THE COURIER.
II
UEU immi NIIIOUI Bill
LINCOLN, NEB.
I.M.RAYMOND, A.J. SAWYER
President. Vice Presided
S. H. BURNIIAM. D. G. WING
Cashier. Ao!tnt Casbiei
CAPITAL, $250,000 SURPLUS $25 OOt
Directors -I. M. Raymond, S. II. Borahan
C.G.Dawes. A. J. Sawyer, Lewis Gregon
NZSnell.G MLamberUon. D G Win. S
Baroliam.
Mil
Is the BEST to reach the
NEW GOLD FIELDS in the
BLACK HILLS.
Call at office for valuable
information.
A. S. Fielding,
Citv Ticket Art,.
117 So. 10th St.," Lincoln, Neb.
'SsB'BllnPiHiBV
IS HI NIT
ROUTE 10 TIE
Oome and 8e Urn
L O. Towhszkd, F. D. Corkxll,
O. P. A T. Agt. C. P. & T. Aft
Ul
9s Louis. Ma
1201
R
DINING
I
1215 M Street.
Excellent AlealH and
Best Service.
Gbef Recently of Burlirgtoa Riute
Service. Mrs. J. Haskell, Prop.
WANTED 8GWHK?Se
V T t M 1 19 ly oi two men in
each county to take orders for Nursery
stock, and are willing to pay well for
woodwork. We agree to REPLACE
FREE anything that dies from natural
causes.
We also have a choice lir ft of SEED
POTATOES. Giveusalriil.
THE HAWKS NURSERY COMPANY
Milwaukee. Wis.
See My New Dress?
This is an
old dress,
but no one
knows
that, for
its color is
new and
fresh, ioc.
and a few
stitches are
all it cost.
l
111 I V
Strong;
Sure,
Fast,
Beautiful
udCbeap
Diamond
Dyes
should
be in
every
household
VELVET FEM1LE UNI.
Diamond Dyes 1A .
Sold by
RECTOR'S Pharmacy
"Howard, powder my back."
Howard a long, shabby man, with
a black beard turned from the fluffy
skirts that he had been patting In vague
approval as they lay on the trunk, and
took a large blue-ribboned puff from the
powder box. His master sat before the
looking glass in a pink silk undervest,
his neck and shoulders bare, his ringed
hands folded in his lap.
Howard flattered. and flattered the
soft puff over his bark, until the sensi
tive skin rippled into little shivering
dimples at the downy caress.
"Leave off, Howard, you make me
nervous," said Velvet, and then trilled
off Into a high running arpeggio. His
voice had the limpid, treble purity of a
clarionet.
There was a knock at the dressing
room door.
"Are you rady?" asked the stage
manager, putting in his head.
"No, he ain't," said Howard.
"They'ie waltlug." said the stage
manager.
"Well, they'll have to," said Howard,
and shut the door.
The singer was still trilling softly to
himself, and, drawing, .with a blackened
hare's foot, a faint shadow down the
middle of his chest. His heavy lashes,
thick with kchl, dropped prettily over
his powdered cheek.
Another kncck at th- door and a wo
man's voice asked: "May I come in?"
Howard, with his master's rose-3atin
corsets in his hand, went to the door.
"Nobody can see him until he's done
his turn," he said, holding the door
slightly ajar. There was a flutter of
silk dresses and feminine protestations
outside. Then, one. fair head, with a
diminutive bonnet perched gayly at the
back of it, was thrust In over Howard's
shoulder.
"Velvet! Do let us in! I have
brought the Baroness d'Este. You
know you said she was pretty. Do let
us in!"
"Yes. do!" said a full, foreign voice
behind her. 'I will put on your corsets
for you that you will have a bust like
Venus Anadyomene and a waist like
mine!"
"Howard, don't let them tease me!"
said Velvet, without turning round, as
he put a dab of carmine into each deli
cate nostril.
"Now, ladies, please don't tease him!"
said Howard.
"But did you get my letter, Velvet?"
asked the fair one.
"He never gets his letters before he
has done his turn," said Howard. "They
make him nervous."
"Give him these flowers," said the
Earoness d'Este, taking a large bunch
of double violets from her breast.
"He never accepts flowers." said
Howard. "Now, ladies, I am very
sorry" and he shut the door.
"Sale bete!" said the Baroness d'Este
a she rustled away.
He was ready. He stood in the wings
waiting for his opening bars, curled
and perfumed, in his short satin skirts
and his young, bare shoulders. Such
young shoulders, with the pearl straps
falling off them, and the puffed sleeves
half way down his arm. He was made
up without any rouge, and his thin
face was quite colorless, except for the
scarlet mouth and the deep shadow In
bis eyes. One heavy, black curl fell
over his low, white forehead; the rest of
his hair was pinned up at the back of
his head with a scarlet rose. Howard
stood near him, holding his fan and
lace handkerchief.
As the orchestra struck up one of
Ardlti's waltzes, Howard slipped the fan
over his master's waist and put the tiny
otr-scented handkerchief Into his im
patient, ring-laden fingers. Then Vel
vetbeginning as softly as a far-away
violin with a sordlna struck a trill in
high G a long, acute trill, with a grad
ual, astonishing crescendo which car
ried him out on the stage, filling and
piercing the hall with the wild and
wonderful agony of the note
Howard walked wearily back to the
dressing room and sat down on the
trunk in the midst of the tossed skirts
and tumbled satin shoes and trailing
ribbons and artificial flowers. The air
was stifling with perfume Marrchal
Nell and Velontlne and the faint. In
sipid odor of grease paints and cold
creams, of silken clothes and Russian
cigarettes.
