know, that you are as crurl as you are mean and false.” The livid pailor of her hollow cheeks was in- tensified by the burning hectie spot which glowed like a live coal on each and gave an added luster to the gleaming eyes—eyes that had grown too large for the pinched and hag- gard face. “Sucreblen,” cried Duverdier, “you are usually possessed by a dumb devil, but when you do talk, by Heaven, itis a torrent. No matter, Iam not generally in need of an inter- mediary witha pretty woman, and I have no doubt I shall be able to come to an under- standing with Dolores before long.” ‘This conversation took place in the morning. Gilbert Florestan called mm the Rue Saint Guil- lame on the following evening. He found Du- verdicr established in a fauteuil beside the ‘ing, looking very in a flowing tea gown of palest pink silk, lov | which set off at once the grace of her supple, slender figure, and a pendant and bracelet of maguificent sapphires. Fiorestan had never oes gems until tonight, and he guessed that they were a recent gitt from her mysterious protector. He pitied her all the more when he saw these new tokens of her slavery, for the wear- er’s eyes had a look of profound sadness, while | the mother’s hard and cruel face was radiant with recent triumph. Louise Marcet was not in the salon. He and Duverdier were the only visitors, and he had a perfect consciousness that he .was not wanted by any one except Madame “Quijada, who received bim with marked empressement and begged him to stop ull 11 o'clock. “I fear my salon is the dullest in all Paris,” she said, “but you must remember that we are exiles and have lived in the strictest retirement ever since we left Madrid.” Florestan protested that there was nothing he preferred to a smail and quiet circle, society in which conversation really meant the inter- change of thoughts. He talked of Madrid, a city mwhich he had spent three years of his | diplomatic career, and, althongh Madame Qui- jada fenced with his’ questions with supreme ability, it was obvious to him that her knowl- | edge of the Spanish capital was superficial and tha: she could never have occupied a good i position in any part of Spain, If she ever lived in Madrid she lived there as she lives in Paris, a8 an adventurer and an oucast, outside the pale,” he told himself. Her refinement he believed to be the thin- nest veneer laid on in later womanhvod; her education was of the smallest, yet she contrived to discuss every subject that was mooted, political, social, or literary, with an aplomb which carried her further than the widest knowledge will carry a diftident conversation- alist. Duverdier openly sneered at some of her observations and provoked more than one vindictive glance from the southern eyes, Dolores talked very little and for the most py in contidential tones only meant to reach er cousin's ear, Duverdier talked like a man who had seen the world of men and knew the world of books. All his ideas and theories belonged to the most advanced school, He looked forward to a mil- lenium of science—a millenium of socialism— | when the forces of nature should be the willing slaves of men and hard work, the sweat of the was as follows: M. Daverdser was not known to | laborer’s brow, should be ancient history, and literature or art. The painters and literary | when the governing powers of the world should men had never heard of him, but he was known | be reduced to the lowest point; when armies as an habitue of the Boulevard theaters and of some of the fastest and most furious of the Festauranis, He was said to be a Spaniard and to have only appeared in Paris within the ‘last two years; and yet this description of him seemed strangely at variance with his modes of speech. which were essentially argotic and Parisian, albeit that his accent not Parisian. He was described as an idle w pretentions to be a man of science aud an in- Yentor. but he had never been known to take out s patent for so much as a new kind of cork- screw. He had been known also to dabble in | mining speculations, and had more than once been obliged to swim for his life in troubled waters, Of Madame Quijada nothing was known ex- cept that she hada beautiful daughter whom she kept as close as auun. It was supposed that there must be some one in the background, some ene who a and who was the source of that magnificence in jewels and that laxary in bot-house flowers which contrasted so curiously with the lady's unpretending manner of life. There was something in this little household of the Rue Saint Guiliaume which interested Florestan, althongh he bad not the slightest dis) on to fallin love with the beautiful Dolores. He was only interested in her as a etady in human nature, « leaf in the great book of hamanity. For personal feeling he was more moved by the faded gray-haired cousin than | by Madame Quijada’s daughter, He might have been still more interested in Louise Marcet could he have been present at an interview between her and Leon Duverdier which took place om the morning of his return to Paris. 