The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-01-12 00:00:00

Eryiee, tat irould wake her up no doubt; but going
home to her mother is quite another affair."
The artist was disposed to reprove the old woman
for her harsh words; but he changed his mind. It
gave him pleasure to observe that the veiled lady
softly took the girl's bare hands and placed them in
the poor little muff that hung from her neck by a
frayed cord.
"A mother could not take more care of her child,"
thought he; and I fancied this woman was in quest
of adventures, because she accepted a man's seat and
pressed the end of his fingers in return for it. Well,
the gallant cavalier will possibly suffer for his polite-
ness by a severe attack :of bronchitis; it must be
freezing outside.
"I should like to have a good look at the face of
the little thing who is sleeping so soundly. The
lower lines are perfect. She is not overburdened
with cash, judging by her dress, and no doubt she
would consent to sit to me for a head. If she gets
' out on the way I shall not trouble to follow her; but
if she goes on to the Place Pigalle I think I will ask
her to give me a few sittings. She may open her
eyes before the end of the journey."
The omnibus went on at a speed calculated to
shame the sluggish pace of the cabs. The two
vigorous horses soon distanced the wretched hacks
that are sent out by the cab-masters after sunset.
They went all the more quickly because the driver
had not been asked to pull up for any passengers to
alight. He even had some 'difficulty in checking
them at the regular stopping places. No one to take
up at at the station of the Rue du Louvre; nor any
passenger at the Rue Croix des Petits Champs.
There was a change at the Place de la Bourse. Three
women who were seated near the door were replaced
by a bourgeois family—the father, mother, and a little
boy; but the occupants at the far end did not move.
The young girl still slept; the old orange-woman
had become diowsy ; the other women also dozed, so
that after passing the last statior of the Rue Chateau-
dun, when the onsaibus, to which a third horse had
been attached, had just commenced the steep ascent
of the Rue des Martyrs, the interior resembled a
dormitory.
The massive machine rolled like a ship on the
waves, rocking the passengers so gently, that all
involuntarily closed their eyes and oscillated with it,
except the tall dark mEin, who still remained up-
right and vigilant. The conductor followed on
foot to warm himself, and the driver exercised his
whip-arm fir the same purpose. About a third of
the way up the fat old orange woman roused herself
and asked to be put down.
The place is not convenient for a halt, for the
road is so steep that the horses slip backwards as
soon as they cease to advance. Ladies who desire to
be set down before arriving at the top generally call
for the assistance of the conductor.

The old woman abused that functionary because)
he did not oome to her aid as quickly as she ex-
pected. She stumbled towards the door, without
oaring whose toes she trod upon, and had no sooner
alighted than she reoollected she had got out too
soon, as she lived at the Cuausse Clignacourt, and
ought to have descended at the avenue Trudaine.
the decided, however, to walk, and the omnibus
continued to mount the hill. At this moment, the
artist, still studying the two females seated opposite
him, was started out of his reverie by a sound
coming from the outside of the omnibus—the sound
of three knocks from the heel of a boot—three dis-
tinct and successive knocks, separated by a slight
interval.

" AV thought he, "the outside passenger is still
there. Ten degrees below zero don't seem to
affect him; he has had enough now though, he is
coming down." And the boots which had just
produced the noise made their appearance on the
steps; the legs followed, then the body, and at last
the whole man, after taking a peep at the interior,
tnreßed on the pavement. The painter observed
that he walked quickly away up the Rue de la Tour-
(ll.4uvergne.
" he reflected, "this heavily-booted per-
eonage is innocent of the intentions I ascribed to
him. I expected he would await the departure
of the lady who accepted his place and offer her his
arro. But no, he goes quietly away alone, and
quite right too, for she does not seem one likely to
associate with men of his class."

While he was holding this discourse with himself,
the omnibus reached the point where the Rue des
Martyrs crosses two other thickly-populated streets
—the Rue de Laval on the left, and the Rue Con-
dorcet on the right. The vehicle invariably stops
there to detach the extra horse, and also because at
these thoroughfares it often loses its passengers. So
it happened on the night in question, nearly all rose
at the same time, and each endeavoured to get out
first. Soon the only persons left were the tall artist
and the two women opposite him.
Presently the supporter of the sleeping girl gave
signs that she also was about to leave.

