The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1881-04-07

Puvioux Is o manzof my age, who carries
his heart in his hand, as the saying is;
gay and w~eIklooking. I ought to have
detested him, and he has remained my
friend. Well, Father Servan said to me
as he held out his hand,
"rYou are worthy to be my son-in-law,
my lad; but first of all you must please
my daughter. I will ask her..
tMarguerite, when asked, said that
she would gladly consent to be my wife.
But she said the same when they talked
to her about Puvioux. She loved both
of us, one as much as the other; she
hesitated-she did not dare to decide.
But still she could not marry both Of us.
'Time went on. When the time of
the CONSUMPTION came We drew lots,
Puvioux and I, on the same day. had
No. 8 and he had No. Z and SO we both
Of rs became soldiers. For moment I
was in a state of great fright, I confess.
People at Mezieres said that Puvioux
had a rich aunt, and that she would buy
him off. II Puyionx did not Join the
army, Puvioux would marry Marguerite,
and ], knowing that I should be obliged
to go on, for I was poor. I thought
already heard the fiddler at the wedding,
rending my ears and my heart"
ST must tell you that Marguerite
Servan has not her equal. IF I lost her
now, after having waited seven years for
her, upon my honor, I think I should
blow out my brains.
Luckily, Pierre Puyioux was not
bought of. His aunt died, leaving debts
instead of afortune. He had not q PEN
ny any more than I had. We were
obliged to shoulder our guns, and we
were expected on our way-bill every
moment. One night Father Servan took
us each by the arm and led us to a inn,
and this is what he said to us as we
emptied q bottle of Moselle wine:
"rMy boys, you are good and honest
Aldennais, equal in merit I love you
with all my heart. One Of you shall be
my son-in-law; that is understood. Mar
guerite will wait seven years. She has
no preference either for you, P~uvioux, or
for you, Chevaucheux, but she loves both
of you, and she viii make happy the
one whom fortune shall choose These
are the conditions on which one of you
shall marry my daughter; you start on
the same day, it is probable that you re-
turn;on the same day. Well, the one
who first comes and shakes hands with
Father Servan, and says: "Here / am,
my time is out" he, ! swear, shall be
the husband of Marguerite
81 was astonished; / thought that !
had misunderstood. ! looked at Pierre
Puvioux and he looked at me, and, al
though we were sad enough at heart, we
were certainly ready to burst out laugh
ing.
"But Father Servan was not joking.
He had discovered this means of getting
out Of the difficulty, and he meant to
stick to it. / held out my hand, and
swpre to act neither by rrse or violence,
and TO let Pierre Puvioux marry Mar
guerite, If he returned to Mezieres be-
foreI did. Pierre stood up and swore
the same, and then we shook hands
while Father Ssrvan said:
"rNow, the rest is your affair. The
only thing is to escape bullets and to re-
turn safe and sound
"He filed our glasses once more, and
we drank q parting draught.
Before leaving, I wished to see Mar
guerite. just as I vas arriving under
her window-it was at duskI saw some
n in the shade coming in the same d-
rection. I stopped short. Il twas Pierre
| Puvioux. He seemed vexed to find me
there. I was not particularly pleased to
meet him. We stood there for 9 mo-
ment like two simpletons looking at the
toes of our boots. Then with . move
ment of courage I said to Puvioux:
f"TShau we go in together
1--WE entered and took our farewell of
Marguerite. She listened to us without
saying anything, but there were tears at
the tips Of her blonde ,eye-lashes. Sud-
denly Pierre, who was talking, stopped
n began to sob mo I to do the same.
Then Marguerite joined in, and there
We were all three shedding tears and
pressing each others hands.
sWhen the diligence that took MS
away from Mezieres began to rattle on
the pavement the next. day.. I felt in
clined to throw myself down from the
imperial and get crushed under the
wheels. The more so as there was a
Lorrainer at my side WhoEwas singing in
a melancholy voice q song of his coun-
try, and I said TO myself: Tt is all over
jean. you Will never see her again.
"Well, You see, time passes. The
seven years are over, and who knows?
Perhaps I am not only going to see her
again, but to marry her.
s"There are, indeed, strange chances in
life" continued Jean Chevaucheux.
ePierce and I started on the same day,
and at the same hour, and We were
placed in the same regiment. At first ]
was yexed. I should have liked to have
known that he was far away. As you
may imagine, I could not love him much.
But I reflected afterward hat if
Puvioux WIS with me / could at least
talk about her. That consoled me. Well,
1 said to myself, I am in for seven years
Of it. After all, one gets over it.
tTn the regiment / became q fast
friend of Pierce Puvioux. He proved to
be. an excellent good fellow, anda at night,
In order to kill time, we used often to
talk of Mezieres, of Father Servan, and
| of Marguerite. We used to write to
Mezieres often, but each told the other
! the contents of his letters. It was q
struggle, it is true, but it was loyal.
| When Marguerite O old Servan replied,
the letter wa for both of us. An equal
dose of hope was given to each of us, and
so we went on hoping.
zone day the Colonel took it into his
hOdA W dpPOWO mO OOiPOihs i WoG
4 vexed and proud at the same time. You
see, I was no longer the equal Of
Puvioux. My stripes gave me the right
to command him, and in the eyes of oul
Ardennais, that was no small advantage.
But I did not glory in my rank; on the
contrary, it made me i'll at ease. I die
not dare to talk to Puvioux any more
Then I reflected that there were more
ways than one of getting rid Of my mex
rank. L neglected my duty and wa
forthwith degraded. But WHO should b
made Corporafin my stead but Puvioux
But Puvioux was not to be outdone; a
the end of a week he resigned. Aftel
that there was no danger of any PROPOSE
tons being made to us to make any
change in our uniform. We were con
demned to remain common soldiers.
$50 much the BETTER said Puvioux
What. luckr said 1.