The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1870-05-27

/ JuCSG lutl4S nv u 0eei-e W EN'
for the schoolmaster died and his
ipoor old cracked piano was sold to
a lady in Fontaine, and with his own
eyes Louis saw it taken away IN a
cart.
mo more jingling now, sarcastI-
cally said the weaver.
Louis felt the taunt as 1t was IN
tended that he should feel tin his
very heart. He was about sixteen
when this misfortune occurred, and
whether because the blow was so
great that he required consolation,
or because he was tall, strong, and
as manipulating as il he had been
twenty, Louis suddenly took it into
mis- head to make love to Renee, who
was as little, as slight, and almost as
pale IS ever.
1t was on a Sunday afternoon,
while the weaver was safe at the
cafe. and the pair, who had stolen
out into the fields, were sitting IN
the shadow of q green hedge, that
Louis, to whom Renee had been
singing with her heavenly voice, re-
marked, coolly:
"When you are my wife, Renee
WHAT cried Renee, with a start.
''Wen, do you want to marry any
one else, now?" he asked, sharply.
"That is not it, Louis; but think
how much older 1 am than you are.
Are you not bigger, and stronger,
and taller, too? Come, Renee, you
would not 90 and marry any one
else. when YOU know all 1 have borne
for your sake. Why, l should have
run away long ago if it were not for
you"
Besides. she was a meek little thing,
and always did Louis bidding,
| Moreover. She knewhe doten he I
voice. How could she give that
voice to another? So she made no
further objection when Louis pur-
sued:
"When you are my wife, and am
| an organist Of Mannevile, we shall
| have a house Of our own, Of course,
and shall have a piano, and you
shall sing
"a pretty tune 1 shall make you
both sing, too, you young scape-
gracesw cried q wrathful voice be-
hind the hedge, above which the
veavers head soon appeared. How
he had seen them and stolen after
them. Louis could not imagine, but
there he was, forbidding the banns,
! He would have done more if he had
dared, but Louis was too strong and
] sturdy now to be struck, and what
was more, he looked as if it might
be dangerous to lay a finger on Renee
lin his presence. So the weaver,
4 keeping safe behind the hedge, or
| deradRenee home forthwith, and when
she had obeyed silently he turned to
Louis and said sarcastically:
"You can not marry Renee with
out your mothers consent till you
, are twenty-fve-a long time to wait
IILouis; nine years. You can learn
how to play on the organ in the
meanwhile. And chuckling to him
self he walked away.
Tearn how to play on the organ
av, and that I will" muttered Loui;
between his set teeth, "and sooner
than you think, too"
i For the sake of his mother, who
lived in wholesome dread other stern
husband, Louis had been a tolerablt
dutiful son, but he now felt reused
to revolt, and the very next week
Louis and Renee had been lectured
and scolded daily. The nine years
which French law exacted fromLouis
before he could marry Renee with
| out the consent of his mother,and, IN
reality. of his step father, for the
| poor woman had no will Of hel
| own. seemed all too brief to that bit
ter minded old gentleman. He hat
ed his step son, and if he did not
turn him out of his house forthwith
| IL was for the sake Of his earning at
| the loom; so he made up in worrying
what he could not take out OF Louis
| in more substantial i'll usage. But
, at the end of week the weaver
made a discovery which filled him
; with the direst wrath. He bided hi:
opportunity, and one night as The
/ church clock ofManneville was strik
inc u. he went into his daughter:
room. entered it abruptly, and found
Renee sitting up by her window, ane
:, looking on the mOonlit road, above
which chill autumn mists were float
ing.
4 "Why are you up and dressed Al
this hour he asksd, sternly.
Renee could not answer-her feal
was so great when she saw her father
standing before her, with the flicker
ing light of tallow candle shining
on his rash face.
"And where is Louis? he contln-
ued. "Out; gone to FontaiEe to take
lessons from the organist, and you
sit up to let him in, do you. Well
YOU need not. I shall let him IN to
! night, and settle accounts with yoH
Renee. tomorrow.
He vanished, locking the door out
side, and leaving Renee half mac
with fear, not for herself, but fol
Louis. Suddenly a bright thought
struck her. She.climbed up on chest
of drawers, opened a little easement
crept out through it, and lightly
Jumped down on a landing. Ther
{ she stole down stairs to the garden
/ and while her father was watching q
: the front door she crept out through
i a gap in the hedge into the OpeE
country. She was soon on the higl
) road, walking toward Fontaine IN
order to meet and warn Louis.
Never before in all her life hat
Renee been out 50 late, and, being
but a timid little thing she felt very
r much afraid. 1t was all so lonely, sc
silent and so solemn in the pale moon
light. Then it felt so chill, too, anC
those white mists which hung above
the fields made Renee's blood flow
more slowly in her veins, and seemed
to freeze the very marrow IN hel
bones. She walked up and down tC
keep herself warm; then, feeling tired
she sat down on the lowest step of ;
wavside cross and waited there il
vain; the moon waned, the sky broke
/. with the graYness Of early dawn anC