Evening Star Newspaper, August 1, 1896, Page 19

THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 18986-TWENTY-FOUR PAGES: KOM PART I. The yacht lay on the edge of the fleet. They had just made colors aboard, and fired the sunset gun, and were anchored some cable lengths away from another yacht on either side. All the inner har- bor, indeed, was gay with the lesser craft, waiting for the trial races beginning on the next day. The town sparkled in the even- ing light behind them, but the White Ladye when she came in left the sea out- side lying high and dim, where the black and gold line of the Vallant made relief, and the outlines of the Neckan, of the Powhatan, and of the big man-of-war were like pbantoms. Leituce leaves and fruit parings floated by the little launches that were darting all about like caddis flies on the inside water, with the boats of the navy yard. There was an agreeable sense of stir and of impending dinner in the air; presently there would be toilets, of a sort, and night on the dark still water world, and sleep after toll. The Mayflower crept in like a ghost in the purpling air, and all her white array slid down and left her. And then the lights began to twinkle out, and, as if it were a signal. the whole inner fleet put on a myriad of other twinkles with electric bulbs and green and red sparks, till the harbor was a sheet of Jewels. Through all this cheerful preparation for pieasure, now sl.ding along the dark oily swell, and now breaking the wake of light of this and that boat, Into their life a mo- | ment and gone aga! ig the faces of | the men in their sea neglige, and of the | women, these trim in yachting suits and those wearing big flower-laden hats and gorgeous gowns, slipped the launch of the Neckan, carrying varicus stores from town, the mail and a couple of passengers who | had come down to join the yacht outside. As one of them leaned back among the cushions in the stern and enjoyed the in- terlude, those who chanced to be looking over and saw her slipping by might have imagined that, save for the difference of draperies and ‘accessories, Cleopatra in her barge upon the Cidnus was no fairer and ro queenlfer sight than Honoria Hensler going to Join ner Vanderwater cousins on the Neckan, cousins whose wealth and sur- roundings were of value to her, as they themselves were, and her beauty and charm distinctly were to them. “Oh!” she cried, as they welcomed her on the deck of the Neckan, and there wa: something in her rich full voice that responded to all her other attractions, “this is solid comfort!’ and she looked along the deck while drawing off her gloves. “So good of you to send Fifine. Now this looks as things should. I declare I dared not move on the little Minnow for fear of up- She Looked Along the Deck While Drawing Off Her Gloves. setting the whole business. I assure you when we came around the cape and she stood on end at every big wave and made a | spring over into the next, I felt of no more worth than a bubble of foam, and I left her at New Redford. Who is there on board? Charley Gisborne? Laura? No? The dis- tinguished stranger? You are dressing for dinrer? Then you will lend me Fitine again? I have just packed off Olympe for good—cr bad; but I sent my luggage by train. With you then anon.” And moving | easily on her way, with an embrace here and a salutation there, she disappeared. And Gisborne and the foreign prince, who was the Vandewaters’ prize for the cruise, looked after her, one with a hopeless ana- thema on his luck, and the other with a sense of something new swimming Into his | horizon, while Mrs. Dennett Dennett, a so- celal arbiter, settled the ample front of her incroyable moire and said to herself that ft would be a pleasure to make the fortune of such a girl as that. It was perhaps as well that there was no Roentgen ray to apply to the working of Miss Hensler’s mind as she looked up and down the table a little later. ‘Poor Charley Gisborne—that simpering Pinkey May—Mrs. Dennett Dennett, a little more glorious than usual—Lady Christopher—dear, dear, t sure to be a scrap! The prince— | didn’t some one say he hasn't a penny? Very swell. But I don't see any reason to ‘o back on Chaun And Mrs. Dennett Dennett saw on her hand an opal like a drop of dew that held all sunrise, and knew that !t was once her mother’s, but didn't see the tiny thread of gold it guarded, and that was the ring of Honoria’s engagement to Chauncey Parkes, a university profes- sor with an education and a career before him that might eventually amount to a great deal, but with an income that In Mrs. Dennett Dennett's apprehension amounted to just nothing. When they came on deck, under the awn- ing with its fringe of lights, a white appari- tion loomed some way off, a yacht that hid come to a were at dinner. “The Pendragon,” iling master said in reply to Mr. water's inquiry. ir Hrooke Beltanley and Lord Gadsden. Going round the world. They'll see the races and have some repairs.”” interesting! I know Sir Brooke “suid Mrs. Dennett Dennett on the report. “Pray go over with my compliments tomorrow, Mr. Vanderwater, if you can ar- ge it, and him on board. A de- Lightful fellow,” she added afterward to y Chirstopher, who herself did not Sir Brooke, but resented having the recognized. * said Lady Christopher, “that me pec dence, some long rights. We have famtlies, per- you know, that need not take off their hats to the queen.” ‘E should think any gentleman would,” Mrs. Dennett Dennett. “Oh, over here, don't you know, you hard- ly understand all that the peerage—" “My said Mrs. Dennett Dennett. “As if 1 hadn't seen a peerage on every Grawing room table in London, thumbed lke a Boston blue book. Oh, yes. And Sir Brooke is the heir presumptive of a duke- LULL ULLULIS AN AMERICAN BEAUTY. BY HARRIET PRESCOTT SPOFFORD. (Copyright, 1896, by the Bacheller Syndicate.) OW OND NOW ONE OMONONOWOW ON EVENE ONS YONG LS WY dom—the imbectle old duke 1s some sort of a distant cousin with no one between. He has half a dozen continental titles, Desides, that have fallen to him in much the same way, and good ones, some