Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1910 — The Soul of a Butterfly [ARTICLE]

The Soul of a Butterfly

By Olive Lethbridge & G. Fitzgerald

Lady Vasavour lay back in a deep arni'hair. making a pretty picture in the firelit room. She was a; work of art, and modern from the top of her beautifully dressed head to the tips of her perfectly shod feet. She was listening with languid interest to what her sister, Mrs. Mardall, was . Baying. No greater contrast could possibly have existed than between the twp women, and yet one could well imagine that in youth there r.t.d been a strong likeness. Lady 7 Vasavour had, su to speak, marched with the times, while Mrs.-Mardall, living her happy country life, had forgotten to progress—it was she who now spoke. "Really, Ethel, I cannot see the necessity of your going to the opera tonight, when you complain of being bo tired.” —~ I.ady Vasavour gave a little quick sigh—“l am afraid, Emily, it would be Impossible to make you understand how necessary it is to take one's self before the public and have one's picture in all the papers.’’ “What a very horrible idea! Why I am sure if I left Altonville for six months I should be remembered quite as well as I am today.” A slight gleam of amusement shot .across Lady Vasavour's face. “No?” she murmured, “you don't m-an to say so?” Mrs Mardall pleated the material, of her dowdy gown skirt reflectively. “I have been wondering lately wha- you gain by all this constant found of engagements. T have stayed with yob now ten days, and during that time you have not been able to give me one single hour in which to talk to you alone; and yet you have spoken over and over again of your disinclination to go out, and of your desire for the time to come when everybody would be leaving town; yet when it does come, where will you go but to some place where you will meet all the people whom you complain of boring you sq much now? And you will dine out and dress up "Just as you do here.” , Lady Vasavour listened with a patient expression to this speech. “I know, dear,” she murmured, "but after all, it is life, isn’t it?” “I don’t think so My idea of life is a very different one; it is to live for and with some one whom you love, and to "whom you are everything. Then think of the beauties of Nature that one knows nothing of in the smoke grimed city; think of the woods in their autumn tints, the - lovely hills in the quiet evening light; the sense of peace and happiness that steals over one; look over the country. when it is bathed in moonlight!” Lady Vasavour smiled. "I know,” she nodded —“the kind of effect they have in the pantomime sometimes.” Mrs. Mardall slightly resented her tone “Well, yoU were happy in the country once,” she said pointedly. A delicate flush crossed her sister’s delicately tinted face. “Ah, yes; when I had that flirtation with Trevor Jameson, and we contemplated marrying on two pence-halfpenny a week. Now that you remind me of him, he was really a very good looking man.” Mrs. Mardall leaned forward. “I often think, Ethel, that had you married on that two pence-halfpenny a week you might have been a better and a happier woman.” Lady Vasavour sat up in hurt surprise. uEjh?” she ejaculated. *’‘What’s the matter with me? My character is 'beyond reproach, I assure you.” Mrs. Mardall drew- herself up. “I am sure, Ethel, I never dreamed of thinking anything else, though I must confess that I think your conversation ajt times is a little lax. and your tone hardly that which John would approve of in me.” A vision of the respectable John with his whiskers and his ill made clothes and general air of prosiness rose before Ladv Vasavour's mental vision and caused her a great deal of internal merriment. Some suspicion of this seemed to communicate itself to Emily, and she flushed ly■‘Of course, I knew you never really understood John, but 1 assure you he is greatly respected and looked up to in our neighborhood, and has been

a loving and faithful husband to me for twenty years.” Lady Vasavour, engaged in (pulling down a blind, here murmured in a suppressed voice that she did not doubt that fact for a momentEmily gave her a suspicious glance. "Well,” she** averred, "at any ” rate there are few wives among your friends who could say that.” __ “No, it is quite a record. lam sure if he lived in town, we would put up a statue to him.” . . ■ “Ethel!” Mrs. Mardall rose bristling with indignation. “I consider your conversation absolutely immoral, and what is more, greatly lacking In respect to John. As your sister I feel it my duty to speak plainly; I consider that you have greatly deteriorated since you came ( to London. You paint your face, you dye your hair, and you. have taken lately to wearing gowns so fashionable that they are scarcely decent. You are a slave to pleasure, rushing here and there, and pursuing a phantom that you never catch, filling your rooms and spending your money on people who are. comparatively speaking, strangers.’*

