Page:Maud Howe - A Newport Aquarelle.djvu/138



morning of the great Newport picnic dawned bright and clear, and the hearts of all the happy people who were privileged to join the exclusive and aristocratic affair were much lighter than they had been on the previous evening, when the weather looked very dubious. No heart so light, though, as that of Mr. Gray Grosvenor, the prime mover in the picnic,—the man in whose brain the idea had at first originated, broadened, and finally emerged in the complete and perfect plan.

Mr. Gray Grosvenor was a very prominent man in Newport society,—more prominent than Mr. Belhomme, though he was not nearly so rich. He was more courted even than Mrs. Fallow-Deer, though he "did