of them; but he never uses them; he prefers to wear his little English one.” Lady Christopher's husband was only a knight. “And a place for every one, I suppose,” gaid Honoria. “Places that are poems.” nd money to burn, I dare say,” sald Charley Gisborne. ‘es, he owns, I won't say half the iron and coal mines in England, and about the same thing as whole cities, but he has real- ly fabulous wealth—and enough of our securities to make jt very well worth his While to come over.” “He wil not need to iook for an hetress, then,” said Lady Christopher. “Nor have the chance. All the mammas im London were pulling caps about him last year—thetr frightful caps!’ sald Mrs. Den- Rett Dennett, who never allowed herself to be outdone in a rudeness, “They wear their own hair, don't you Know,” said Lady Christopher. “And the effect “Oh, that's v Jain,” saig Mrs. Den- be fooking tor bet ol and Sir Brooke as quite forgotten in agreeable ex- @itement of the skirmish, But over on the Pendragon, Beltaniey was leaning on the visible of him but the spark of poor Sir ee nothing cigar, and looking down and across at the Neckan. : “By Jove, Billy!” he exclaimed. “Do you seg that?” and the movement of his cigar indicated the lighted deck of the Neckan end the beautiful young woman standing there, while a dark and slender foreign- looking man dropped her wrap on_ her shoulders. Tall and rounded as Clytle might have been, and with a mass of red gold hair rippling from a forehead almost as low and full and white as Clytie's, too, Intensely fair under the strong light, with eyes like two great topazes, and with a mouth red and sweet and parting in a smile, she was like a vision out here on the dark sea. She wore a white Venetian silk, which she hae brought along, in case they dressed for dinner, because {t would not cockle in the sea air, and on her waist was one long stemmed wide-blown American beauty rose. Charley Gisborne had whis- ered to her, as they came out on the deck that night, that she, and not the rose, deserved the name. But she had heard the Phrase before. “Do I see what sald the gentleman ad- “By jove! Billy, do you see that!” dressed, who was called Billy by his friends chietly because that was not his name, lighting another r before he threw tched its little spark hiss and quench in the water. said Billy, after a long gaze, “is istrative dangerous pronoun, relat- case to Miss Honoria Hensler, the best equipped flirt in these or any other waters.” ‘You know her, then,” said Sir Brooke, turning to look at him, rather ineffectually through the darkness in that spot. “To my cost,” said Billy, rolling his between his teeth. “That is to say added, after some moments’ silence and recollection and de. m, “I was over here last year, and made a fool of myself, as every other man does who ever sees he Den't burn your fingers there, Brooke. She as the beauty of a marble statue—and just as much heart in her bod Married?” asked Sir Brooke. “Single. In the late twenties. Lots of rich relatives, but only about a thousand a year herself. Five thousand, they call it here, with their usual big mouth. “You couldn’t marry her on that, Billy,” with some men’s pleasant way of stating a brutal fact. “No. That was the mischief of it,” said Billy, frankly. ‘You can.” Not a marrying man, Billy.” “I wouldn't trust the statue in Trafalgar square with her, if she chose to turn its head.” Had it bad, Billy.” “Well, if you know when you're in luck, and you don’t want it bad yourself, you'll put on steam and be out of this by day- reak tomorrow!" “Run away from danger, eh?” “By Jove, there's some dangers a man had best pass by on the other side.” “I don’t know but you're right. _ Circe turned her men to beasts. This damsel seems to sour the milk of human kindness, Come, it is rather interesting—and we were getting dull. What do you say, Billy? DoI call off second best in these affairs?” turn- ing on him. “You've had enough of them to know,” said Billy, sulkily. “And I'm not a heart-broken misogynist yet? And never shall be? One can’t always come off winner. There’s a pleasure in de- serving victory. Worthy antagonist, don't you know, a shiver of danger, a trembling on the edge of triumph.” “Something more of the danger.” Well, I'm feeling fairly fit. Suppose we're set over there tomorrow. Jove! There's an old woman there I know, too! See her? From Queen Boadacea in ‘the direct line— Enderby—Denderby—what the—oh, Dennett, yes.” And he looked again for the girl in the light with the great rose on her breast. But she was lying back in her chair near the side, aimost out of sight, and letting the soft cool air blow over her while Charley Gisborne amused her. Perhaps in the gloom Sir Brooke's fancy magnified all the beauty he had seen, and as he leaned toward it he could not tell whether he saw or dreamed its loveliness. The great sound steamer went puffing and panting by with emerald and ruby glints, laying golden organ-pipes down the dark Waters, a moving palace of light. The yachts rose and fell In the slow spell of the slipping tide; the stars looked faintly out behind a veil of haze: now and then through the wide spaces long wafts of the perfume of flowers streamed past by way of the land, now ané then by way of the sea came a strong fanning of its chill salt breath. From a distant deck a woman's voice rose and filled the dark hollow of the heaven with the sparkling deliciousness of Manon’s drinking song. In the following silence only the chimes of the clocks from far-off towers fell, and the bell of this ship and of that scunded the hour, and there seemed to be in all the atmosphere of the summer night and sea a certain waiting and expectancy of Pieasure, If not of joy. PART Il. If Miss Honoria Hensler had not had as- surances to that effect In plenty, she could hardly have looked in her mirror without knowing that she was an exceedingly beau- tiful woman. When she stood up in the full glow of the electric lights, with her white gown and her red rose, while the Italian dropped the wrap on her shoulders, she was quite well aware that the fleet was not so widely scattered