Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 31, Number 164, 9 July 1906 — Page 7

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The Richmond Palladium, Monday, July 9, 1906.

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Starr 8tyl V

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SELECT A MAKE WITH A

Standard

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YOU CANNOT MAKE AN ERROR WHEN YOU SELECT AN INSTRUMENT MANUFACTURED AND SOLD BY THE

Starr Concert Grand

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SOME POINTERS ON PIANO BUYING ID it ever occur to you that there is a vast difference between buying a piano direct from the manufacturing company than buying from an agent or a middle

man? Perhaps you have never stopped to consider that the selling agent must have a profit as well as the manufacturer and that when you buy of the agent you cannot avoid paying TWO PROFITS. Another thing. You cannot depend upon the price of a piano bought through the middle man. He may shave his profit to press a sale to your neighbor, while you are likely (t have to pay a higher price. The STARR PIANO COMPANY sells direct to you when you buy one of its instruments. The prices of STARR PIANOS are always the same. There is no juggling of the middleman's profit. Every instrument is tagged in plain figures and these figures are never changed. They are the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Honorable dealing in the piano business should be as essential as in every other line, but it is not always so.

CHOOSING BETWEEN VARIOUS MAKES HEN a piano agent, who handles perhaps a half dozen makes, tells you that he can offer you a piano just as good or better than the STARR PIANO at a lower

price, hesitate and think it over before you close the deal. The agent says it is as good as the Starr, therefore he is unconsciously admitting that the STARR PIANO IS THE STANDARD, but are you sure he is right when he says the substitute is really as good? Who backs his word? What guarantee do you get? If a year's use proves that the instrument is not as good as a STARR, what recourse have you? Note the difference. When you buy a STARR PIANO or a RICHMOND PIANO, both products of the STARR PIANO COMPANY, there is an absolute guarantee, backed by the company (not an agent) that you are getting value received. If there is a failure to realize your fondest hopes, you have the satisfaction of knowing that the STARR PIANO COMPANY will make its contract good in every particular. That's the value of doing business with a reliable Concern.

KOT IPILAFJ

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Richmond Style 23

A Starr Piano may be purchased on as inviting terms in mid-summer as in mid-winter. If you cannot pay cash, you may take advantage of our easy payment plan. A small payment down, and small monthly installments will do it Piano delivered immediately upon first payment Call at our warerooms and learn the terms. We have on hand just now a number of organs, traded in to us on pianos, which have been completely overhauled and which will be sold at extremely low prices $7.00 up.

Salesrooms: 931-935 Main St.

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Djr . . . 'ROHE'RT

Author of "Jennie "Bajcter. rj Journal Ul." JBtc.

ine yountf man paused, his listener pondering with her eyes on the floor. fc?he hud tmch a deep distrust of him, and was bo well aware of the prejudice, that she struggled against it, praying for an unbiased mind. Yet much that he had said coincided with certain thjngg.sln? knew her father' desire that the queen should cease from meddling In affairs of state to his disadvantage and theirs; his seeming friendship for Ie Courcy, although he despised him; his intention that she should be civil to him; his disclaimer of all knowledge regarding what a woman valued In a gift when he presented her with a full purse the night before- nil -'these tltted with the Frenchman's story. The suppliant, scrutinizing her perplexed brow, seemed to fear that his chance of getting the money was vanishing, as he continued on the line most likely to incline her to favor his present demand. "Of course I should not have troubled you in this matter did I not think that if the arrangement your father wished to make was important this morning it Is ten times more Important tonight. Indeed, his liberty may depend upon it. I am well aware that It is open' to me to say to the lady. 'Lord Strafford Is In prison and is unable to carry out his generous intentions." but 1 fear the deep disappointment will outweigh the force of the reasoning. Your charming sex Is not always strictly logkal." "What was the sum agreed upon?" asked Frances, looking suddenly up. "A thousand pounds iu gold." The question hud been sprung upon him, and he had answered without thought, but as he watched her resolute face a shade of disappointment passed over his own. as If of Inward regret that he had' not made the amount larger should her determination prove hi ally. "I shall see that you get the money, If not tonight at the time promised." She scut for Voliins and placed the case before him. The treasurer stood by the table with inscrutable face and llsteued in silence, his somewhat furtive look bent on the Frenchman. "Has M. lo Courcy some scrap of writing in which my lord signifies that so considerable a payment is to be made?" "My dear fellow, this relates to business that Is not put in writing between gentlemen." said the foreigner hastily. "I am not a gentleman, but merely the custodian of his lordship's purse. I .Jnie. cot paj ouj &o& wfoout hi