1k wus nearly a month since Dnverdier's ur- gent application for a loan and since his threat of suicide, a threat which had not been carried cut. He walked into Madame Quijada’s salon, = Sayre Specimen —— — usy arrangement of Wers, a dat! which was always intrusted to ler aed ba wiads eo spbon Nu 2 on dropped from wy ‘hal Niel rose her hands at the sight of Duverdier and she moved toward the door without a word, an ex- Leer yw of intense aversion upon her pale, Figid face. “Stop,” he cried, ina brutal tone, “You're the person I want to talk to this morning. I saw my aunt and Dolores get out of the fly and go into a milliner’s in the de ia Paix and I came here on to see you. I won't stand being avoided as if I were a pestilence.” She stopped neer the door and stood looking at him fixedly, but without uttering a word. “What dumb devil has got into you?” “T ha —_ oe ee ee sternly: ve no dealings with you— will hold no intercourse with you. Ifyou were jonary, with | | aud navies should have become a tradition of | the dark ages, and poverty and starvation | should seem as mythical asthe rape of Proser- | pine or the birth of Minerva, He spoke with a suppressed boastfulness of a certain invention of his own which was fast ap- proaching perfection and which would revolu- Uonize the coal mines of France and ultimately of the world, an application of electricity to the working of the mine and the carriage of the coal which would minimize labor and achieve in less than a month the results which now require @ year, | Dolores listened with admiring looks and | fallest faith in the speaker. Madame Qui looked the disbelief and aversion which she | may have feared to express in words, Florestan felt that the atmosphere was charged with elec- tricity and that the storm might burst at any moment, yet hegrolonged his visit till a few | minutes after 11, at which hour Duverdier made no sign of departure. He determined to follow up his Inquiries about this mysterious family until he should | come at a clearer understanding of their posi- | tion and history. The first pointhe had to dis- cover was the identity of the unseen admirer who ucts the mother and daughter with | their evidently ample means. He had consider- jable difficulty in sifting the various accounts | that were offered of the secluded beauty. She had been seen in public just often enough to excite curiosity in that section of society which claims to be familiar with all the scandals of the demi-monde, and she had acquired a kind of distinction by her retired hfe. After hearing three or four different people mentioned as the hidden Croesus whose purse peid for Dolores Quijada’s jewels and other ca- prices he was finally informed upon reliable | wuthority that her protector was a certain dealer in Spanish American securities upon the Paris Bourse. He was old and eccentric, of nervous temperament and strange, solitary “You are a nice young woman to live in a Of Duverdier Florestan could learn nothing er. He lived on a fourth floor in a street near the Pantheon and he dabbled in experi- ments in chemistry and electricity, but in spite of these scientific tastes he was said to be an idler and a pretender who had never brought the smallest scheme to a successful re- sult. of schemes and dream: said “A mal Florestan’s informant; ‘‘an idle vagabond who 38 content to live upon women.” “An idle vagabond who is content to live upon women.” Musing over those words as he walked under the trees in the Champs Elysees on his way homeward after a night ata Bohe- mian club in the Boulevard Michel Florestan was suddenly reminded of the story of An; toinette Morel and her brother and the hun- dred-pound note. : Claude Morel, a chemist’s assistant, alone in Paris with an only sister, whose heart was almost broken by the loss of her English lover. Louise Marcet, a women who in every look and accent bre the tokens of a great sorrow, might, allowing for the effect of grief and ill- ness, be the age of Antoinette Morel, who would now be about lt A x What if he had stumbied accidentally upon the very couple of whom he was in quest? What if Loon Duverdier and Louis Marcet were Claude Morel and his sister Antoinette hiding under changed names? The very fact of the altered names would be significant of evil and would give rise to the darkest suspicion, Claude Morel, « proscribed communist, was known to have escaped arrest and to have fled to London with his sister after the last days of the commune, and it was within the close of the commune that Robert Hatrell was mur- dered by an unknown foreigner ina London lodging house. There wag that in the countenance and man- ner of Louise Marcet which told of a more har- rowing grief than an ordinary love affair which had ended in parting. She had the aspect of one over whose youth there had passed some — horror, @ grief too terrible to be out- hi lived or forgotton. ‘Those premature gray airs, the deep lines upon the pallid forehead, the sunken cheeks and haggard eyes, were the lasting witness of an undying