that she was not the center of many eyes with or without a glass in all that circumambient darkness, And she was not at all surprised when, at While the Italian Dropped the Wrap ym Her Shoulders. an early hour next morning, Sir Brooke and his riend presented themselves, o#- tensibly to pay their compliments to Mrs. Dennett Dennett, and by the way, to make | some arrangement for seeing the day's race to better advantage than on board the big Pendragon, and really to see herself. Breakfast was still on; and the young men did not seem to be unkindly disposed to a cheerful little compound of cracked ice and something else that was brought them; and they were already quite well acquainted with Laura Vanderwater, the wife of Jack Pepperidge, one of the men whose boats were to follow the race, and who had come with her court for Honoria, when the prince came up. “Prince what?” exclaimed Billy to Lady Christopher. And he gazed with a puzzled air at Sir Brooke, who was staring straight ahead and pulling his mustache, as if princes were hardly in his set; and Billy stared straight ahead and pulled his mus- tache. “Jolly go," said Billy, “What will you do?” “Give him line,” said Sir Brooke. “If he's by way of sceing the races let him see all he wants. Fun to see him. ‘And go one better,” said Billy. And then Honoria’ appeared, wearing a sreat red rose still, and clad in close-fitting white water-proof ‘stuff, little rings loosed from: her hair bound away In braids be- visor. 5 attany Oke ‘sored cap; and no one looked “We were all saying,” said Mrs. Den- rett Dennett, after the salutations, “that this is perfectly reckles i iPerfectly fine,” said Mrs. Pepperidge. «Perhaps it is a little rash,” said Honoria. ‘But I am a sea bird. Ard it is a wild madness I muy never have another chance “We are just two of the crew, Pepperidge; “obey orders and he ballast. I always go with Jack. And he has let me fetch Honori; mascot.” ‘T shall make him a flag w y ow were said Honoria. Beswitivnty ows ‘oriunate fellow,” said Bill: yy a met his fate with fortitude,” “7? had uly, Wish Jack hed butlt a boat!” More fun than ”” sai 2a y Gis- ae a goat,” said Charley Gis “Than a goat?" sald Sir Brooke. “How 4s that?” But no ime to en- Wenteninane one found time to en: “Well, as it is," said Mrs. Pepperidge, J suppose we're not in it er the Flying Scud. though Jack says we are. He takes odds that we sban’t be far away. I sup- pe: you've raced at home, Sir Brooke?” is I shouid like to race here,” he said. The lady looked at him a moment. “Able seaman?” she asked. He nodded. ‘Come on, then. I'll make it right with Jack. We'll send a hand ashore. But you know What it is? Under water half the time— rath nerve bracirg. Henoria hasn't any pberves.”” And rather wondering about the nerv Sir Brooke wert for his wet-weather cig and found himself before Ieng on the way to the Flying Scud, where she hung, dip- ping her pretty nose in the water, impa- tient as a tethered wild creature, with the wind blowing, the water curling, and all the fleet of sails s) reading, changing, skim- ming and maneuvering and all the steam yachts puffing and signaling and shrieking, and the three towering white beauties get ting into line as they could for the hinder ing boais, only one crossing the line on the second, off at the gunshot hke three ar- rows from the bow, past the Reef and out to open sea. In a moment or two the Fly- ing Scud was swelling out her iinen and after them, and not all the Interest of the fleet, by any means, centered on the thre other cers, “I have shipped as able se: man, Pepperidge,” said Sir Breoke, “and as uu must command me.” We ir Brooke,” said Mr. Pepperidge, you'll earn your pessage. It's presently. said Mrs. ed ia for a going to be a wet trip: but if the Flying Scud doesn’t show them all a2 clean pair ot heels sh, be in close alongside the winner. The ome money up. ( you know, we've got te keep cur ¢ but we're going to make our time Under no better circumstances Brooke ha ve opens » campaign he had promised _himse r when he was not occupied doing s s duty he was beside Honoria have taken wee ance to win. “Well, you like it?” he said. as a wave Poured over her, the sun struck and she emerged shining in a perfect halo of i descenc “The next best thing yourself!" she said. s something as splendid as the sea and wind and sunshire in the girl's intrep- idity. As for Mrs. Pepperidge, she had her husband, and was more at home at sea than on shore; and a certain chivalric feeling for the girl asserted itself in him, to be as instantly crushed by her very evident power of taking care of her- self. ‘The wind freshened. They almos: for- Zot about the other yachts in the delight of their own sailing, as, beating up to windward, they mounted’ and soared a bubble on the great waves that hammer- ed the bows and broke beneath the keel, as they dipped into green hollows and the crests powdered over them, as they on with the lee rail under water y flat along the windward rail tc trim tie boat, and saw the huge wave towering cver them, stooping and lifting them in its with a freedom tt might ks of more formal acquaint- to being a And there w. w ve Sir Brooke Put Out an Arm and Caught Her. grasp, and now felt like a straw lost in the power and play of the elements, and now challenged them with gay defiance; on one side, the sea a waste of weltering gray and white waters, and on the other a stretch of tumbling sapphire and stiver— some sense of danger and some pride of daring and overcoming, the tonic of the strong air, and a keen exhilaration, mak- ing their spirits rise and race with the boat and the billows. And then they lifted their heads and lost themselves as the three beauties before them swept round the stakeboat, and with the breaking of the thread out-swelled the spinnakers in vast opaline clouds that took a rosy tint, sweeping on and up like gigantic moth. like ercatures of some other atmosphere dropped on the waters here with wid spread wings. And at the instant every valve of every whistle in the boat waiting on their coming sprang open, and a chorus oe hoarse and of shrill blasts scattered the air. “Hab!” cried Honoria. Do you Tristan “By Jove, so it is!” said Sir Brooke, as the wonderful chorus rose and fell and rose again. “And quite on the scale of the oc- casion. Ah, here we go ourselves!’ And rounding the stake-boat in their turn, their own spinnaker caught the wind, and they followed fullbreasted as a mighty swan. “We shall make it,” said Mr. Pepperidge. “This seitles it. There's nothing beats the Flying Scud before the wind!” And they rushed along with the wind blowing rain- bows out of the water and the following sea seething and hissing behind them in a vast sweet resonance. “Oh!” cried Honorla, glittering and streaming with spray, “I wouldn't have missed it for a year of my life! The great sea balloon! The rush of it! The music of the tremendous murmur!” “You should be a daughter of the Vi- kings,” said Sir Brooke. “T suppose it isn’t a great way from the Viking to the Puritan. And then throw in a little of the Dutch, who were born, like the halcyon, in a nest of water, and there you have it.’ “And while you are looking up your sen ple remember some gold-haired Vene- fan grandmother or other,” said Sir Brooke, looking at the bright end dripping braids. “Does the prow of the gondola strike on “Listen, Laura! ear it? It is the hunt music in the stair? Do the voices and instruments pause and repare? ‘Oh, they faint on the ear as the lamp on the view, I am ing—preme—but I stay not for v0, ” Preme—not for yout” Honoria, we Berhaps, sometime,” he said, with a sud- Gen daring which she knew she had brought upon herself by her song, “I may hear you sing the rest of it. ae “I am coming—sclar—amd .for you and to ‘ou, é 70M sciar—and to you!” Honoria hesitated, an @rigry word on her tongue, a thought of Chamncey and of his right to resent this flashing into her eyes. Stull here was a man, thé‘owner of all those fine tiles and places hat Mrs. Dennett Dennett had ninted about} the possible and probable heir to a dukedom, too. She might say: “Not this morhing—some other morning; she might say: “Kindly wait till Ido,” and descend into @ ‘vulgarity match- ing his impertinence. °She did the best thing possible; she sald fothing, and looked Girectly before her. And! Sir Brooke Bel- tanley thought he had never seen so radi- ant a beauty as hers Was in ‘the virgin flush of her indignation, the blue of the skies and the seas Mirrored in her great topaz eyes till they flashed with a green splendor. And then the! necessity of put- ting himself right with her made his heart beat more than any plunging into any hol- like | low of the sea, or swelling of spinnakers, or unison of steam whistles making Wag- nerian music, had done. “I forgot myself,’ he said. “You are enough to make a wiser man do so: And as for you, come,” he said; “you must for- give a moment's presumption that bor- rewed some of the freedom of all this free- dom of sea and air and camaraderie!” ‘How long have you known me, Brooke?” ae Forever!” he exclaimed. “Oh, thank you," she laughed; “I am not so old.” “A goddess is reither old nor youn, Joes one come out here in the waste of Sir wate to hear the platitudes of ball room: she asked, and she rose a little, for they were still half lying along the deck, the wind that was with them meeting the running tide and making a sea whos: spray swept them fore and aft. have been told that I am a goddess till I have a contempt for the article Would you speak in this way to an En- gitsh y’S acquaintance?" just then that ore of the huge chance seas that wind and tide sometime: roll up Letween them caught and distracted the helmsman’s eye for half an instant. In that instant the boat had broached to, and, although only a second was lost in putting her before the wind again, the helm down, the crew scrambling to trim ship, and the air lurid with Mr. Pepperidge’s ‘vocifera- tions, yet they had seemed to drop down some sinking depth, and one of the long, asing waves had leaped on board, and, Honoria’s hold locsened and her feet unbraced by her movement, in another moment she would perhaps have washed Wo 2 Floated by In a Cloud of White Tulle. off with the wave, or, at any rate, have been struck violently against the rail, had not Sir put out an arm and caught ard kept “I would speak to them that way,” said he. “And they say: ‘Thenks,’" she replied, with a laugh, readjusting If. “Do you mean to say you weren't afraid?’ he exclaimed. “Afraid? Of what? You don't fear till you lose hold of yourself, and I have never t felt as if any harm could befall me. “By Jove!” said he. “Not all the waters of all the seus can quench the fire in you!” “Oh,” cried Mrs. Pepperidge, screaming to be heard. “I can’t hear what you are saying, but I don't see how you can talk at all when it’s getting so exciting, and it's now or never with the Flying Scud! 1 am just holding my breath.” ep on holding it,’ cried Mr. Pep- peridge, eyes fixed on a point in the distanc wouldn't have you lose it for a fart A few moments of silence as they swept on with their mad rush. It seemed to Honorla as if the world were holding its breath as well as he cried again presently, don’t that I wouldn't give a great deal more than a year of my life to have the Flying Scud come in : “When one saves another's life,” asked Sir Brooke, “has he any rights in It? “When he saves it?” said Honoria. “Why, you would save a fiy’s, Have you any such idea about mine? But you would have caught a falling chair. If you hadn’t hin- dered me one of the crew would—I don't krow that Jack would have come with the boat, but he would have tossed me the life- preservers, and there are all the steamers following, and you must take into account, too, that I can swim, Sir Brooke.” “If all the American girls are so decidedly cool,” said Sir Brocke, “the temperature here ought to be near zero. “There they are!’ exclalmed peridge, “make a note, Pinky. boomed f: away, report inshore, and echo reaching’ them way, followed by the and calls in a pan¢ as the winner crossed the lines. “Now, if all holds,” said, “we shall have made the distance ourselves in but ten seconds less than