The Providence News

DENVER BELLE WAS FICKLE.

Jilted Sweetheart for a Man of Millions.

WOOED ONLY A FORTNIGHT.

Then She Sent a Note to Her Fiancé Telling Him Their Engagement Was Broken.

He Had Already Received the News.

Denver, Col., April 2.—Jilted four weeks before his wedding day—that is the lot of Gerald Hughes, scion of one of Denver's richest and proudest families. And the girl who has thrown him over is Miss Cornelia Baxter, the most beautiful girl in Colorado. She will walk to another altar within the month with another man—Hugh Tevis, San Francisco's millionaire golfer and general all-around good fellow.

Society is wild with the gossip of it. Everybody knew that Miss Baxter and Mr. Hughes were engaged. The wedding day was set, the bridesmaids and ushers chosen and invited, the trousseau ordered, the linen embroidered "C H." and the engagement ring purchased.

Denver had been chosen for the springtime wedding. The wedding invitations were in the engraver's hands and a magnificent silver table service—gift of the parents of the bridegroom-to-be—was almost completed.

Mr. Hughes had bought the site for a home to which he could bring his beautiful bride—the course of true love was running very smoothly.

The Baxters went to California for a little visit, going to San Diego and Coronado Beach, Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Francisco. They are there now, and the engagement of Miss Baxter to Hugh Tevis, son of the late multi-millionaire, Lloyd Tevis, has been formally announced at the Palace Hotel. Young Mr. Hughes had left Miss Baxter but a few weeks before to come home to take charge of the business of his father, who had been suddenly taken ill.

IN LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT.

It was then that Mr. Tevis came on the scene—rich, popular, himself a widower and the father of a 10-year-old girl. He was building a beautiful villa there at Del Monte.

He met Miss Baxter. It was love at first sight, and in a fortnight there was a brief note going back to Denver. There was a new engagement ring slipped on a taper finger one afternoon while the rich Californian was driving with the beautiful Colorado belle.

"We will not return to Denver just now," wrote one of the Baxters back to Denver. "The wedding will be a very quiet one and in San Francisco."

But the news reached Mr. Hughes even more quickly than the note of dismissal from the bride that was to have been. Telegraphic news of the formal announcement reached here from San Francisco. A reporter called on Mr. Hughes to verify it. He turned crimson first; then deadly pale. The news had stunned the young man. He would say nothing.

Today he has spoken, and bitterly, too. "The first I heard of Miss Baxter's engagement to Mr. Tevis was when the reporter came to me," said he. "The last I had then heard of the Baxter family they were soon to return to Denver. Miss Baxter had gone to Monterey to recover from an attack of pneumonia."

THE SECOND WOOING.

The second wooing was but for a short two weeks. There on the golf links, on the sun-kissed beaches, in the cool live oak groves and driving down the white shell roads, Mr. Tevis pleaded his suit.

Day by day they went to watch the work on his villa, and when he slipped on the ring that he had in waiting the Denver belle let it stay there.

Her note to her fiancé who waited her home-coming in Denver was short and to the point. It simply told that Miss Baxter had concluded that he and she could never be lifelong companions.

Denver society sides with young Mr. Hughes, who is most popular in the smartest set. Maids and matrons alike are going out of their way to congratulate the jilted one on his escape.

His friends, however, are greatly incensed, and his family make no secret of their indignation. The gossips are wondering, too, how the future Mrs. Tevis would be received by her former intimates should she return at any time to Denver.

The Baxters came to Denver a few years ago. Mr. Baxter was a wealthy cattleman, and the family lived on a great ranch in Wyoming. President Cleveland appointed Mr. Baxter Governor of the Territory. Last autumn Miss Baxter, after a finishing in Paris, made her formal debut.

BELLE OF THE PARIS SEASON.

She brought back laurels from abroad. At the Grand Prix her marvelous beauty was the talk of the gay world, and several impressionable Frenchmen in vain sought the favor of her glance. Gerald Hughes was even then an accepted suitor.

He returned on the same steamer with the Baxters. Since then she has been the belle of Denver, with her superb figure, pure blond hair, her violet eyes and her Grecian features.