agony. and her horror of Duverdier had been expressed in an unmistakable manner on the night when Flor- estan saw her start up and leave the room at his entrance. He remembered her extraordinary emotion upon hearing Miss Hatre!l’s name at the opera, the keen interest with which she had looked at mother and danghter, He had forgotten the incident until this mo- ment, engrossed in far different thoughts, but it came back to him vividly tonight and for the moment it seemed to him conclusive evi- dence of some pastand strong link between Louise Marcet and the name of Hatrell. Yet. he reflected presently, the association might be of another nature than that which he imagined. The fact that Duverdier was an ad- venturer and a student of chemistry might have no bearing upon the existence of Claude Morel, the chemist’s assistant, The idea that Louiso Marcet and Leon Duverdier were brother and sister might be utterly without foundation, “Atany rate I will try to put my suspicions to the test,” he said to himself, “If Louise Marcet is the emotional woman I take her to be it will be easy to shake her firmness and to see behind the veil.” He determined to make an early opportunity of being alone with the strange. pale woman, whose untold sorrow had touched him from their first meeting. He was haunted all through a wakeful night with shapes of horror— the phantasm picture of the murder in the shabby Bloomsbury lodging; the face of Leon Duverdier, cruel and callous, in the very act of murder; the face of Kobert Hatrell, which he remembered in his boyLood—trank, open, at- tractive. It wasa mere chimera, doubtless, this wild fancy about Leon Duverdi a nightmare dream engendered out of the small social mys- tery of the Rue St. Guillaume—a very common story, after all,common as dirt. A wicked mother; a beautiful girl sold like a slave in an Eastern market; wealth, luxury, infamy, ennui and vexation, jumbled together in two shame- ful lives that did well to hide their iufamy from the world’s ken. He had brooded too long over this commonplace domestic drama and now he must needs try to establish a link be- tween these three women and the murder in Deumark street. Foolish as the faney might be he meant to test it to the uttermost, and for this purpose went to the chief office of the criminal police of Paris early next morning and contrived to get admitted to one of the heads of the depart- ment, HE RECALLED THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF ROBERT HARTELL'S MURDER. To this gentleman he recalled the cireum- stances of Robert Hatrell’s murder, “The murderer was supposed to be a Swiss,” he said, “but that was a purely speculative idea founded upon his statement that he was a journeyman watch maker. One part at least of that statement, the assertion that he was employed by «well-known firm in Cornhill, wax proved to be false. The name of Antoinette, which was used as a decoy to lure him to bis death, is the name of a girl he knew in Paris. The girl's brother was known to be vindictively disposed toward him, although her relations with Hatrell were perfectly innocent and he acted asa man of honor throughout, The mention of the girl’s name is to my mind a conclusive proof that Claude Morel was con- cerned in the murder if he was not the actual murderer. I wonder that the attention of the French police was not called to this case and that no effort was made to find the murderer upon this side of the Channel, seeing the large reward that was offered by Mr. Hatrell’s widow.” “It was too soon after the Commune. We had our hands over full at that time. The police of this city have only one fault, Mon- ur. “And that is?” “There are not half enough of them. The French police are the most highly trained body in Europe, yet crime stalks rampant in the capital from midnight till morning—the wolves so much outuumber the sheep dogs, I own that it was an oversight on our part not to hunt down Claude Morel, His name was in the black book of the Commune for more than one petty villainy, but he slipped throngh our fingers, escaped the gunsat Satory and the ex- portations from Havre. Had he paid the legal samaped for his offenses his secret would have ven safe in our hands, I suppose you know that is our rule never to divulge the ante- cedents of a forcat who has served his time.” “That seems rather hard upon the non-crim- inal classes, who may ally themselves with an ex-felon for want of a knowledge of the past which would serve as a warning.” “I will not dispute that point, but it is a part of our code of honor. A criminal who is trying to recover his place in society has nothing to fear from us so long as he leads an honest fife. Claude Morel, however, belongs to another category. For the undetected felon we have no mercy. “Will you do what you can to ascertain if he has been in Paris since '72?” asked Fiorestan. “Yes, I wili institute an mquiry—but a fox of that breed is good at sinc, and doubling and not easy to hunt down. I do not think he would set ‘his foot in Paris after being