Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1881-10-13
Select Story.
VAUTREAU THE VAMPIRE.

|
ant soubriquet was a picture and bric-a-
brac dealer, whose dark, dusty, over-crowded
| little shop in the Rue de Provence was well
known, some hfteen years ago, to every
artist and dillctante in Paris.
AT the back was an office, still dingier
than the shop, where at any time between
the hours of 10 AN. and @ PM, the pro-
| prietor might be dimly discerned seated at
high desk, immersed in figures. He was
bachelor, on the wrong side of sixty;
small and spare and dry in person, imper-
turoaDle IN manner, with q grating voice
and a sarcastic smile.
Modest as was his establishment, his
business was on very extensive scale, and
was not confined to the buying and selling
OF pictures.
He styled himself Man of Business,n
an elastic title, which covers other callings
besides an agents. For instance, it may
mean usurer; not that we assert M. Vau-
treau to have been usurer, any more than
the father OF the Bourgeois Gentil-
homme was " shop-keeper," but having
q good deal OF money, and being of an
obliglng disposition, he lent it to his
friends, and in return for the accommoda-
tion consented to receive interest which
ranged from fifty per cent upwards. His
clients were for the most part brethren of
the brush, though there were not few men
OF letters, rising doctors, and barristers
among them. Talent was his security. He
prided himself on discovering at once
whether young man had q future, and his
penetration was so seldom at fault that to
be lone OF Vautreau's men was a recon-.
mendation.
1t is true that his enemies-those malic.
ious persons who had nick-named him the
vampire ASSERTED that Vautreau's men
general y came to grief in the long.run,
ana mat more than one promising Young
artist who had mortgaged to him time.
talent, and prospects had ended miserab!y,
bankrupt in all. But such slanders M.
yautreau could afford to disregard. Who
ever failed, he fourished; "adding to
golden numbers-golden numbers" grow.
ing every year more prosperous, envied,
and dreaded.
His shop, as has been said, was in the
Rue de Provence, but the apartment
which he had occupied for more than
twenty years was on the Left Bank, in the
Rue st. Jacques, that long unlovely street"
which leads from the Quarter des Ecoles
to the Observatoire.
Here, and here alone, the money-lender
was known by his real name, which was
Jules Renault He had assumed the other
as a n0na-deguerre when first he began
business. His unsociable habits, and the
mystery attaching to his occupation, made
him suspected by his fellow-lodgers of be-
longing to the secret police, an idea which
he rather encouraged, as it saved him the
trouble OF making acquaintances. Not
half dozen persons in Paris were aware
that the wealthy money-lender of the
Quarter d'Antin and the mysterious lodger
in the Rue st. Jacques were one and the
same individual.
One foggy November evening in the year
1865, he returned to his rooms, after
weeks absence from town on business,
Old FRANCHISE, his housekeeper, was on
her knees before the stove, blowing sulky
fire, which had filled the room with smoke,
in spite OF open door and window.
1.-THE Devil! Do you want to smother
me?" her master exclaimed, pausing on
the threshold
She grunted something inaudible as she
gave the recalcitrant fire spiteful poke.
He shrugged his shoulders and entered,
glancing round with slight shiver. Cheer
less enough the room looked in the light
of a fiickering lamp, with its faded furni.
ture, uncarpeted floor, and bare white pam
elled walls. Very cheerless: and he was
cold anu tireu, and the smoke and the fog
together made his eyes water, and sent him
into paroxysm of coughing.
"Any letters or papers ?" he asked when
he could speak, as he drew off his gloves
The question was merely pro formG: few
communications but the tax.collector's ever
reached him in the Rue St. Jacques.
"No-yes, by-the-by, there is letter; it
came nearly week ago-there"
She nodded towards the chimney-piece.
He raised his brows in surprise, and ex-
amined the missive curiously before open.
ing it. His face suddenly darkened with a
froWn.
Fontainebleau, eh another slast ap-
peal after an interval of three years. We'll,
it can follow its predecessors" and he was
about to consign it to the fire, unread, when
his eye was caught by the address.
"a woman's handwriting that is
something new. Can it be"
He hesitated moment, then sat down at
the table, drew the lamp towards him, and
opened the letter.
Dear Uncle Jules" it began.
He started, and glanced at the signature
-" EdmGe Lafeuillade."
"Good Heavens - then Louise left a
daughter, and never knew it! 1t is true
l always burnt her husbands letters un-
read" He turned back to the beginning.
"DEAR UNCLE JULEs,-You will be sur
prised to receive letter from your unknown
niece, but though am a stranger to YOU, I
can not feel that you are one to me; dear
mother used so often to speak of YOU, and
OF the days long ago, when you and sh.
lived together. know what grief your
estrangement was 10 her"
"The estrangement was of her ow,
making" interpolated the reader: "sb
cut herself adritt from me when she mar
ried Victor Lafeuillade, vagabond with
out sou in his pocket, or an idea in his
head, who fancied himself an embryo
Raphael-ah, bah!"
Since my fathers death (llso he /
dead? well, well!'o II have been pupil
teacher at Madame Vernier's, but now tina
she has given up her school I must fin, p
another home. have not that know o
relative in the world but yourself. Ma,
l come to your" e. Cool, I declare!'1
shall not be q burden to you, for though
do not inherit my dear fathers genius
("save the mark! y II think paint well
enough to earn my own living. Even if. l (.
can not sell my pictures can always teach.
am compelled to leave here on Tuesday.
and If do not hear from you to the con.
trary ! shall venture to take for granted
your permission" Tuesday9 WHY that
is to-day; if had only known--'0
"Dear uncle, please let me come to YOU
am so lonely, and the world is SO wide and
so cold.-Your atfectionate niece,
EDMEE LAFEUILI.ADE."