"Well, I'd rather die dancing than weeping, and are you aware, dear sister, that the country has made you —a trifle narrow minded?” “Any 'way,” retorted Emily, "I can see one thing very plainly, and that is if you do not take care —before long you will be married for your money—do you not recognize your dangerous position as a rich Widow? John and I both wish so much that you would find some good and worthy man”—— Lady Vasavour threw up her bands in horror. forbid!” she cried, “you want to land me in the Divorce Court.'’ Emily showed genuine distress. "Oh! if onlv John were here to talk, « • .» to you, for 1 am quite unequal to it, a few tears streamed down her homely face, and Ethel softened at once. "Come, Ernie,” she said penitently; “you know you and I were always the very opposite to each other, and I am a flighty, frivolous butterfly, wanting to sip the sweets from every flower; but there is no real harm in me”— — She paused a moment, her chin in her hand, with an unusual expression of thought upon her face. "Yes —he really was a very good looking man, and made love very nicely”’ Emily moved uneasily. “What man,” she asked. "Trevor Jameson, of course. I suppose he has married and grown fat and bucolic?” "No such thing; he is very good looking still and the catch of the comity.** - “County! What county?” "Our county, of course.” said Emily with pride. “He came in for £20,000 a year and a baronetev lately.” ’

Lady Vasavour sprang up to an adjacent mirror. "Really!" she ex claimed; "how very interesting—does he ever speak of me?” "He was very much in love with y-,u. even more than you were aware of,” replied her sister primly. "Do you think it would be worth my while to go down with you tomorrow and cultivate him again?” asked Lady Vasavour, half laughing. Emily pursed up her lips. "I think it would be the very best thihg on this earth that could happen to you. I am not sb blind that I cannot see that a life like John’s would be impossible for a restless, pleasure loving nature like yours, but with Sir Trevor it would be a different thing.”

“A hunting, shooting, destroying creature, I suppose," said I>ady Vasavour, “and a country vegetable who would keep me in the country and deprive me of all the pleasures that are my life.” "By no means. Certainly Sir Trevor enjoys sport in every form, but hi§ house is filled with the world's most interesting people. You would have as much of society and. of the life you love as you do now, but there WQuld be a difference.” "He has evidently become a perfect dragon of all the virtues.” laughed Lady Vasavour. “Do he and John fraternize?’’

Emily admitted with some hesitation that they did not, and Lady Vasavour heaved a high of relief. “I wonder,” she said softly, “does he still remember me.". “Sir Trevor,” replied her sister quietly, “is not a man who forgets.” “But I am changed since he knew me. My hair —my—er—-complexion, my figure—what will he think of me?” Emily's face wore a slightly igrito expression. "I have observed.”, she said, “that men almost invariably admire anything that is not—quite nice. Sir Trevor will merely call you ‘beautiful’ and say that t every woman has the right to make the most of herself.” “You seem very confident,” began Ethel, “that he" Emily rose. “Sir Trevor expressed a hope that when I returned to Altonville I might bring you back with me. TbihlTlt over and make up your mind, for he is not a man to be trifled with.” She moved to the dopr.Excuse me now. dear: I must go and write to John and tell him what time my train arrives tomorrow.”’ For some time after her sister had left her Lady Va savour sat quietly gazing in front of her. Now that she was alone some of her artificiality seemed to’ have fallen from her like a mantle. She i smiled as if her thoughts seemed pleasant ones, 1 and she crossed over to a bureau and, pulling

out a drawer, took but a Windle of photographs fastened together with ah elastic band. She looked over these hurriedly until she found the one she wanted; then she returned to her seat* a£d. stirring the fire into a blaze, she looked, reflectively at the photograph in her hand. It was a strong-face, with eyes that seemed to look straight into yours; the mouth was well Cut, but firm almost to severity. “I wonder.” she murmured, “dare I risk it—he looks a little terrifrine. but. after ’all, I have not lived all these years without learning how to manage a man.” She laid the photograph gently on the table and rang the bell. When the maid. Parker, came to her she was busy writing. “Pack my boxes; I am going away tomorrow.” “In the middle of the season, milady?” "Yes; I am going to the country, and may not be returning for some time. Oh, and—Parker —be sure and pack all my prettiest evening gowns.” —The Throne and J'ountry.