iurusnip s warrant over Lii. -vh Signature." "Mr. Voliins," pleaded the girl eagerly, "my father's life and liberty may depend on this disbursement. I will be your warrant. I have money of my ojvn in the north, many times the sum . I 'request you to pay. Should my father object I will refund to you the thousand pounds. Indeed, I will remit it to you in any case, and my father need know nothing of this transaction, therefore you cannot be held in scath." "I must not do it." said Voliins. "His lordship is n very strict man of business and will hold me to account. He would forgive yon, madam, but would be merciless with me did I consent to bo unheard of a proposal. I dare not count out a thousand pounds to the first man who steps from the street and asks for it, giving me his bare word." "But you have my word as well, Mr. Voliins," urged the girl. "Madam, I beseech you to consider my position. I am but a servant. The money is not mine or you were welcome to it. Yet why all this haste? His lordship can undoubtedly be communicated with tomorrow, and then a word or line from him is sufficient." "You have an adage, sir, of striking while the Iron is hot. The Iron may be cool enough by the time your scruples of legality are satisfied," warned De Courcy. "His lordship can be communicated with. You are quite right, Mr. Voliins," cried Frances, remembering. "He im communicated with me. I ask you to read this letter and then to pay the thousand pounds required of you." Voliins read the letter with exasperating slowness and said at last: "There is nothing here authorizing me to pay the gentleman a thousand pounds." "True, there is not, but my father says you are to pay me what moneys I require. I require at this moment a thousand pounds in gold." "The money is for your safe conduct to the north." "You have read my father's letter more carelessly than I supposed by the time you took. He says you are to fulfill my wishes in this and every respect. Do you still refuse me?" "No, madam, but I "venture to advise you strongly against the payment." "I thank you for your advice. I can CertlfT that von havA lon vanr rtntv

fully and faithfully. Will you kindly bring forth the gold?" Voliins weighed the five bags of coin with careful exactitude and without further speech. De Courcy fastened tkem to his belt, then looked about him for his cloak, which he at last remembered to have left in the hall. Voliins called upon a servaut to fetch it, taking it from him at the door. The Frenchman enveloped himself and so hid his treasure. The cautious Voliins

thousand pounds, and to this document she hurriedly attached her signature. CHAPTER VI. FRANCES made her way to the north, as her father had directed, and everywhere found the news of his arrest in advance of her the country ablaze with excitement because of it. The world would go well once Strafford was laid low. He had, deluded and.jnisled the good king.

A BOWED AND PALLID FIGURE.

had prepared a receipt for him to sign, made out in the name of Frances Wentworth, but De Courcy demurred; it was all very well for the counting house, he said, but not in the highest society. The Earl of Strafford would be the first to object to such a course, be insisted. Frances herself tore the paper in pieces and said that a signature was not necessary, while Voliins made no further protest. She implored De Courcy in a whispered adieu to acquit faithfully the commission with which her father had intrusted him, and he assured her that he was now confident of success, thanking her effusively for the capable conduct of a difficult matter of diplomacy. Then, with a sweeping gesture of obeisance, he took his courteous departure. Mr. Voliins deferentially asked Frances to sign a receipt which he had written, acknowledging the payment of a

as Buckingham did "before mm. tracn.ingham had fallen by the knife; Strafford should fall by the ax. Then the untrammeled king would rule well; quietness and industry would succeed this unhealthy period of fever and unrest. The girl was appalled to meet everywhere this intense hatred of her father, and in her own home she was surrounded by it Even her brother could not be aroused to sympathy, for he regarded his father not only as a traitor to his country, but as a domestic delinquent also, who had neglected and deserted his young wife, leaving her to die uncomforted without even a message from the husband for whom she had almost sacrificed her good name, bearing uncomplaining his absence and her father's wrath. During the winter Frances saw little of her brother. Thomas- Wentworth was here and theiridinjjthe country,

imagining, with the confidence of extreme youth, that he was mixing in great affairs, as indeed he was, although he was too young to have much influence in directing them. The land was in a ferment, and the wildest rumors were afloat. Strafford had escaped from the Tower and had t a len flight abroad, like so many of his friends who had now scattered in fear to France or to Holland. Again it was said the king's soldiers had attacked the Tower, liberated Strafford, and the Black Man was at the head of the wild Irish, resolved on the subjugation of England. Next, the queen had called on France for aid, and an invasion was imminent. So there was much secret preparation, drilling and the concealing of arms against the time they should be urgently needed, and much galloping to and fro; a stirring period for the young, an anxious winter for the old. and Thomas Wentworth was in the thick of it all, mysteriously departing, unexpectedly returning, always more foolishly important than there was any occasion for. Yet had he in him the making of a man who was shortly to be tried by fire and steel when greater