Th door opened and a handsome man
of about forty lounged into the room.
"Hullo," he said, nodding his curly,
gray head in a frierdly way to How
ard. "Hullo." said Howard.
The handsome man went over to the
glass and gave a little upward twist
to his heavy mustache. Then he sat
dowu near Howard on the trunk.
"What are the invitations for to
night?" he asked, gazing pensively at
a satin petticoat a little green satin
petticoat, trimmed with bunches of ar
tificial violets, that lay on the chair be
side him.
"Oh, the usual thing." said Howard.
"Three newspaper men, half a dozen
countesses, fifty actors, 100 actresses,
a 'society leader' Incog., a couple of
clubs and a party of girls."
The other laughed. "Well, which Is
he going to accept?"
Howard shruggd his dingy shoulders.
"You nver knows," he said.
The handsome man lit a cigar and got
up. "Well, if he should want me, I'm
down stairs in the cafe," he said, and
went out.
"Mr. Tom has been here," said How
ard, bending his bald head over Velvet's
shoes and unfastening their tiny pearl
buttons. "He's down stairs in the
cafe."
"Yes?" said Velvet.
"You've got that girls' supper on to
night," continued Howard, "and the
newspapers. And Mrs. "X , Incog.,
Madison avenue, you know.'
"Yes," drawled Vrlvet.
"Then there are them actors," con
tinued Howard, folding up a white satin
corsage and bending his shabby back
over the trunk as he put it away.
Velvet yawned.
"And the literary Countess affair,"
Howard went on.
"Howard," said Velvet, spraying the
front of his coat with Marechal Neil,
"I wish you were dead."
II.
- .
Among the many women who adored
him, two loved him.
One was a little English girl, with
straight and tidy hair and a straight
and tidy soul. Her small face was sensi
ble and freckled, and her name was
Sue.
She loved Velvet in the daytime. She
had only seen him once at night, and
was thoroughly disgusted. She tried
to make a nice, English fellow out of
him; she wanted him to wear cricketing
flannels and be engaged to hpr. She
sent him presents of cigar cases and
match boxes, and a large knife with
eight blades that belonged to her
brother. She had no parents to look
after her, and her brother was a news
paper man, away all night and slept all
day. . So Sue took things in her own
way. And Velvet was one of them.
The other woman, whose slender scul
ached for Velvet's boyish beauty, was
Lalia Dore, the neurotic Parislenne
who drooped her violet eyes and raised
her scarlet mouth to the undoing of so
many.
"Velvet! Velvet! Velvet!" sue
would call, with thin, outstretched
arms and pleasure-pale lips, alone In
her dim, warm rooms, or with no matter
whom raving at her feet. "Velvet! Vel
vet! Velvet!" And she would lean
over the parapet of her crowded box,
every night, and gaze with insolent
hunger at the painted boy with the
frail shoulders and the high, white
voice.
Her perverso effrontery pleased him;
and, singing, he would turn toward her
not often; once, perhaps, during the
evening and with a long, level look,
drive her blood with a ahock of pleasure
to her heart.
He took her presents, too, as he took
Sue's small, blow-awuy handkerchiefs
with dreamy laces; blue satin underwear
studded with pearls; and black crepe
gowns opening down the side a la Mme.
Angot, and fastened on the shoulder
with topazes.
One evening he went to have supper
at her house after the performance.
She had invited him twenty times be
fore, but it was contrary to his system
to accept readily.
He went, in his correctest evening
dress, with the most candid of shirt
fronts, the lowest of waistcoats, the
pearliest of kid gloves, the dullest of
black hats.
When he rang at the door a black
servant In white velvet livery opened to
him.
"Mademoiselle Dore," said Velvet, en
tering the amber-lit hall with tranquil
assurance.
"Not at home," said the man, holding
the door open.
"You are mistaken," said Velvet.
"Take in my card."
The negro shook a large, obstinate
head.
"But she Is expecting me," said Vel
vet, flushing wrathfully.
"I have my orders," said the negro,
with dignified black lids cast over his
large eyes. "No gentlemen, sir. Mad
emoiselle is expecting a lady." -The.
black lids were raised one moment, anJ
the large eyes took in the wohle of Vel
vet's trim, slim figure. Then the lashes
dropped again, like covers over boxes.
"Oh!" said Velvet, thoughtfully.
"Oh!" and went out.
He drove up again Wree-quarters of
an hour later, and the negro In white
velvet let him in. A maid, In cap and
apron, escorted him to a dressing room,
took his white satin opera cloak from
him, held his Louis XIV fan and hfa
tiny amethyst smelling-bottle, while h
puffed up his short sleeves and smoothed
his curls before the mirror; then she
preceded him through the still, heavily
perfumed rooms to her mistresses boud
oir In time.
She knocked at the plush-paneled
door, drew aside the curtain and, as he
passed into th room, retired.
"Ah, ma chattel" cried Lalia, from
the sofa. "Te voila a la fin! Ce que ai
souffert!"
He ate the wonderful and abominable
supper, and drank the astonishing and
improbable beverages that Lalia ten
dered him with her own pale, ringless
hands; but he made her drink more
than half his share. He inhaled ether
and nitrite of amyl until he was faint
and she was fainter.
Then he pushed h-r languid face
away, and rose.
"I must go," he said, kissing her
lightly on the cheek. "Good night."
Lalia sat up with dazed eyes.
"Go?" she said, vaguely. "Where
to?"
"Home." said Velvet, picking up his
fan and gloves, and going past her into
the dressing room for his cloak.