con- cerned in more than one row that involved rapine and bloodshed, especially if he was afterward implicated ina murder in London. | Diego Perez, a Spanish Jew, and the largest He would be more likely to try the new world— America or Australia,” ought not to lose the chance of such a bonus as £500." On the following morning Gilbert Florestan was early on foot. sauntering in the neighbor- hood of the flower market near the Boulevard Michel. He had heard Madame Quijada say that her niece went every morning to the flower market to make her own selections from the — supply, and he relied upon meeting her ere. He was not disappointed. - She made her ap- pearance between eight and nine o'clock, very pear dressed in a black merino gown anda lack straw bonnet, and carrying a light basket onherarm, He waited about while she made her purchases, and when she had filled her basket and was walking along the quay ina homeward direction he followed her and ad- dressed her, “Good morning, Mile. Marcet, I hope you are not in a hurry this morning,” he said,walk- ing by her side, She looked around at him with a nervous, ap- prehensive air and quickened her pace, “have always a great deal to do of a morn- ing,” she answered quickly, “Yes, I am rather in a hurry.” “Not so much so as to deny me ten minutes’ private conversation, I hope,” he said. “There is something about which [ want to talk to you most particularly—something which dates from the evening we met at the opera, when you saw Robert Hatrell’s widow in the stalls.” Her pale face flushed for n moment or so and then grew paler than before. He had no doubt of the emotion caused by the mere sound of the murdered man’s name, His intention had been to ask her to walk as far as the Luxembourg Gardens with him. so that he might have leisure and quiet for serions conversation, but he saw such avoidance and apprehension in her manner that he deemed it wiser to come to the point at once. There were not many people upon the quay at this hour, and he came toa standsti!l near a display of shabby second-hand literature, and stood there quietly expectant, while Lonise Marcet leaned against the stone parapet, pallidand trembling, almost as ifshe were on the point of fainting. “His name moves you now as it moved you then,” he said earnestly, laying his hand upon her arm as it hung by her side, while she leaned with the other elhow upon the stone “Lam assured that you conld throw a new light upon his cruel death; that it is in your power to bring about the discovery of his murderer.” “I don’t know what yon are talking about,” she suid. “Who is Robert Hatrell and what is Robert Hatrell to me? She pronounced the name with difficulty, but she pronounced it more correctly than a French woman would have pronounced an English name unheard before. THAT NAME WAS yours! “Robert Hatrell is aman who was lured to his death by a woman's name, and that name was yours!” said Florestan, with conviction, hold- ing her arm in his strong grasp, looking straight into her eyes, which tried in vain to evade that direct gaze. “But for his regard for you. hia fidelity to tender memory. he would never have been tempted into the house where he was slanghtered. That house was a guet-apens, and you were the assassin’s lure—and if that assassin was your brother it is not the less your duty to denounce him. So cold-blooded and cruel a murderer deserves no mercy even from his nearest of kin.” “I don’t know what you are talking about,” she repeated doggedly, with trembling lips. “Ob, but you do, you do—every line in your face acknowledges What your false lips deny. You think it is a sister’e duty to shiclda brother, tobe dumb or to lie in his defense, even when that brother is little better than a beast of prey. You shrink from him with un- disguised loathing, vou will not stay in the same room with him, yet you allow your cousin to waste her love upon him and you do not warn her that the man with whom she as- sociates in confiding affection has the heart of a tiger and would stop at no crime that would serve his own interest, You know what he is and you know, by the light of the past, what may be expected of him in the future. Do you think that the Denmark street murderer is a man to stop at his first crime or at lis secoud? Given such a nature as that and the occasion will give birth to the crime.” “You talk in riddles, in riddles,” she said, helplessly, looking from side to side like a wild animal at bay. “You refase to trust me. You deny that your real name is Antoinette Morel and that you are the sister ot Clande Morel, the Commuumst?” E ame is Louise Marcet.” “Very weil, remember, I have warned you. In Claude Morel’s first crime you were only the decoy. Who knows? In his second you may be the victim,” (To be continued.) —_——_<e-__. THE BUDS. Their Lot is Not a Happy One—What They Have to Do. New York Letter to the Sau Francisco Argonaut. But to return to the buds—who are really supposed to be the text of this letter—their lot is not so rosy as outsiders might suppose. They must