wisdom crowned him than was at pres-1

ent the case. Since the letter she had received on the night of his arrest, the daughter heard no word from the father. Had he again forgotten, or were his messages intercepted? She did not know and was never to know. She had written to him, saying she had obeyed him, but there was no acknowledgment that her letter had reached its destination. Thus she waited and waited, gnawing Impatience and dread chasing the rose from her cheeks, until she could wait no longer. Her horse and the southern road were at her disposal, with none to hinder, so she set fortt for London, excusing herself for thus in spirit breaking her father's command by the assurance that be had not forbidden her return. She avoided her father's mansion, knowing that Lady Strafford and her children were now in residence there, and went to the inn where she had formerly lodged. She soon learned that it was one thing to go to London and quite another to obtain entrance to Westminster hall, where the great trial, now approaching its end, was the fashionable magnet of the town. ' No place of amusement ever collected such audiences, and, although money will overcome many difficulties, she found it could not purchase admission to the trial through any source that was available. Perhaps if she had been more conversant with the ways of the metropolis the golden key might have shot back the bolt, but with her present knowledge she was at her wits' end. Almost in despair a happy thought occurred in her. She wrote a note to John Voliins, her father's treasurer, and asked him to call upon her, which the good man did at the hour she set "Your father would be troubled to know you are in London when he thinks you safe at home," he said. "I could not help it, Mr. Voliins. I was In a fever of distraction and must have come even If I had walked. But

my father need never know, and you remember be wrote that you were to help me. I wish a place In Westminster hall and cannot attain it by any other means in my power than by asking you." "It is difficult of attainment. I advise you not to go there, for if his lordship happened to catch sight of you in that throng who knows but at a critical moment it might unnerve him, for he is a man fighting with his back to the wall against implacable and unscrupulous enemies." "Could you not get me some station wher,e I might look upon my father unseen by him?" "Seats in the hall are not to be picked or chosen. If a place can be come by it will be because some person who thought to attend cannot be present." "Do you think that where there are so many faces a chance recognition is possible? I should be but an atom in the multitude." "Doubtless his seeing you is most unlikely. I shall do my best for you, and hope to obtain-an entrance for tomorrow." And so it came about that Frances was one of the fashionable audience next day, occupying the place of a lady who bad attended the trial from the first, but was now tired of it. The girl listened to the hum of conversation going on round her and caught understandable scraps of it now and then. She was in an entirely new atmosphere, for here every one seemed in favor of Strafford, thought him badly used and was certain he would emerge triumphant from the ordeal. Then let his enemies beware! Feminine opinion was unanimous that all those who were concerned in this trial against his lordship would bitterly regret the day they bad taken such action. The spirits of Frances rose as she listened. The invariable confidence by which she was environed had its inspiring effect on her depressed mind. She no longer thought the gathering heartlessly frivolous, as at first she had resentfully estimated it She was in the midst of enthusiastic champions of her father and realized now as never before the great part be played in the world. Suddenly there was a movement in the upper part of the hall, and lords and commons filed in to their places. A silence fell on the audience, maintained also in dignified state by the Judges, but to the section occupied by the commons was transferred the rustle of talk which had previously disturbed the stillness of the auditorium.

Men bustled about whispering to this

member of parliament or that Papers and notes were exchanged, while by contrast their lordships seemed like Inanimate statues. Once again the center of attention changed. The hall resounded with the measured tramp of armed men. Two rows of soldiers took their stand opposite each other, leaving a clear passage between, and slowly up this passage, with four secretaries and some half dozen others behind him, came a bowed and pallid " figure dressed In black, a

single dt.-orutioit relieving the somberness of his costume, which hung, loose ly unfitting, about a frame that had become gaunt since its wear began. "That is the Earl of Strafford," whispered the lady on the right, but the remark fell upon unllstening ears. How changed he was! No trace now of thai arrogance of which she had caught chance glimpses during her brief acquaintance with him; a broken man who had but a short time to live, whatever might be the verdict of this court Sentence of death was already passed on him by a higher tribunal, and all this convocation might do was to forestall its execution. He stood in his place for a moment and bowed to his judges, but gave no sign that he had knowledge of the existence of his accusers, and the girl began to doubt if the old arrogance had, after all, entirely departed from ; him. Then, leaning heavily on the arm of one of his secretaries, he sank Into his seat and closed his eyes as if the short walk from the barge to the hall of judgment had been too much foi him. As he sat thus there stole down to him a boy leading two children. Strafford's eyes opened, and he smiled wanly upon them, put an arm around the boy's neck and fondled the girls to his knee, both of whom were weeping quietly. "Who who are those?" gasped Frances, yet knowing while she asked, and feeling a pang, half jealousy, half pain, that she must hold aloof unnoticed. "They are his son and his two daughters. The third daughter is not here." "The third!" she cried In surprise. "Does he then acknowledge a third?" "The third is an infant too young to know what is going on. Hush! Wo must not talk." (Continued Tomorrow.)

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