American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1873-10-11

| W HIM Hti itdpPtdrdHCe, dn lWlllei
having dine,. al tn cub and feeling NOR
like himself than he had for weeks, re
turned to his chamber, and, putting OIL
dressing gown and slippers, piled up tn
greater portion of his library about him
and fell to reading assiduously. There i
nothing Ikea quiet evening at home will
some slight intellectual occupation, afte
ones feathers have been stroked the wron.
way.
When the lively French clock on tn,
the mantelpiece,-a base of malachit,
surmounted by flying bronze Mercur,
with lis arms spread gracefully on the air
and not remotely suggestive of Mademoi
selle Olympic in the act of executing hel
grand flight from the trapeze,-when thu
clock, l repeat, struck nine, Van Twillel
paid no attention to it. That was certain
ly triumph. l am anxious to render
Van Twiller all the justice | can, at this
point of the narrative, inasmuch as when
the halfhour sounded unsteady, like {
crystal ball dropping into silver bowl
| he rose from the chair automatically
thrust his feet into his walking shoes
threw his Overcoat across his arm, and
strobe out of the room.
| To be weak and to scOrn your weakness
and not be able to conquer it, is, as has
been said, hard thing; and | suspect il
was not with unalloyed satisfaction that
| Van Twiller found himself taking his seat
in the back part of the private box night
after night during the second engagement
of Mademoiselle Olympic. 1t was SO easy
not to stay away!
| In this second edition of Van Twill
| lers faulty, his case was even worse
| than before. He not only thought of
| Olympic quite number of times be-
tween breakfast and dinner, he not
| only attended the interlude regularly, but
| he began, in spite of himself to occupy
| his leisure hours at light by dreaming OF
! her. This was too much of good thing,
and Van Twiller regarded it SO. Besides,
| the dream was always the samoa har-
| rowing dream, Il dream singularly adapt
ed to SCATTERING the nerves of a man like
Van Twiller. He would imagine himself
seated at the theater with all the members
| Of Our Club in the parquette), watching
Mademoiselie Olympic as usual, when
suddenly that young lady would launch
herself desperately from the trapeZe, and
come flying through the air like fire
brand hurled at his private box. Then
the unfortunate man would wake up with
cold drops standing on his forehead
There is one redeeming feature in this
infatuation of Van Twiller's which the
sober moralist will love to look upon
the serene Inconsistencies of the person
who caused it. She went through her
role with admirable aplomb, drew her
salary, it may be assumed, punctually,
and appears from first TO last to have been
ignorant that there was a miserable slave
wearing her chains nightly IN the left
hand proscenlum-box.
That Van Twiller, haunting the theatre
with the persistency of an eX-actor, con-
Quoted himself so discreetly as not to
draw the fire of Mademoiselle Olympe's
Inc haf
ever deeply under a spell, was not in love
l say this, though l think if Van Twiller
had not been Van Twiller, if he had been
man of no family and no position and
no money, if New York had been Paris,
and Thirty-fOurth street a street in the
Latin Quarter,-but it is useless to specu-
late on what might have happened. What
did happen is sufficient.
1t happened, then, in the second week OF
Queen Olympe's second unconscious
reign, that an appalling Whisper tioated up
the Hudson, effected landing at a point
between Spuyten Duyvel Creek and Cold
Spring, and sought out stately mansion
of Dutch architecture standing on the
bank of the river. The Whisper stra ght-
way informed the lady dwelling in this
mansion that all was not well with the
last of the Van Twillers that he was grad
ualIy estranging himself from his peers,
and wasting his nights in a play house
watching a misguided young woman turn
ing unmaidenly somersaults on a piece OF
wood attached to two ropes.
Mrs. Vanrensselaer VanZandt Van Twill |
Ter came down to town by the next train |
to look into this little matter.
She found the flower of the family |
taking an early breakfast, at II a. m, in |
his cOsey apartments on Thirty fourth |
street. With the least possible circumlo- |
cl, I,
NOR had reported of his pursuits, and was
pleased, but not too much pleased, when
he gave her an exact account of his rela-
tons with Mademoiselle Zabriski, neither |
nor qualifying anything. AS
Il confession, it was unique, and might |
have been great deal less entertaining.
Two or three times, in the course of the
the matron had some difficulty
in preserving the gravity of her counte-
nance. After meditatlng a few minutes, she
tapped Van Twiller softly on the arm
with the tip of her parasol, and invited
him to return with her the next day up
he Hudson and make Il brief visit AT the
home of his ancestors. He accepted the
invitation with outward alacrity and in
ward reluctance
When this was settled, and the worthy
ady had Withdrawn, Van Twiller went
directly to the establishment of Messrs.
Ball, Black & Company, and selected,
with unerring taste, the finest diamond
Dear me, mol She had the family jew
Is
l would not like to state the er or
nous sum Van Twiller paid for this
bracelet. 1t was such clasp of dia-
nonds as would have FASTENED the
'ulsation of a patrician wrist. 1t was
uch a bracelet as Prince Camaralzaman
l