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THE SILVER BUTTERFLY
By MRS. WILSON WOODROW
With Illustrations by HOWARD CHANDLER CHRISTY
INDIANAPOLIS THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY PUBLISHERS
Copyright 1908 The Bobbs-Merrill Company October
PRESS OF BRAUNWORTH & CO. BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTERS BROOKLYN, N. Y.
CHAPTER I
Hayden was back in New York again after several years spent in theuttermost parts of the earth. He had been building railroads in SouthAmerica, Africa, and China, and had maintained so many lodges in thisor that wilderness that he really feared he might be curiouslyawkward in adapting himself to the conventional requirements ofcivilization. In his long roundabout journey home he had stopped fora few weeks in both London and Paris; but to his mental discomfort,they had but served to accentuate his loneliness and whet hislongings for the dear, unforgotten life of his native city, thatintimate, easy existence, wherein relatives, not too near, congenialfriends and familiar haunts played so important a part.
On the journey from London he had felt like a boy going home for themost delightful holidays after a long period in school, and to calmand render more normal his elation, he told himself frequently as hedrew nearer his native shores that he was letting himself in for aterrible disappointment; that all this happy anticipation, thisbelief, an intuition almost, that some delightful surprise awaitedhim, was the result of many lonely musings under the cold remotestars in virgin forests and wide deserts, a fleeting mirage born ofhomesickness.
But all these cautions and warnings and efforts to stifle thisirrepressible and joyous expectation were quite unavailing and, as hedecided after he had been home a week, equally unnecessary, for theunaccustomed, piquant sense of anticipation remained with him andgave a flavor to his days which in themselves were not lacking inflavor; for merely to look, to loiter, to play at an exquisite and tohim exotic leisure was infinitely agreeable. The more delightful,indeed, because it was merely temporary. Hayden had come to New Yorkwith a definite purpose in view and his recreations were purelyincidental.
His cousin, Kitty Hampton, was expressing her envy of him one wintermorning as they were strolling down the Avenue together. Now itshould be explained that Mrs. Warren Hampton, even if she was smallto insignificance and blond to towness, thus increasing herresemblance to a naughty little boy, was nevertheless a veryimportant person socially.
"I wish I could get up some of your nice, fresh enthusiasm, Robert,"she said discontentedly. "Everything seems awfully stupid to me."
"That's because you've no imagination, Kitty. Fancy this seemingstupid!" He drew in the cold air of the sparkling morning with a longbreath of satisfaction. "If your eyes had been traveling over theglare of deserts or plunging into the gloom of tangled forests forseveral years, you would think people and all this glitter and lifeand motion a very delightful change. Why, everywhere I look I seewonders. I expect anything to happen. Really, it would not surpriseme in the least to turn a corner and meet a fairy princess anyminute."
Kitty fell in with what she supposed was his mood. "We will turn thevery next corner and see," she said. "But how will you know her evenif we should meet her."
"I shall know her, never fear," he affirmed triumphantly, "whethershe wear a shabby little gown, or gauzes and diamonds. I shall lookinto her eyes and know her at once."
He was laughing and yet there was something in his voice, a sort ofring of hope or conviction, that caused Kitty to lift her prettysulky little face and look at him with a new interest. And Hayden wasnot at all bad to look at. He was well set-up, with a brown, squareface, brown hair, gray eyes full of expression and good humor and anunusually delightful smile, a smile that had won friends for him, ofevery race and in every clime, and had more than once been effectivein extricating him from some difficulty into which his impulsive andnon-calculating nature had plunged him.
"The fairy princess," she repeated slowly and quite seriously. "Sureenough, there should be one." She gazed at him appraisingly:"Young--moderately young and good-looking enough. You haven't gotfat, And all that tan is becoming, and--how are you off anyway,Bobby?"
He looked down at her amusedly. "The fairy princess would never askthat question."
"Oh, yes, she would. Do not dream that she wouldn't--to-day."
"Very well, then. To be perfectly truthful, I have 'opes. I believe Ihave found my pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Yes, I do. Oh,it's nothing very definite yet, but I believe, I truly believe I'vestruck it."
"How?" she asked curiously.
"Ah, my dear, I'm not quite ready to tell. It's a romance, as youwill agree when you hear it. What's the matter?"
