The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1874-11-27

Russian Princess.
After few days of seclusion she
vouchsafed to make her appearance at
the table d'hote, and retired with the
rest of theladies to the Sale des Danes
afterward. Then il was that the Baron
exhibited his Unborn as well as Inherited
nobility. He attended to her little
wants. placed her an armchair by the
fragrant wood fire, and, on receiving her
thanks in his tongue, -his pa
rents pride had no doubt prevented
him from learning any other,-he en-
tered into a respectful and courtly con-
versation'with her. There were plenty
of other men in the room who could
have done it but the Baron was nat
urally the fittest person to begin and
/ will give him credit for boundless
f-possession-not to call it impu-
dence.
The acquaintance thus begun grew
with tropical rapidity. The cold
Northern temperament softly but quick
ly thawed beneath the warm rays of
italian sweetness and light. Fragments
of their talk occasionally reached the
ears of my wife and others who could
understand them, from which it APP
peared that their main topic Was the
opera.
"Ah, madame'-he was interpreted
to me as saying-"i if l could but be
honored with your presence in my box
at Florence The music would be an
gelic then"
"The signor does me a great favor in
expressing the wish"
Yes; it was clear that he was hard
hit, and that she knew it, and had no
desire to dismiss him. And yet she
was in no single point guilty of indis-
erection, forwardness or coquetry, i'll my
opinion.
"That woman," said my wife, sis
abominable ! Look how she hunts that
poor man down. suppose she fancies
Sicily nicer country than Siberia, or
wherever it is she comes from"
"Well, my DEAR" replied, cit seems
to me that the hunting is mutual. Real
ly, don't see why he shouldn't marry
her, if they both like it."
"She may be mere tuft- hunting adj
ventures, for all we know" said she.
81 don't believe in her.
"Well, but perhaps he knows more
than we do"
ct don't believe in her a bit. She's
hunting him down for his wealth and
title, and is as much Princess as
am %
The season was now OF it's height, and
every room was occupied, the very last
attic in the Hotel du Bon Vivant being
secured by n German Count, the Count
! Sigismund Won Borokopek. He put
down his name in the visitors book like
man, and his whole demeanor was
frank, open and robust He was extraor-
dinarily fluent in English, as we'll as
| in French and Italian. German, of
course, was his mother tongue, few
dialectical peculiarities noticeable in his
pronunciation, arising, he explained,
from the circumstance of his being part
ly of Austrian, partly of Hungarian
origin, the Borokopek estates being in
the vicinity Of Tokay.
We now numbered about eighty
guests, and began to know one another
pretty we'll but somehow the Count
knew us all better than we knew one
another before he had been a week
among us. He was a big, burly, fair
man, so thoroughly British in appear
ance and in his general characteristics
as to render il difficult, but for his pro-
fciency in other languages, to believe
that he was not Briton born. He had
knocked about the world a good deal,
he said. OF the forty years he had
passed in it, twenty had been spent in
travelling, half of which time had been
passed in England, and good deal Of
the rest in America. Russia, too, he
was acquainted with; and on the
strength of that he introduced himself
to the Princess, and was evidently as
much disposed to admire her as the
Baron himself.
Indeed, before very long, the atten-
tons paid by Count Sigismund Won
Borokopek to that lady began seriously
to disturb the serenity of the Baron
Monteggiana. Tavernelle; and in pro-
portion as their rivalry progressed, SO
id the interest and amusement of the
G. mpany progress with it.
"My dear Charles" said my wife,
"isn't she abominable nowP She's a
regular fiirt and at her age, too 40,
if she's day. And after entangling
the Baron, to go and egg on the Count,
and all in public too It's bad enough
to make love in public at all, but to do
it to two men, one after the other
say she's simply abominable u
"Well, but, my dear" expostulat-
ed, "they are both making love to her
at the same time. You see, the Counts
castles are much nearer to Russia than
Sicily is; so perhaps she prefers to be-
come Mrs. Count, etc., to the other
thing"
Those of us who were not in love with
the Princess began to wish the absurd
affair at an end. The lady was most
unfairly fair to each for she gave each
of them enough encouragement to make
them savagely jealous of one another,
without going far enough with either
to give the other any grounds of COM
plant. But for her beautiful eyes, 1
would compare her to tableau UiUaat
of Justice holding the scales. 1 can,
however, safely iken her to Helen for
she was setting by the ears not only the
two most interested individuals, but
also the whole world about her; and it
wanted but spark to commence con-
fagration, certainly an explosion, be-
tween the two.
We had an American at the. Hotel du
Bon Vivant, a quiet, thoughtful man,
too much of an invalid to talk much,