combat tremendousrivalry. Whole fami- lies take the field in this sort of polite skirmish- ing. A handsome girl who has been trained up carefully tobe a belle, kept close by the fam- ily in order to be a surprise, is finally launched amid a flourish of trumpets, Great things are expected of her, and, from the first, a sense of fear of possible failure oppressea her. She contends against severe odds—other girls as handsome as she; other girls much cleverer or wealthier. But once plunged in she must go forward; to retreat is to confess defeat. Mean- while she feels the eyes of her world are upon her. There are people who will take pleasure in her failure. Her family have what to an outsider would appear an absurd anxie about her success, ‘Miss So-and-So is a suc- cess,” you hear triumphantly on all sides; or, ‘Miss So-and-So's family are so disappointed because she is not a success.” These triamphs and failures are of as much moment to this poor little warrior as the life-and-death ques- tion of real lite. Should it be proved that she is a failure, she hangs her head and feels that e is a cumberer of the ground, for all her ex- istence is compressed within thiscirele, There is nothing outside it so far as she is concerned. It makes you feel uncomfortable to see her sit- ting lonely at a dance, too depressed to feign Sprightliness, heavy-cyed and wistful. And Mean the poor little devil goes home and tear- fully divests herself of those fine clothes she put on with such gayety and hope, The successful debutantes have a lovely time, They are not necessarily handsome, but they must have chic, brilliaucy, sparkle. ‘The average man docs not want to admire, he wants to beamused. A dashing girl, full of diableri will fascinate him where Venus would only bore, Atthe same time the girl who makes the success requires a certain amount of hard- ness in her disposition. She must be able to give back hard knocks, she must know how to snub, and where her smiles will bring back the best returns. These dear creatures, who look all softness, candor and innocence, know every fluctuation in a rival's popularity, and when she sits frowning and impatient by the al trip out onto the floor, partner in hand, with a graceful waggling of skirts and a cheer- fee titillation of pleasure in her wicked little cart, Some of the buds are not at all anxious for the fray. One girl, I remember, who spoke nly of her objections to entering the arena, She was seventeen, very bright and well bred- “He might keep away for a few years and then venture back, emboldened by the passage oftime. There isa man whose character and surroundings are an enigma to me and whom 1 am most anxious to understand more clearly, Iwill pay the expenses of any investigation you may be able to get made into the existence of this man.” “Who is he?” “He calls himself Leon Duverdier, but I have a shrewd suspicion that he is no other than Claude Morel. I wonder whether there is force who remembers tify him after » lapse of yea “Thero are ity of men who were e: in bunting the Communists, ey was never @ man of ope I doubt if his per- @ delightful girl, but not pretty. She had tl entree into the best seta, her Fag? were all nice and she would undoubtedly have been a favorite. “But I don’t want to come out,” she said; “I don’t care for that life. I know all the younger men Til meet. I know them at the small dancing classes all the girls b+ to before they come out. They are not interesting. Then the older men who come here to dinner dislike debutantes, because they say they are all fools—and so we have nothing to talk to but THE WEEK IN NEW YORK. Men and Matters, Facts and Theories From Gotham. DR. DEPEW MAY POSSIBLY BECOME SENATOR DE- PEW—T4AE DISPERSION OF STEWART'S MILLIONS —MR. ASTOR’'S LEGACY TO THE METROPOLITAN XCSEUM—DR. DIX'S LENTEN LECTURES, Correspondence of Tax EVENING Star. New York, March 14, Yesterday I was stopped in front of an im- Posing iron structure on Broadway by a gentie- {o the District man who is a leader in the dry goods business, palace he said: “That's what we all come to— death and the division of the spoils and the auctioneer’s hammer.” For we were standing opposite the retail store of A, T, Stewart, which at that very hour was being sold to the highest bidder at the ‘am real estate exchange in Liberty street, We | ™{ learned later in the day that the property brought $750,000, and that it was knocked down, has for years constituted one of New York's problems. Thus passes away the glory of the earth. Both the great mercantile palaces of | at Purchase:'s cos Stewart are now in strange hands, and it was only the other day that his magnificent dwell- ing on 5th avenue became the property and the haunt of a club, Even the i i ich | PEREMPTORY, AUCTIOS stately decorations and collections of art which TWO SIOHY AND. . EENIH AND SIXTEE. }OON, MARCH _FIF- ‘we will offer for sale in the great merchant acquired are coming to @ rather ignoble end, ashis splendid collec- tion of statuary has just been carted down town to grace a