The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1880-05-07
TIE SISTER OF MERCY.
A PRETTY LITTLE STORY, not WHOLLY FIC
TION, FROM THE FRENCH OF AURE-
LIEN SCHOII

In the chamber on the first floor in the Az
enue Montaigne, a woman was dying. From
the apartment itself, which was almost emp
ty, it would have been difficult to discover to
what class Of society the dying woman be
Ionged. The salon was empty. Not a sin
gle piece of furniture remained in it. Some
old blue velvet curtains were still hanging at
the windows, doubtless because the brokers
had disdained to take them. 1t was old vel
vet, yellow at each crease, and eaten away
by dust In what had been the dining room
there remained only diapidated cane-seat-
ed chair and little table of white wood
covered with bottles of all kinds. On the
floor were two or three dirty towels, still
wet, sponge and Clipped salad bowl, that
served as a washing basin.
The bed room was evidently the only room
that the baiiffs had spared. There, a
threadbare carpet still covered the floor. At
the foot OF the bed was a large armchair
placed as if it were a sentTy-boX. The stuff
curtains had been left but practiced eye
would have seen by the rents in the muslin
curtains that q rapacious hand had torn away
the lace.
Two billets of wood were smoking sadly in
the fireplace, having for sole companion a
kettle, from which emerged two or three
leaves covered with white foam. The room
was lighted from a Sanded courtyard in the
midst Of which a close-cropped grass plot
Inundated itself at the foot of an acacia
The leaves had fallen; the black, gnarled
branches, twisted into knots, were waiting
for the rays Of spring in order to put on a
little verdure-
Madeline" /" muttered the sick woman, 81
am thirsty"
A woman of some fifty years, who was
standing near the window, came up to the
! bedside and poured few drops of potion
into a glass. Then she raised the head OF
her mistress, approached the glass to hel
lips, and said
"Does Madame Ia CODtesse suffer much?'
Eyes, there is fire there, replied the sicF
/ woman, placing an emaciated hand on heI
/ breast
The woman, who was dying thus in a de
serted and desolate room, was no other thai
/ tue Comtesse de SAINT -Castelli, about whom
there was so much talk a few years ago
! Now, of her past luxury, there remained
! only an Indian shawl of reddish brown
embroidered with gold, in which she wrap
ped herself up for want of a bed cover.
/ The success of the Countess in the worl,
Of fashion had not been forgotten and NOR
than one European prince still keeps me
dallion in which the features of the fallel
lido! have remained young and smiling. TC
day her black hair seems to fatigue her en-
feebled head with its weight life has al
ready retreated from her hollow cheeks an
pale brow, A dry and jerky cough tears he
BOSOM at the age of thirty-five death Ia
marked her as its own.
\ sovereign, who had enriched her, ha
left before her for the regions where 90 tn
souls of those who have souls. The prime
X, her third loved, has ruined himself an
disappeared. The banker l., who had give
the Countess her hotel in the Avenue jena
can no longer even pay his margins at th
Bourse. 1t is only by miracle that he ha
been able to escape the hand of the law. II
was not declared a bankrupt personally, bU
the company that he directed has gone t
meet the swarms of companies that are II
account. Raoul is in Africa with his reg
ment Gontrau is married Adrien has di
appeared. A hurricane of ruin has blow
upon all her old adorers. The two or thre
who have held out have been wearied by 7,
peated requests for.money; another is place
in such an elevated region that he is unal
proachable.
The Countess has sold her Jewels, one b
one, and after her Jewels her toilets, and a
ter her toilets her furniture.