The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1873-07-31

y
he brought out that last sentence
every word sounded like nail driven
into n wall. 1 didn't say any more to
him that time.
"Now I must tell you, that at this
time the belle of New Orleans was a
certain Miss Georgiana De Courcy. the
handsomest girl, and the greatest heir
ess in Louisiana, and-what counts a
good deal in the Southern States-oi
one of the oldest families in the South
She was certainly splendid woman
without an atom of heart or conscience,
beautiful as leopard, vain as a pea
cock, and greedy of admiration as a
well as n woman one of the finest crea-
lures altogether that I ever saw in my
lifel Well, as you may imagine, before
she had been in town month, all the
young swells of the place were at her
feet and the most ardent of all wns a
young Frenchman, Henri LIE valiant by
name, a man of good family, and origi-
nally of good fortune; but he had con-
trived to run through such a lot of it
before he came of age, that as Paddy
says in the song
When he came to mans estate,
This being the case, it was only natural
that he should think it good idea to
recoup himself by winning the favor
land fcrtune) of Miss De Courcy and,
to give the devil his due, he was just
the man to make any girl like him if he
had n mind that way. To begin with
he was q very handsome fellowship
and graceful as any statue in Rome,
and with that bedute du didble which
YOU see so often among high-caste
Frenchmen then he could sing first
rate songs, and dance like any Taglioni
and, to crown all, he was the best rider,
and, what was more to the purpose, the
best fencer in the town. Indeed, he
had pinked so many men in various
quarrels, that his chums, in kind of
chaff upon his double capacity of lady
killer and duellist, nick-named him
Perce-ceur." Sc, when it was known
that the "Pierce- heart" had got his
eye upon Miss De Courcy, you may
think that her other worshipers began
to feel rather put about.
"Now it so happened that I had
brought an introduction to the girls
father, Colonel De Courcy, whom she
ruled as completely as she ruled every
one else, and he had invited me to a
grand hall that they gave q little after
my arrival. 1t was at this ball that [
got my first sight of LIE Vaillant-a
slight, delicate-featured man, with a
little black moustache, but supple as a
greyhound and active as a tiger. OF
course, he was horribly conceited, as
these fellows always are but barring
that, he struck me as rather pleasant
company, and couldn't help thinking
that if he really meant business as le-
garded the De Courcy, he stood well to
make his game.
"Well, the ball was like every other
ball-plenty of heat, and crush, and
chatter lots of dancing and flirting,
and ices and champagne a few people
worth talking to, and great many bet
ter worth leaving alone. About two in
the morning (having just made my es-
cape from a dreadful woman who had
never been to Paris, and would insist
upon knowing all about IT'D I went out
upon the veranda to recover myself,
and came bump against another man
who was just coming in. I turned
round to apologize, and saw-Mont-
fort
81 don't think was ever more taken
aback in all my life. Here was fellow
Who neither danced, drank, nor flirted-
who always went to bed at ten, and
didn't know q woman from milestone
cropping up all at once in the middle
of ball ! 1t was Saul among the pro-
phets with q vengeance!
" Ho)lo, Montfort! said I, isn't
this rather violation of your prin-
ciples ?
"What would you have ? One
must do in Rome as the Romans do.
Here it's the fashion to go to balls, and
[ go to them. In the Andes, where I'm
going presently, it's the fashion to climb
peaks, and scramble along rock-ledges,
and 1 shall climb and scramble with the
rest. Good-night-I must be going
"This Gas poor Dickens says some
where) was 'pilin' it up rayther too
mountaynious.' The idea of Montfort,
Of all men on earth, doing thing be-
cause other people did it, was little
too good I'd as soon have believed in
Tom Sayers joining the Peace Society.
And my doubts were not dispelled by a
fragment of conversation which over
heard Just then from two men who were
standing on the veranda little way
off.
"Who was that fellow who was out
here Just now with Miss De Courcy?'
"'Dont know; but fancy it's the
same man who takes those wonderful
walks-Moffat, or Montfort, or some
such name
"'Well, he seemed to be making the
most of his time anyhow And the two
passed on.
AS for me, Iwent home very much out
of temper with myself. 1 had been wont
to brag thatnobody could throw dust in
my eyes; and yet this fellow Montfort
had done it as thoroughly as one man
ever did to another. To Judge by pres
ent appearances, his former show of as
ceticism must have been all humbug /;
and upon my word, l was rather sorry
for it. To me this man was q kind of
rare specimen-a Codex Sinaiticus,
a new hieroglyphic and 1 valued him
as Professor Tischendorf might value
the one, or Sir Henry Rawlinson the
other. In this easy going age, bristling
with every conceivable invention for
making man indolent and luxurious, it
was something to find even one living
creature who seemed to defy, without an
effort, every determination that can as
sail humanity and now it appeared all
at once that he wasn't the man 1 took
him for. The only thing to be done
was to find out at once how the case
really stood so, directly after break