spring dry goods opening. And SA’ amid this dissipation of ‘an imperial fortune | TEENTH. where is the little dust of the man himself? | froutof t TOT SS, SQUAI Has it at last found sepulcher through secret | fronting 17 feet by depth So. connivance with the wretches who stole it from | comfortable its grave or is it still held by the ghouls for ransom? A dingy end this to a career which at | ac best was never noble, THE BUZZING IN DR. DEPEW'S HEAD. Some weeks ago I noticed the reports, which once more on gaining political honors. Realizing, perhaps, that the presidency is beyond his grasp it is now seid reconciled his mighty soul to # senatorial cares I am told that already be and his friends hay and that they are actively at work in the preliminaries. Senator Evarts’ term expires with the present Congress, and it is taken for granted that he will not be a candidate AD M for re-election, Possibly Senator Evarts | SAME HOU does not share in this assumption, but in that | AT SPOKE v | above and to which case he is laying very low. ‘The politicians are not quite sure who will challenge Dr. Depew's claim to the Senate. Some think that Boss Platt himself will try to get back to Washing- | RATCLIFFE. DARR & © y EEKS & OO., Auctioneers. ton, and others think that he will be content to remain as the Warwick of the party. It is understood that Warner Miller will keep out of | 0°! the scrimmage, as he is not at all satistied with | MAKCH FIFTE his record as a gubernatorial candidate. It will be interesting to learn just how enthusias- | {722,,! Vanderbilts are in furthering a scheme | Music that will cost them the active services of the | &¢-» & tic the president of the New York Central railroad. While nota great railroad king like President have in a raiiroad house, WHAT THE MUSEUM WILL DO WITH ASTOR’s GIFT. asked a gentleman today who is on the in- side in Metropolitan museum counsels what use that institution was likely to make of the late Mr. Astor's substantial if not munificent | legacy of 350,000, He said that as no condi- tions were attached it would probably go to swellthe general fund,and thus be doubly useful, as it was just in this feature that the museum was weakest. Almost all its resources are tied up so that the trustees have to meet a large cash deficit for running expenses an- nually, the balance to the bad being generally abouteighteen or twenty thousand dollars. Mr, Astor's liberality will relieve the friends of the instutition to some extent of this drain, or if so desired it wili enable them to strengthen the institution in any special direction. L may add that, incited by the brilliant growth of our Metropolitan art treasure house, Breoklyn is bestirring herself to found a similar institu- tion. One of the active spirits in the move- ment is Mr. Frank Hooper, formerly of Wush- ington and now engaged in responsible duties on the Century Dictionary. A novel feature in the Brooklyn institute, however, will be a hor- ticultural garden, something, I take it, in the lind of Kew or the London garden and the Paris Jardin d’Acclimatation. New York has also been talking about such a garden for years, but Brooklyn may get ahead of it after ail, A TRANSFORMATION OF THE WASHINGTON ARCA. New York had rather an unpleasant surprise the other day in the publication of the revised plans for the Washington memorial arch. It will be remembered that when the proposition was first made to perpetuate this structure in marble many suggestions were made looking to alterations in the design and a change in loca- tion, To all these proposals the committee in charge turned a deaf ear. saying that the whole value of the idea would be lost if the arch was made in a_ different form or erected on another site. But now it be made. The arch as revised by Stanford White is wholly different from the graceful structure that spanned 5th avenue to the de- light of millions on the days of the great parades, and it is to be erected not on Sth avenue at all, but in Washington square 50 teet back from the street line. The design as perfected by the architect substitutes for the original sketch in lath and plaster a rather clumsy and very commonplice and conven- tional example of the arch, modeled closely upon the patterns to be seen abroad. The explanation undoubtedly is that the original design could not be carried out in stone, but it is none the less unfortunate that siich happens to be the ease, especially after ! the committee made such a point of insisting on the first plan, However, the arch when com- pleted will be a notable addition to the art monuments of the city, and it is gratifying, therefore, to watch the steady and rapid ii crease of the subscription which has now reached a point that insures the immediate construction of the work, DR, DIX SCOLDS THE PINE LADIES. Immediately after Phillips Brooks finished his lecttres to male New Yorkers Dr. Morgan Dix took up his Lenten parable against the ladies, The worthy doctor fonght a famons campaign against the fair sex lust year and now, after