Part 63 (1/2)

And the work went on merrily, and the people blessed Horace Blondelle.

But during the progress of the work, a discovery was made that changed the whole plan of the proprietor's life.

In the course of clearing the grounds, the workmen found a spring, whose water was so particularly nasty that they at once suspected it to possess curative qualities of the greatest value, and so reported it to the proprietor.

Horace Blondelle invited the local medical faculty to taste the waters of the spring, and their report was so favorable that he bottled up a gallon of it, and sent it to an eminent chemist of New York, to be a.n.a.lyzed.

In due time the a.n.a.lysis was returned. The water of the spring, it showed, was strongly impregnated with a half dozen, more or less, of the most nauseous minerals known to the pharmaceutists, and therefore were of the highest medicinal virtues.

The recent discovery of this invaluable spring on the home grounds, together with the long known existence of the magnificent cavern, or chain of caverns, in the adjacent mountains, determined Mr. Horace Blondelle to alter his whole scheme--to abandon the role of country gentleman, which a very short experience proved to be too ”slow” for his ”fast” tastes, and to adopt that of the proprietor of a great watering-place, and summer resort.

And so, instead of rebuilding the family mansion, he built a large hotel on the Dubarry manor, and instead of restoring the chapel, he erected a pavilion over the spring.

This was not only at the time a very popular measure, but it proved in the event a very great success.

That summer and autumn saw other changes in the valley.

First old Mr. Winterose, the overseer of the Black Valley manor, died a calm and Christian death.

Young Robert Munson succeeded him in office.

Next lawyer Sheridan received an appointment from the President as consul at a certain English seaport; and, no doubt with the consent of the proprietors, he transferred the management of the Black Valley manor to old lawyer Closeby of Blackville. And then, with his sister, he went abroad.

Then, on the thirty-first of October of that year, old Mrs. Winterose and her eldest daughter Libby received an order to remove from their cottage and take up their residence with Miss Tabby at Black Hall.

The next spring, Mr. and Mrs. Horace Blondelle removed to the ”Dubarry Hotel,” at the ”Dubarry White Sulphur Springs,” as the place was now christened, and there they commenced preparations for the summer campaign.

Mr. Horace Blondelle, was much too ”sharp” not to understand the importance of advertising. He advertised very largely in the newspapers, and he also employed agents to distribute beautiful little ill.u.s.trated books, descriptive of the various attractions of the ”Dubarry White Sulphur Springs,” the salubrious and delightful climate, the sublime and beautiful scenery, the home comforts of the hotel, and the healing powers of the water.

All these were so successfully set forth that even in this first season the house was so well filled with guests that the proprietor determined that, before another season should roll around, he would build a hundred or so of cottages to accommodate the great accession of visitors he had every reason to expect.

Another brisk season of work blessed the poor people of the place. And by the next summer a hundred and fifty white cottages were here and there on the rocks, in the woods, by the streams, or in the glens around the great hotel; and the ”Dubarry White Sulphur Springs” grew to look like a thriving village on the mountains.

The profits justified the expenditures; that second summer the place was crowded with visitors; and the lonely and quiet neighborhood of the Black Valley became, for the time, as populous and as noisy as is now Niagara or Newport.

In fact, from the advent of Mr. Horace Blondelle, and the inauguration of the ”Dubarry White Sulphur Springs,” the whole character of the place was changed.

All summer, from the first of June to the first of September, it would be a scene of fas.h.i.+on, gayety, confusion, and excitement.

But all the winter, from the first of October until the first of June, it is happily true that it would return to its aboriginal solitude and stillness.

Mr. Horace Blondelle was making money very fast indeed.

The life suited him. Many people called him a gambler and a blackleg, and said that he fleeced his guests in more ways than one.

The haughtiest among the old aristocratic families cut him, not because he was a gambler--for, oh dear! it too often happened that their own fathers, brothers, husbands, or sons were gamblers!--but because he kept a hotel and took in money!

Notwithstanding this exclusion from companions.h.i.+p with certain families, Mr. Horace Blondelle led a very gay, happy, and prosperous life.