For Kitty instead of showing any proper, cousinly enthusiasm waslooking at him with a frown of petulant vexation.
"Then why couldn't you have come home six months, even three monthsearlier? Young, good-looking, and, as I now discover, rich, or aboutto be. Oh, it is too bad!"
He gazed at her in amazement. "My dear Kitty," in playful humility,"even if your flattering estimate of me is true, I don't see why youshould be so disgruntled about it."
Her April face broke into smiles, and yet she sighed. "Oh, Bobby,because, because I'm afraid the fairy princess is bespoke. Yes,"nodding at his astonishment, "I have a fairy princess in mind, one inwhose welfare I am deeply interested."
"Oh," comprehendingly, "one of your protegees, whom you are trying tomarry off. I assure you once and for all, Kitty, that such will notdo for me. I want the real thing in fairy princesses; under anenchantment, detained in the home of a wicked ogre; all that, youknow, and lovely and forlorn."
She looked at him oddly. "If you only knew how you confirm myimpression."
"Of what?"
She paid no attention to him. "I wish I knew certainly. She won'ttell until she gets ready, but it looks very much as if she wereengaged to Wilfred Ames. You remember him, do you not?"
Hayden thought deeply a moment. "A big fellow? Very light hair, blueeyes?"
"Yes, yes," she nodded, "'the flanneled fool at the wicket, muddiedoaf at the goal' type, you know. One of those lumbering, good-lookingbabies of men that women like Marcia always attract. Every one thinksit's an awfully good thing, and I dare say I'd agree with them, ifyou hadn't happened along. But his mother! My patience, his mother!And she's behaving like a cat about the whole affair. Just as ifMarcia's mother were not enough! Oh," in a burst of impatience, "whydo not things ever arrange themselves properly?"
He laughed, Kitty always made him laugh; but his curiosity wasaroused sufficiently to ask: "Have I ever in my remote past met thisparagon of a fairy princess?"
"No-o, no, I don't believe you have. Her mother took her to Europewhen she was quite young and she has lived over there most of herlife."
"What is her name?" he asked idly.
"Marcia, Marcia Oldham."
"But Oldham," with more show of interest. "Oldham! I seem to rememberthat. Isn't her father an old curmudgeon of a millionaire?"
"He was before he went to smash and died," she returned briefly. "Heleft a wife and one daughter."
"And the daughter is the fairy princess," he was evidently amused atKitty's match-making proclivities. "But, Kitten, unless I am assuredthat she is under an enchantment, she will not do."
Again his cousin looked at him with that untranslatable expression inher eyes, a little, half-bitter smile on her lips. "I'm only tooafraid we shall be able to satisfy you in that regard," she staredbefore her with somber eyes. "Marcia is very lovely and very gifted.She paints wonderfully well. I have some of her water colors. Youmust see them." She spoke with a complete change
of tone, evidentlynot caring to discuss her friends' distresses whatever they might be."By the way, Bobby, don't you want to dine with me this evening? I'llbe all alone. Warren is still in the West, you know. Dine with me,and we will go on to Bea Habersham's afterward."
"Thank you, Kitty dear, but I'm going to see Mary Garden in _Thais_,this evening, so I'll be dining early. But why won't you take teawith me somewhere this afternoon, or else give me a cup or so?"
"No. Can not." She shook her head decisively.
"Bridge?" he asked whimsically.
"For a wonder, no. Something far more interesting. I'm taking twowomen to a wonderful fortune-teller. Quite the most remarkablecreature you ever heard of. Why, Bea Habersham lost a big sapphirering last week and this woman told her exactly where to find it, andBea went right home and laid her hands on it."
"What's her name? Where is she?" Hayden asked, with mock eagerness."Perhaps she will find the fairy princess for me."
They had reached Mrs. Hampton's home by this time, and she tookoccasion to look at him scornfully before entering. "Doubtlessshe will if you pay her enough," she said. "And her name is----Oh,"wrinkling her forehead in perplexity, "I've got it downsomewhere, but for the moment, it's gone out of my head.Mademoiselle--Mademoiselle----Oh, an odd name. I'll rememberit sooner or later. Good-by."
"Mademoiselle--Mademoiselle--" he teased her, imitating her voice."Oh, an odd name," And he laughed. "But, Kitty, do beg her to find methe fairy princess."
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