the reigning fashion, he has started in to break his own record. On Wednesday he gave his lady hearers a very severe talking to, which the morning papers, which are nothing if not connoisseurs in religious matters, felt called upon to protest against. However, Dr, Dix is quite a favorite with the ladies of fashionable New York, if he does scold them roundly once ear, It must be admitted that this is rather a gay Lent, The opera and the theaters are in full blast, and the social calendar is full of important events. Perhaps the Easter weather has something to do with it. We certainly have had a marvelous winter of it. The coal men are on the brink of ruin, and now the dry goods trade is worried because the woolen stock is a drug on the mar- ket. One of the iargest dry goods houses in the city failed yesterday and a good many others are having an anxious time of it. The dis- quietude in trade circles is aggravated by the panicky condition of the banks, owing to the revelations of the it few weeks. But out- wardly, to say the least, the city never looked brighter or the people more eg Euxior. Hexay —.—— The Modern Pied Piper. I may be out of fashion, but it sometimes seems tome That cod pi best procession my longing eyes could see Would be headed by the piper of famous Hamelin town, Who through our city streets should go, a-piping up and down, Till he Lured from out the multitude of laughing an an méaity tue ‘Greonaways and priggish Faun- tlero} With bonnets all too big for them and trousers much too tight é ‘out of si And left with us such sensible ond sturdy giris an Astepgantercys. OT eewaye O04 Drigxiah ‘aun! Life. —GuMax Surrs. Fond Mamma—“Why,what have you in your| pe arts 2 :? Xo. apron?” Little Daughter (breathlessly) —Oh, mamma! Such good luck! ooety Dima "8 cat had six kittens and her mamma not let her keep but one, so she gave me the other five.” AUCTION THIS AFTERNOON. FT FOMAS DOWLING, Auctioneer = SALES. ESTAYE ON TW BETWEEN MAND N STLEFIS NORTHW ES NAS 1210 TWENTY-EiGH1H STREE ve se ea, ioh, in front of the premises, 01 TPTBENTH DAY OF AST FOUR O'C. Columbia: Parte ot Ls mud eleven 111) in square = bee Buin on the west jin a inted street ii and at uorta line of ® five (5) foot nd as he point across the 6 $0 the irom bundred (LOU) feet north of Mt = north twelve feet six inches (12 fe ius seventy-five fect eixht aud one-half inebes! beg eon twelve feet <= inehes ¢ . thence cast seventy-five feck taht and one-te inches (75 #t. Bi in.) to Pince of besiuting, bea the to t and recorded in 2 land records of the District af and is improved by a two-story aud base- ‘erms of sale: One-third of the purchase mon ‘and balance at one and two years, with interest day of sale: the deferred payments to be re sented Ly notes of the purch: to Judge Henry Hilton, who still retains that | of trust up mysterious grip on the Stewart estate which tthe ‘propel faulting purchaser. All couveyauct WILLIAM C. WOOD, T: Re eurre parce 920 Pa. ALE OF DESIRABLE by Back Building Brick pry I t omplied with | days right reserved ‘ost of the detau advertisement in su posit of $200 requir the property is sold. All conveyancing, &. rested upon good foundation, that onr versatile | of purchaser. first citizen, Dr. Chauncey M. Depew, was | to) tiring of the role of railroad king and was bent | _m 11-8 ,B.—Certificate of title ond tax certificate furnished RATCLIFFE, DAKK & CO, that he has ATCLIFFE, DARE. & CO., Auctioneers, Femtisylvania ave. LW, CONTINUATION OF. SALI * JEWELE GOLD DIAMOND, stT AND KS, TRON SArh, ION organized a senatorial campaign | ASS # ALC) Hines: £00, E street northwest at 11 sell at No. 100: il Forfeited Pledves on SA oF ments, PF urniti it St] FUPURE DAYs. Roberts, Dr. Depew is a very handy man to Fpuowas pownrs “Auct OTS AT AUCTION, (3p | num, will be taken, THUMAS DOWLING, A®? GALLERIES OF RATCLIFFE, DARR & CO., AUCTIONEERS, YLVANIA AVE. N.W. IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT OF AT AUCTION. OLD AND MODERN OIL PAINTINGS, WATER COLORS. THE COLLECTION EMBRACES SEVERAL SIX- TEENTH AND SE PIECES BY CELEBRATED ARIISTS OF THE TIME. AMONG THE ARTISTS REPRE: MASTROFINL, EXCOLANETTL AND THE CELEBRATED FLEMISH ARTIST, ADRIAENSEN, AND MANY OTHERS. appears that both these changes are to | THE COLLECTION, WHICH © NUMBERS ONLY, IS, NEVEK ONE OF THE CHOICEST EVER OF- FERED AT AUCi CITY AND WILL BE SOLD AT OUR FINE ALT GALLERIES, 920 PENNSYLVANIA AVE. N.W. ON FRIDAY MORNING, MARCH FOURTEENTH, AT ELEVEN O'CLOCK. CATALOGUES WILL BE READY AND COLLEC- FREE EXHIBITION THURSDAY, THIRTEENTH, UNTIL EIGHT P.M. S#-THE ABOVE SALE IS POSTPONED ON AC- count of the rain until y MAKCH, same hour aud pisc KALCLIFFE, DARR & CO., Anctionéers, MONDAY, SEY ALTER B. WILLIAMS & CO., Auctioneers. TRUSTEES’ SALE OF ¥ ERTY ON THE SOUTH W VALUABLE PROP. EKO! TH AND F STKESTS of trust recorded im for the District und upon the request in writing of the holders of the notes secured there; trustees will offer tor sale at publi remises, on WEDNESDAY, THI wy MAKCH, IN9O, A’ the following p