-"
Sir," she said quickly, "this poor child resting
on me Is so sound asleep, it is a pity to awaken her.
I must get out:here, for I live close by, and it is
late. May I venture to ask you to undertake my
office?" -

"With pleasure," replied the young man, cross-
ing to the place the orange-seller had occupied.
Wait one minute, if you please," cried the lady
to the conductor, who was just about giving the
signal to go on, and with elaborate caution, she
raised the head of the girl, and placed it on the
shoulder of the willing artist, who was holding him-
self in readiness tio receive it. The sleeper suffered
this change to be made without manifesting any
sign of consciousness, and rested so heavily upon
him that the artist had to support her by the
waist.

"Thank you, sir," said the veiled lady. "I
hardly like to leave her, but since you are going
all the way, I may safely do so. If you will kindly
conduct her to the door of her home, you will be
doing a good action, for at such an hour there is
danger to a young girl in this quarter." And with-
out awaiting a reply, she jumped out of the omni-
bus and took her way up the Rue de Laval.
The conductor was seated in a corner near the
door, checking his register by the flashes of light
from the street lamps. The painter was thus almost
alone with the handsome girl, and no one would
overhear him ask her to sit for her portrait. But to
be al le to make the request, he must wake her. So
he pressid her closely to his side thinking thus to
rouse her from the torpor by which she seemed
thoroughly overcome. He was mistaken. The
idea then struck him that she was not really so
soundly asleep as she appeared, and that the stupor
was affected to incite him to an intrigue.
He was Parisian, and had had experience. He
could but think lightly of a girl who rode alone in
an omnibus at midnight towards the exterior boule-
vards, but he desired to know the truth of the
matter, and stooped to examine this obstinate
sleeper's face, but the last lamp, which had long
been threatening to expire, at this moment went out,
and the interior of the omnibus was plunged in
darkness.
Be essayed to take one of her hands out of the
muff, and found it was cold as ice.

"She has fainted," he exclaimed; " shelwants
assistance."l _ .

Ile called to the conductor, who replied without
moving: -•

"\le are just coming to the station; it is not
worth while to stop."
In fact, the vehicle' driven by a coachman anxious
to get home, whose horses smelt their stables, had
traversed the Rue Frochot with the gre itest
rapidity, and now came out in the Place Pigalle.
The young man, thoroughly alarmed, tried to
support the poor child who had fallen a dead weight
into his arms, and then ler the first time did he sus-
pect the possibility of life being extinct.
"Here we are, sir," said the conductor, who took
them for lovers. "I am sorry to wake the young
woman, but we go no farther, so you must get down
unless you mean to sleep in the 'bus."
"She will sleep only in the grave," cried; the
artist. "Do you not see she is dead?"
"This is not the time of night for joking,' said
the conductor; "beside, there is no good luck in
making fun of death."
• "tI am not joking. I tell you this woman is cold
as stone, and has ceased to breathe. Come and help
me move her. I cannot carry her by myself.'
"She isn't very heavy either; all the same, if
she's ill I'll lend you a hand; we can't leave her
here, :that's certain," said the conductor, gruffly,
getting into the omnibus.
The man at the station mounted also, and the
three had no difficulty in removing the light form.
The waiting-room was still open, so they carried her
in there, laid her on a seat, and the artist, with
trembling hands, took off the veil which half-c n-
cealed her pale face. She was wonderfully beautiful ;
her head was exactly that of one of liaphael's
virgins. But her large black eyes, though still open,
had lost their brilliancy, and her contracted features
bore an expression of agony. • She must have suf-
fered severely.
"It's quite true she's gone," said the conductor.
"On the road, and you never knew it! " exclaimed
the other man.

"No ; and the gentleman sitting by her knew
nothing of it either. She did not fall—she did not
call out. It's odd, but it is so. Broken a blood
vessel, or something given away in her chest."
"I believe she has been killed," said the artist.
" Killed ! " cried the conductor. "Come, now,
there is not a drop of blood upon her."
" And besides." added his comrade, "if someone
had given her a blow in the omnibus, the other pas-
sengers would have seen it."
"She is not a day more than eighteen," said the
young man, "and at that age people do not the
suddenly."
"Are you a doctor ? "
" No ! but—"

. _
" Well, then, you don't know any more than we
do, arid, instead of talking, you should go for the
rlice. We cannot keep a dead body in the office.
Oh! here comes two policemen."
~,nd at this moment two members of that
'force, turning out of the Boulevard, advanced
towards them with measured steps. One of the men
called out, and they came up, not suspecting any
Particular occasion for haste, nor, when they saw
what was the matter, were they much moved. They
made the conductor describe the affair, and the elder
gravely gave his opinion that these accidents often
happened.