the winner, in spite of that dash- ed blunder just now. That means a pot of money, Mr. Pepperidge. Mr. Pep- And a gun the wind carrying the only the atmo i rained and refined atti of all the whis- emonium of sound Vhy didn’t you enter?” asked Sir Brooke, “Because I was acquainted with those ten seconds,” said Mr. Pepperidge. ‘“Beast- ly bore.” And ‘while he held his stop- watch they swept on with every inch of canvas spread, with every rope and bolt strained, and deck wet and mast stiil feath- ered from the sea, they crossed the line and had their own ovation, “Part of that’s for Honorla.” sald Mr. Pepperidge. A little later Sir Brooke handed Miss Hensler up the side of the Neckan, her white water-proof. dress shining with the wet and she herself glittering as if fresh from a dip in briny surf. The rose at her belt was still untarnished and glistening with salt dew. “How bright your rose is still!” he said. “What do you call it?” “The American beauty. very fine and strong. stem {s broken.” “It 1s well named. ‘The American beauty. Stall I have it?” and Sir Brooke extended his hand, Not this one,” said Honoria. PART IIT. Had there been any way of reaching Sir Brooke Beltanley on the high seas, invita- tions would certainly have met the Pen- @ragon half way across,’ As it was, they had already come aboard with c&lls and cards for most of the gayetles of town and sea and country. Sir Brooke and Lord Gadsden proved the pleasures offered by several of these during the next few days and nights, but a request from Mrs. Dennett Dennett that he would,join the party from the Neckan at the De Ruysens’ ball, given on conclusion of the trial races, seemed to concern Sir Brooke more immediately than it did Billy, who had men dining on board the Pendragon, and the guests were left in the enjoyment of a quiet game while Sir Brooke ignored their jibes and obeyed his bidding. He was waiting rather stiffly beside Lady Christopher, by and by, perhaps feeling a little forlornly glad she was there, not al- together pleased with himself for coming, and looking down the vast room where un- seen light shed from the celling over blue- green tapestry-hung walls, while bowery re- cesses under towering palm trees here and there made it seem as if they danced in &@ woodland glade, ag if the rout of a sum- mer palace had emptied itself into the forest with all its shimmer of many-tinted silks and gauzes and jewels, its beautiful faces and bare shoulders, but Honorla was not there. Through a vista of flaming orchids he saw, however, that there was dancing also on an outer gallery, where the music came, perhaps, less plercingly, and there ae eS poated! Ex in a cloud of white tulle, er great roses Gancing with the prince, and quite oblivious Yes, they are But, dear me, its of any one else. The affair became of in- terest, and he made his way toward her when he could, and asked what dance he might have. “When you do dance, I wish you A wave of the sea, that you might ever do Nothing but that.” “All in a lifetime,” she replied. was wishing I were a wave the other morning, you know. But I am sorry that I haven't a dance left till very late.” “Let me have that,” he said. “With pleasure, if we stay for it,” and she took the prince's arm, and waited for the time, and swam off again in his clasp. Sir Brooke was standing in a wide doos- way where a huge vase above him poured a dark mass of laurels and ivies, looking into @ broad veranda laced in and inclosed with a net of, honeysuckle flowers, when Honoria ceme by again and stepped out to join Mrs. Pepperidge, who had been holding court there, but had just dispatched her last at- tendant on an errand, and now begged the prince to send her an ice. Sir Brooke had been feeling angry with himself that all the other lovely women in the room had seemed to signify nothing; and as the soft folds of Honoria’s misty raiment touched him he was conscious of a sudden fullness at his throat, she was so beautiful, so full of life and sweetness, so like the great roses she wore, whose fragrance drowned out the breath of all those other flowers, so radiant, flushed with dancing and pleasure, that he felt like closing his eyes as if it were too much to see, or could not be the same if he looked the second time. And then he was angry with himself again. “Honoria!” Mrs. Pepperidge exclaimed in what was meant for an undertone. “You are making yourself so conspicuous! Do you know you have danced with almost no one else but that man?” “Well?” suid Honoria, sweetly. “And I Fave enjoyed it. He speaks English marvel- ousiy and dances to perfection. And he Is very entertaining. What better?” opening her fan indolen “Aud a prince,” said Mrs. Pepperidge. “Oh, that doesn’t count,” said Honorta. “There are princes in plenty. But he is man, and has ideas.” ‘And hasn't a penny to name.” ‘How do you know he hasn’t?’ ‘He told me so himself.” You can’t say he wasn’t frank about it.” ‘And you’ve not too many pennies, you know.” “My dear Laura, haven’t you anything better to do than to fling my poverty in my face?” she laughed, “and with this music in your ears. But I must! You can’t afford to drift ‘0 marrying.” ‘Were we talking of marrying?” said Honorta, sweetly. ‘But then I have often told you I don’t care to marry any one with more pennies than I hav or.sense, Honoria! You didn't talk that way before Chauncey Parkes—”" “Well, then, Laura, if I am to have but a few more such scenes as this—and it is perfectly barbaric in its profusion, isn’t it? —why don't you let me enjey it in peace? Any more catechism? It’s rather public— but then! “Well, you don’t seem to think of any danger to the other party—the prince.” “I have always gone on the principle that the other party 1s quite well able to take care of himself. And the prince's step suits mine perfectly — And here Sir Brooke felt he was standing in the shade a little too long, and made himseif evident a moment before the prince returned with a servant bringing ices. May I have your kindness for a little jie, prince?” asked Mrs. Pepperidge, nd beg you to take Lady Christopher down the long gallery