ers, trustees, #1 the surveyor for the District 2. ‘Terms: Oue-third cash in one and two years from ores for the deterred pay wents, bearin \¢ Fate of six per cent semi-anuuai/y aud property sold: or all cash, st option of purchaser. A each’ lot will be required when recording at cost of pur- A WILLIAM J. MILLER, balance in equal i y of wale: the F aunuin, aya ot trust on the AUCTION SALES. = FUTURE AWN BROKER TURSDAY AN MARCH SEVENT NINELRENTH, 1 « ON MONDAY. DAY EVENINGS. r HAN : ete wi — LIAMS & CO. suctioncers. a Were B WILLIAMS & Oc LANGE STOCK OF DRY i Xb GES Auctioneers, DS, FANCY GOO! LNISHINGS, DREN roe ere ad CORSETS, SHAWL RAND OTHER GOODS 100 NUMER? OUs £O MENTION On TUESDAY MORNING, MARCH FIGHTER! INWO, at TEN CLC wi of sate. Sales at 10 aang 2.30, and 7:0 poms, daily wntih entire stock ts dist Posed of ALIEK B WILLIAMS & CO, mJ 4-.it Auctioneers, _ hae )MAS DOWLING, Av TRUSTEES’ SALE OF \ALUABLE SUBURBAN = PROPERTY. Under a deed of trast « ded in Liber No. 1 CESDAY pH? ILLDER P HACKNEY, } _mIS10t WMOA THOMPSON, "5 Tetstena, GpEY- W STICK NE, Avetioncer, U6 F ot TRUSTERS SALE OF VALUARLE_ IMPROVE! PROPERTY IN CHE SCBDIVISL FAkM IY SOF BARI 1. FRONTING ON SHULMAN AVENUES Vid BY WELL RENTED HOUSES. aa dee he Ist0, at broperty sold, of Laser, #100 depot . ons ME pT hea Rewspaper published Wil _mI2-dkd: Recur TLUSTERS SALD. EN land and pren being Lot a nd Sweaty Twenty-eight (128) of Rent company's s ed Bight asus is duly recorded 18 records in the surv Tumba, together w luents and appurtenan any wis i ine Doloumiaag or am se By pertaininuc. mus: One-La't ca months, secured for which the not trom the day of sal balance in six and twelve purchaser. If te s from day im webaper Publ S100 will be reg Ali couveyancins and re corndsug at rors it SMITH, PKESLUN S. 5) | WALTER E. WilGHi'r, 5 TrUstees. oF dkds 310 Fat. nw. $2-THE ABOVE SALE IS POSTPONED ON ac. count of the rain until MUNDA), SEVENTEENTH, DAY OF MARCH, Tn), sane uour aud place, STUN S. SMILES WALTER E. WIGHT, TTustecs, VALUABLE IMPROVED Se EEE, BEA WEEN a ty KEETS TREE, NEKAL m11-dkis ne iy AB front of the prem NIY-FIPIB DAY OF MARCH, O'CLOCK P.M, all that pisce oF being in the city of Washing- kuown as jot numbered. ered une hundred and ton 1 strect sud ren- t wiuth au avernwe depth of ome hucdred and forty (140) feet toa public alley, aud is buproved by a three-story front building with basement anda t he Tk TIVE the supervision of the iate Gen.” Beury’ K. Craig, and contain a large ssloom perior 10 feet by SY feet, large id small library or rng ge sod bere, o urchass money he balance thereof inmix, twelve, eyehteen tour mouths frum day of sule, abd to bear #2ve his prominsory now Bil purchase money aud interest be pad. €200 depomt Will be required as soon as property is Lid off. ‘Lenus of suie must, be complied with within ten “days fale, otherwise the property Will be Tsoi Tisk abd cost of defaulting purchaser. All con- Jcmg at purchaser's cost, Al taxes and asseee be paid to day of sale. 9 ilaM 3. : 480 Loui ene nm JOSLIH Je DARLINGTON. f renee 19 Sth street uy TF. Wacaama uctioneer. f27-d&ds _ PIANOS AND ORGANS. _ *8 37 KRAKAUER PIANC EOF A SUPERIOR or Burdett Oneans Leavise Ussrevuexts. DECKER BROS. WEBER FISCHER PIANOS. ESTEY IVERS & POND ESTEY ORGANS. ESTEY ORGANS. MODEKATE PRICES. EASY TERMS. Old Instruments taken in part payment. Tuning and Repairsnx. ‘Deley bone 629, SANDERS & STATMAS, Ud4 F street northwest Charice st., baltimore, Md, no 7 Mam st, buchmeond, Va. To Cavncues Axy Oncastszs. Magnificent ESTEY ORGAN, 2 manuals, soloecsle of 30 pedal notes, powerful am tone, with many beau- Uful solo effects: suitable for church, Sunday schoo, organist or student, Will be sold at amuoderate price aud on easy terms, SANDERS & STAYMAN, no 4 F 85 of Fr = Prize Medal Fare Fxposition. | 200 first premiune Sndorsec by over 100 iiuaic schovls und colleges f Gurebilty. Gld Pianos taveu in exchange, The ouly Upright that can take th e place of aon % @2iGm PELLSEER & CONLIFY, 514 11th st. aw, UNCANSON BROS. Aucuoneera, TEES’ SALE OF ELEGANT Twi PI Hi ty ce ted the ninetees Se : ete 1257, — e Tequest Of Party secure tion, to the his heat mises, at HALt-PAST NOON OF MONDAY MAKCH. 1890, all of HIRTY-FIRSY D. numbered tweuty-s sion of square numbered the same being 19 fect front on Oth street and H streets northeast, Salley ov side and rear, toxether with the iiaprove- ments, consisting of a two-story brick dw by adepth of 115 house of tts" class ity the i TSA. aren $2,700 will be made JUNCANSON BROS., Auctioneers, AND LOT WEEN Dt HOUSE Xo, x OK pee Exe te KE UNEQUALED IN TO: ie AND ND Di 5 ‘Special attention of “Purchasers” tx invited to their “New Artisuc btyles," Duished in deagus of HIGH Ev DECOKATIVE’ Aki, Pianos for rent. SECOND-HAND PIANOs.— A large assorunent, comprising almost every well-known make in the country, iu thorough sepair, low SPECIAL IND! rices aud it which MONTHLY ANS. NTS when desired. a6 317 Market Space ___EOUSEFURNISHINGS, _ Es! AND MOST COMPLETE STOCK Wall Mouidings, luterior Decors LOFLL west.