The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1875-03-03
LED ASTRAY.
TRANSLATED FROM THs FRENCH OF
OCTAVE FEUILLET.
George L 10 Paul B., Paris.

RozEL, 18th September.
It's nine O'Clock in the evening, my dear
friend, and you have just arrived from
Germany. They hand you my letter, the
postmark OF which informs you at once
that am absent from Paris. You indulge
in a gesture of annoyance, and call me a
vagabond. Nevertheless, you settle down
in your best armchair, you open my let
ter, and you read that have been for the
past five days domesticated in four-mill
in Lower Normandy. In a fiour-milli-
What the deuce can he be doing IN a mill?
A wrinkle appears on your forehead, your
eyebrows are drawn together; you lay
down my letter for a moment; you attempt
TO penetrate this mystery by the unsided
power of your imagination. Suddenly a
playful expression beams upon your coun>
tenance; your mouth expresses the irony
OF a wise man tempered by the indulgence
of friend; you have caught a glimpse
through an opera-comique cloud, of
pretty miller's vile with powdered hair, a
waist alltrimmed with gay ribbons, light
and short skirt, and stockings with gilded
clocks 10 short, one of those fair young
millers wives, whose heart goes pit>a>pat
with haut-boy accompaniment But the
graces who are ever sporting in your
mind sometimes lead it astray; my fair
miller is as much like the creature of your
imagination as ami like youthful Colon;
her head is adorned with q towering cot
ton night cap to which the thickest possi>
blecoating of flour fails to restoreits prim-
tive color she wears a coarse wooden pet
ticoat which would abrade the hide of an
elephant; in short, it frequently happens to
me to confound the miller's wife with him.
self, after which it is sufficient to add that
am not the least curious to know wheth-
er or not her heart goes pit-a>pat The
truth is, that, not knowing how to kill
time in your absence, and having no rea-
son TO expect you to return before anoth-
er month tits your own faultl), / solicited
a mission The Council-General of the
Department of - had lately, and quite
opportunity, expressed officially the wish
that a certain ruined abbey, called Rozel
Abbey, should be classed among histori-
cal monuments have been commits
STONED to investigate closely the candidate
titles. | FASTENED with all possible speed
to the chief town of this artistic department
where / effected my entrance with the i'm
portant gravity of man who holds with
10 his hands the life or death of monu-
ment dear 10 the country. / made some
inquiries at the hotel; great was my NOR.
tifcation when L discovered that no one
seemed TO suspect that such thing al
Rozel Abbey existed within a circuit Of
a hundred leagues. called at the prefect
are while still laboring under the effect o.
this disappointment; the prfa, Walton
whom you kRow-very we'll, received mt
with his usual affability; but to the ques.
lions l addressed him on the subject o
the condition of the ruins which the coun
Gil seemed so DESTROYS of preserving for tn,
admiration of its constituents, he replied
with an absent smile, that his wife, VIII,
had visited these ruins on the occasion o
an excursion into the country, while sh,
was sojourning on the sea-shore, could tel
me a great deal more about the ruins thai
he could possibly do himself
He invited me TO dinner, and in the eve
ming, Madame Walton, after the usua
struggles Of expiring modesty, showed me
in her album, some views of the famou
ruins sketched with considerable taste
She became mildly excited while speaking
omeof these venerable remains, situated
if she is to be believed, in the midst of a.
enchanting size, and, above all, particular
ly web suited for picnics and country ex
cursions. A beseeching and corruptin
look terminated her harangue. Iteeem
evident to me that this worthy lady. is tn
only person in the department who take
any real interest in the poor old Abbey
and that the conscript fathers of the gen
eral council have passed their resolutio
authorizing an investigation out of pur
gallantry. 1t is impossible for me, how
ever, not to concur in their opinion-th
Abbey has beautiful eyes; she deserves (
be classed; she shall be classed
Mydecision was, therefore, settled fror
that moment, but it was still necessary t