here? She’s so su- perior. I want her to see that for a sea- side cottage—” ‘Don't you mean a er?” said Sir Brook parted. “To see that for 4 little place by the water the De Ruysens really do things pretty well. She hasn't admitted anything of the sort yet. But the buffet is set with gold plate that rings when you breathe, and the walls are draped with a mat of Cape Jessimine blossoms, and they will give her Chateau Yquem to drink out of a goblet just crusted and dripping with di: mond sparks. I sent for Jack to take hei but Jack does as he pleases, and he didn’t please.” Well, side palace, rath- as the prince de- said Mr. Pepperidge, coming up then, “he pleases to congratulate you on owning the boat rext the fastest boat in the world! For it is admitted and acknowl- edged, and furthermore declared by the judges in council, that the Flying Scud went over the course in but ten seconds ore than the winner. The boat's yours, Lally.” “Thanks, Jack. I'm sure it’s awfully good of you,” as if he had tossed her an apple. “I shall enter her for the next race! You see, Jack said if she made the time he would give her to me,” said Laura. “The American husband!” exclaimed Sir don’t please you?” said Honorta. em to please their wives.” y will be the ruin of the British hus- that doesn’t concern Brooke,” said Mr. Pepperidge. “I don’t know,” said Sir Brooke. And then the prince came back with Lady Christopher, and went off with Hono- ria, and a sudden flush burned up Sir Brooke's cun-tanned cheek and reddened the white forehead as he angrily tossed back the lock that fell acrcss it with his bo And whenever, in his various wan- derings and introductions and fragmentary conversations and perfunctory doings, feel- ing it all an intease stupidity, half wishing he were back with Billy and the game, on- ly knowing that rothing would drag him back, he caught sight of Honorla, she was still lavishing all her charm upon the prince. He was taking Lady Christopher to sup- per, and making her very happy—it was the third time she had feasted that night. when he glanced in an alcove on the wa: in the blaze of whose panels like wrought cloth of gold divided by pilasters of am- ber, a terra cotta Ganymede poured iced wat-r, and saw Honoria sitting there with the prince bending over her. Something sardonic was in the on Sir Brooke's honest face then, and he drew up his straight height and twirled his mustache rather fiercely. He could put an end to that aonsense In an instant if he chose. But would that put an end to the man? And it was the man that was pleasing her —she had said it. Well, what did he care? Fire up and off tomorrow. But when at last, very late although it was, the time came for his dance, Sir Brooke knew that it would not be fire up and off tomorrow, and he knew that wheth- er to any sufficient danger or not he did cere. He had thought at first that they would wander out and listen to the sea together under this great blotch of a wan- ing moon high in the dark heaven. But row everything was dew drenched—and, besides, if it were only for once, he was going to have this dance, he was going to clesp and hold her for his own, despite herself, a dance’s while. But our very wishes give us not our wish, and the dance with this rather haughty, silent and dis. trait person holding him quite at arm's length, was not at all the dance for which he had longed all night. They came out after awhile, the rooms already beginning to be deserted, and lin- gered where a rug lay on the grass by a fountain that tossed its Jet high in the air with a dreamy, indifferent sway, and where a lemon tree in its tub sweetened the air. you, Sir She Did Not Understand Sir Brooke's Low Bow. The tinkle of the fountain, the patter of the lemon leaves on the rising breeze sounded with an infinite triviality against the long deep breathing of the sea, “The urquilet, bright Atlantic plain,” said Honoria. “I suppose you will be tempting it again now. These few days are only like an inn where you have stopped on the tempt it with nist to Mount Desert and fempt unt an perhaps Labrador, while the tases makes repairs.” “And do you got” 17 —___. “Is it best?” “How should I say?” With a slight ges- ture of fatigue. “It is a pleasant cruise, and there is pleasant company, ourselves and some others. I suppose Lord Gads- den was asked, and the prince—” “The prince and I—I mean that man and I—can hardly sail together!” “The unfortunate prince! Is it a great crime to be so poor?” “To be poor? I have heard some social- let fellow say there were hundreds of them —princes, counts and marquises—out of ployment. I have known some, and always held them in respect.” “That was kind of you. I remember there Was a prince in ‘Pascarel’ who was a tinker, wasn’t he? He was a prince all the same. But as for this one. I don't see what harm he can do you. To tell the truth, I thought him rather dull and quiet before ut of late I have found him in- teresting.” She did rot quite understand Sir Brooke's low bow; but she laughed, swinging her fan, and pulling up the cape of white fur he had brought her. The pallid moonlight and the sea-drenched air became her, for either they toned down her vivid color, or she was tired and the color had fallen, and with her fatigue something a Iittle more tender than brilliant was in her eyes. “Is it man to man then?” “I'm sure 1 don’t know what you mean!” and she moved to retrace their steps, for they were quite alone on the lawn, and she was to remain with the De Ruysens. “Many things here.” said Sir Brooke, | “are different to what I thought. But the women, the women are the same.” “Quite the same?” she said, turning with a smile that half dazzled him. And when Sir Brooke strode off to find his boat he had promised to go, and he held in his hand. withered and warm and sweet yet, and full of her personality it seemed, an American beauty rose. Billy and the men, having come ashore to see the town by moonlight, were strolling down to the boat as he reached it; and the prince was waiting there, a little disturbed, as he had m'ssed the Vanderwater crew. There was nothing for Sir Brooke to do but to offer him the hospitality of the Pen- dragon for the night, taking care not to look at Billy as he did so, and they were presently treading the harbor and reaching the open sea where the big, sleeping yachts puiled with a lazy roll at the anchor Sir Breoke and Billy were the last to go up the gangway. “Hard hit?” said Billy. Billy had seen the rose. “Hard to say,” was the reply. “And harder to say how one is to serve that fel- low out.” “Nothing easier, to my mind. “Nothing more difficult. You see, it is like betting on a certainty, Mke hitting a man when he’s down. The fact gives me the advantage. “All’s fair in love and war.” “But then ts silence the fair thing by her?’ “You're drawing it too fine for me.” “Besides, it’s a standup fight, Billy. If this man pleases, I don’t care to please. And I don’t care to win anyway by trip- ping the other fellow.” ‘Very hard hit, indeed!” said Billy, as he sprang up the gangway. The others had all disappeared. Only the prince was waiting to be shown to his quariers and say good night. “Look here!” cried Billy, cutting the Gordian knot with a word. “How long are you going to keep up this dashed masquer- ace? A title that came to a man without an acre or a sou to bless it, and that he scorns to wear, you think worth stealing! While you were about it, why didn't you take a title thac was dead and done with instead of the Piodinochi? You blooming fraud,” as Sir Brooke came up the deck: “There is Prince Piodinachi “The deuce ft is!” said the other. PART Iv. “Billy, Billy!” exclaimed Str Brooke. “Under our own roof! I mean, on our own deck “How came he to be on our own deck? By way of confounded infamy! A blackleg after some heiress and her money— “You are quite mistaken, my lord,” be- gan the object of wrath, with coolness. “Don’t you my-lord me! 1 have nothing to hear from such cattle! “That is not the usual characteristic of British justice, Lord Gadsden,” said the pretender, tossing his cigar over the rail. “If it strikes, It hears.”” “Quite so,” said Sir Brooke. “I don't see what you can have to say for yourself. But, if you wish to speak, why, we will heai “I don’t know that I will,” said Lord Gadsden. “Come, come, Billy! He may be on the trail of some mystery, who knows? Per- haps he hails from what answers for Scot- land Yard over here.” “You mean Pinkerton’s men? Nothing of the sort, Sir Brooke. And there is no mysiery about it, either.” ‘Jist a common, vulgar impostor, he plain truth, gentlemen, is that I live by my pen. 1 am a writer by profes- sion, a story writer, a Iterary hack, you may call it. 1 dare say you may have some of my work— ot I!” said Billy. ‘ot much in our line, I fancy!” said Sir Brooke. “Well, that’s as it may be. I have writ- Billy. ten up the detectiv story, and the bowl and dagger story, and the New England dialect story, and the New York shms, and the southwestern ranche, and “You hnd best leave for your estates tomorrow.” the rest of them, and I found that In the curiceity to know about the lives of the Four Hundred, so called, snobbish, but real, it could be made a matter of great moment ic me to be able to do the yacht- ing season, Newport, Bar Harbor, and life amcrg the multi-millionaires. And I made my plans accordingly. I had happened to live in Italy in my youth, and knew the language and localities. I chose a title 1 thought extinct, hired a valet—that Sicilian scamp over there—I believe he is a count himself, or something of that sort—and registered at a big hotel, and the fish leaped at the bait, and here T am.” “Well, I'll be dashed!” said Billy. “That I had no other or more ultimate intention I beg you to believe me.” “I don't know why we should believe you,” said Billy. “In false colors, under @ false name, obtaining hospitality under false pretenses.” “Not altogether. The people who" enter- tained me wanted a prince to display to their acquaintances. I furnished one. I have given them the satisfaction of mak- ing the desired display. I think that ac- count may be called square.” “Splitting hairs!” said Billy. “I have regretted the imposition when among mer—" “And how about it when among wo- men?” asked Sir Brooke. “Nothing whatever to regret there.” “Nothing,” said Sir Brooke sterniy, ‘to regret in relation to Miss Hensler last night?” for the dawn was already creeping broadly over the sea. “By heaven! when ‘ou only owe it to my clemency that your is eft has not already been denounced to er “Theft is a hard ward, Sir Brooke, What naren I ay 4 eee! for short what impossible steal, a tle of which it seems you Sought 't poorly to use it; and I have conduct myself while using it in a manner to do no discredit, and I return it with no more injury than = Ged wear—” “Xou have stolen confidence, trust—” “On the oon have rather fostered those qualities. as for Miss Hens- re “I have already taken her into my con- fidence. I think sie was’ more amused the jest than concerned by the fraud.” “By Jove!” said both the young men to- ther. ‘And playing him on you for all he was worth,” added Billy. “I suppose,” continued the ci-devant prince, “It was a fraud. But, perhape, I may say that it was undertaken in the in- terest of truth. And in the face of it, I can hardly ask you to believe that I am in the main ‘indifferent honest.’ ” “Very indifferent,” said Lord Gadsden. Sir Brooke was silent a moment, Aliping the ash off his cigar with care. “I t krow,” said he then, “whether I owe you an apology or you owe me one. But ft seems to me altogether too much push for 4 small canoe. Since you have such @ hankering after the things you threw away a couple of hundred years ago, you people, you might have the title and welcome, if It «re transferable. I dare say it was worn y many a rascal and robber before. But as it is, I fancy you had best make your comphments to the Neckan people, and Good- leave for your estates tomorrow. night.” “Sur.’s coming up,” ay. siid Billy as they walked a ‘And no said Sir Brooke, gloomily, he'll think I've sent him off to get him out of the way. “I say,” said Billy. “Let him keep along where he was. If we're going up the coast on the Neckan, he won't want more punish- ment than our good fellowship, the poor Gevil! He wants high life—tet’s give it to Lim!” cried Billy, with a chuckle. “Take him along afterward on the cruise of the Pendragon. He'll be—what’s thi y say over hece, what Gisborne yonder calls it— re fun than a goat said Sir Brooke, “than a box of But, for my part, I like honest The trial races were over, and the Neckan Was ut last moving up the blue Aulantic, that rippied in suns! placid as a pond. The litte tan onoria’s “k only seemed to make her beauty burn the clear- er, and in her w Jacket she sUll wore her rose. As Mrs. Dennett Dennett saw her pacing the deck with Sir Brooke she had great hopes of her. But as Lady Christopher saw her, that good woman thanked heaven that her own Gear Jane and Maria were of an entirely different creation from this girl who queened it over every man and woman she met, excepting only Lady Christopher. Sull, Lady Christoph-r was on the whole in a kinaly mood, for she might have lived at home a hundred years and not have knewn Sir Brooke and Lord Gadsden, and ow it would go hard if she did not turn this new acquaintance to Ue advantage of her dear girls. “So very different from our Erglish girls,” she could not, however, help sighing to Mis. Dennett Dennett, as she removed her goxgies. “Yes, more’s the pitty,” said her com- panion. “If they were Lke her, the dukes and earls and things would be marrying at home and not taking our mcney out of the country “Dear Mrs. D.nnett Dennett, you say such extraordinary things! You really do rot approve the way Miss Hensler—” “I do, perfectly,” puffed Mrs. Dennett Dennett, unswathing herself of one of her several Veils. ‘Such remarkable standards,” sighed Lady Christopher. “Does she always wear She Loonsened the Rose Her Lips Had Touched. an American beauty rose because she ts an American beauty?” “I ebouldn’t wonder!” said Mrs. Dennett Dennett. “Ard when et sea?” “Oh, there is a plenty of cold storage on board. And the men keep her supplied. You have seen them come.” “Her heart's the best cold storage T know of,” said Charley Gisborne, who was re- posing not far awa “Quite #o. She has every appearance of it. No, indeed,” murmured Lady Christo- pher directly, in response to her own thought, “if my dear girls never marry they will never throw themselves at a man in that style” “My dear Lady see that it is the m: self at her?” said N Christopher, don't you n who is throwing him- Dennett Dennett “Not at all. I only see a very accom- plished flirt.” Sir Brooke a flirt? Oh, no!” I have never before associated where a man was spoken of as a flirt.” “Dear Lady Christopher, much to lear 2 have 80 “I have had,” said Lady Christopher, gathering her Cloak about her as she ro: and ying her rather uncertain s lege, “sit.ce I left home a great variety of ‘ons in underbreeding. The doctor of had the worst of it,” said Ch rne, reluiing the affair afterwar¢ he dear D). D. meant well.” Lady Chriftopher met Sir Brooke pr ently on her way, as he sprang to rt her swaying progress, Honoria saying she must post her journal, and leaving him. He held in his fingers the rose she had happened to drop from her jacket “You find the American beauty very agreeable, Sir Brooke,” she said, amiably. i. full “A little too n she replied, open- ing her eys. “I shall try to transplant it,” he said, “Is that wise “Oh, I have arranged ft.” s it possible—do I understand y But there are many others I i ter. fnen why in the world do you” “Why must I limit myself to one? If there were only one rose, I should say the lovely white English rose with its pure heart was the one. But I don’t know why 1 may not hav® that and this too.” Lady Christopher looked straight before her, as if she were turning to stone. Brooke was Sir Brooke, and the possible helr to a dukedom besides, and much must be condoned. But for the moment Lady Christopher felt she was in very strange company, and walked on alone. The Neckan made no haste, loitering up the coast. She put into port once, and Honoria went ashcre with Sir brooke to show him a certain scheme of frescoes where, on the interior wails of a public building, the pristine simplicity of art on the first floor led to the graphic inierpreta- ticn of romance on the next mounting, io the utmost comp! oration on a flight higher. “I must show you,” she said, do have some things over here’ as the best you have at home. “You showed me that long ago,” b and, still xity of dec- hat we ne as said, If she did not announce her neighborhood to Chaun Parkes it was because she Was not sure, she saif to herself, that it Was worth while for so short a time then one night they watched the lighthouse lay its revolving | the water as they lay at anc’ Shoals while the Vanderwaters went some friends there. And when t to ached Bar Harbor there was a week's festivity there, and every hour of it all that Sir Brooke passed with Honoria she was cer- tainly lovelier than she had been before. He was still young, and in spite of his own ideas of his prowess in affairs of the heart, he was mcre familiar with big game in Africa than with women in drawing roomz. And ff, her beauty dazzling, her rather proud and arch spirit making her sweet- ness the more honeyed, she did not quite carry captive the simplicity of his nature, it was perhaps because a certain sincerity there, underlying faults and follics. failed to strike an answering note in hers. Pos- sibly there was a certain fascination in the alternate attraction and repulsion that he experienced; and he never felt it more than one morning when he left her leaning forward over the balustrade, a trellis above her waving ite white York roses in the sunny wind everywhere against blue sky above her and around her, and her own red roses clasped on her breast, while her hair escaped from the white lace scarf blown off from her head like the scarf of Iris, her color rose and dimpled and deepened, her wide open eyes refiected the gieams of the sea, and her smile intensity of the sun- shine. “I ghall never see a ” he said, “with out thinking of you. though I often