Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1874-04-02

tear on the frill shewas ironing. so that
she was obliged to crimp one inch OF II
over again: and Madame Won Melckelieke
came scolding into the courtyard.
The little Dame Anglaise dined OF the
table d. hote that day. Monsieur sat at the
top of his board, and his wife and step
daughter, a'giggling girl with sharp fea-
lures, sat beside him. After dinner, Mon
sieur, his wife and daughter went out to
take coffee in the garden, sitting under an
apple tree, with a tiny table between them.
Monsieur in his white linen coat, and scar.
let skull cap, the girl in gay muslin with
flaming bows, Madame in brilliant gown
and enormous gold earrings. The ladies
chatter. Monsieur smokes and drinks his
coffee. and Jacques comes into the garden
and announces that Dame Anglaise wish
es to Join their circle. She comes. she is
agreeable. she gossips famliarly over
their concerns, and tells them q great deal
about her travels.
SO agreeable did she make herself. that
next afternoon the stranger was invited
once more to join the circle in the garden.
Never had been known SO pleasant an
English woman.
.sMonsieur and madame, said the
stranger, by-and-by, 81 am going to tell
YOU a story. Yesterday spoke of my
travels and You were good enough to be
amused; to-day will try to relate TO you
some of the most important events of my
life. have lived under the shadow Of a
great trouble for many years. For six.
teen years have been following a will o.
the wisp.''
"A will o the wisp." cried all the
listeners.
1T has led me from country to country,
aud from town to town. | arrived here.
the other night, utterly disheartened,
when, 10 it sprang up again; here lin
der this roof, as soon as entered"
.'Here p cried the Van Melekeliekes.
Madame shifted her chair so that she
sat facing Monsieur, who had taken his
cigar from his mouth, and sat gazing at
her in amazement, with his scarlet skull
cap little on one side, and a slight look
of apprehension on his siolid eounte-
nance.
''Let madame proceed" ~
The strange old lady paused before she
began her tale. and tragic look swept
across her dim blue eyes.
my friends" she said, with quiv Ell
in her voice, sixteen years ago, the re
were living in pleasant part of England
an English gentleman and his wife. who
had very great wealth and a beautiful
home, and up to the time of the beginning
of my story. they had scarcely known
what it is to gricve. They had one child,
a little girl three years old, the idol OF
both parents. They were fond of trav-
cling abroad, and it happened once tina,
they were in Paris on their way home
with them the child and three servants,
including the nurse, a strange and Wild
tempered woman. The lady was half
afraid of this nurse, yet shrank from send
ing her away. The nurse was savagely
fond ofthe child. and jealous of its mother.
One day there was a quarrel, spriDging
from this Jealousy. and that evening the
woman walked out of the hotel, carrying
the child in her arms, as if to give it an
airing. She did not return, and the father
and the mother never heard of their child
again"
Monsieur had turned on his seat and
looked askance at the stranger. Madame,
his wife, sat with open mouth. gazing at
her husband
Think Of it, good people. went on the
little old trembling lady. II was the
friend of that young mother. and came
TO her in Paris in her affection. We spent
months traversing Paris, and we adver-
fised, offering large rewards, but no It'd
ings of woman or child were TO be had.
We gave up the search in Paris, and went
moving from place to place. lingering so
sadly, and making such Frantic inquiries.
that people began to point to my friend as
the poor crazed mother who was looking
for her child All, my friends, if you had
seen her as l did-her eyes dim. her
cheeks wasted. weeping herself 10 death
over a toy, n tiny garment, Il little
shoe! Search was useless, and by the
time we could prevailed on her to give it
up, the poor thing was so broken in heart
aud body, that We only brought her home
to die. She died in my arms, and prom
ised 10 keep up the search so long a.
lived. She had firm belief that her child
was not dead, and the horror of its grow
ing up among bad people haunted her
perpetually. Her husband lived ten Years
after her death, and though he never kept
up such constant search as did yet he
could not forget that there was chance
of his lost daughters being alive some.
"hSAC. tntuA HIS AC8il NdN DtohOu to'
more by the loss of his wife, perhaps.
than by his child. Both parents had been
rich. and, when the father died, he willel
all their possessions to their child, who
might yet be discovered living in ignorance
of her parentage. After certain time
if nothing has been heard OF the girl or
her defendants. the property will be broh-
en- up and divided in charity. Since the
fathers death, | have never for one mo-
ment relaxed my efforts to discover some
trace OF my friends. Inow begin to grow
cid, and fear shall not be able to keep
it up much longer. have cheered my
self that the girl would be a daughter to
me in my advancing age, and would re-
me with her love for all the labor have
had for her. She would now be nintecn
years of age. When child her hair was
dark; it would now be darker still Her
eyes. think. would now be gray the col
or OF her mothers. have often fancied
saw face like what had pictured her
to myself, aud feverish days in finding out
my mistake. Now you know what ment
by a will O. the wisp -
The faces Of the innkeeper and his wife
II