The true northerner., 1883-05-18


Well, she knows the story of Arlette,
the tanners daughter, and very proud
she is of her name. We have only
tradition to assure us that the first Ar
lette was beautiful, but it needs no sec
ond glance TO convince us that Arlette
Lechasseur is so. If only there were
another Count Robert to see! But she
has too much sense to expect Count
or any other nobe parsonage to come
and make love to her there beside the
Ante, even if she is pretty.
"Where is thy Count Robert, Ar
lette ?" the other women sometimes say
sponse is good-natured laugh.
Yet she has dreams of her own never
theless. Not exalted ones, to be sure,
but they sweeten existence to her. Last
year, in the fair in the fauburg of Gull
bray, she met some one that, per-
haps- Alas poor Arlette never gets
beyond the perhaps" in her thoughts.
The thrifty Norman does not often mar
ry girl who can bring him nothing,
and the Lechasseurs are very poor. So
Arlette's musings do not stray beyond n
perhaps as l said before; but people
learn to be content with very little,
and it is pleasant to have ones dreams.
From her washing-place she looks up
at the great cliff on which the castle
stands. Except for few patches of
furze and heather, the gray rock is al
most bare, and which is cliff and which
is castle wall is hard to tell, for the
wall is at the edge of the cliff, and
seems as if it might be part of it, so
worn and gray is its surface. And, high
above all, the Talbot tower appears al
most to touch the sky. Arlette has
often been to the very top, but she does
not like looking down into the valley so
we'll as gazing up at the castle-crowned
cliff From where she is plying her
carrosse she can see Count Roberts
window and the vine sprays hanging
down from the opening. Then she
thinks Of the tanners daughter and
Count Robert. Now and then she can
see some one leaning from the window
and looking down into the valley, as
that handsome STRIPPING may have
leaned and looked eight centuries be-
fore. But she does not imagine that
any one can distinguish her from the
other women beside the Ante. She
knows very well that the distance is too
great for that now. Perhaps eyesight
was better III Count Roberts time she
thinks. But the day comes when some
one looking down from Count Robert
window does see her. II is young
American, finishing a year OF travel i'll
Europe by a travelling tour through
Normandy, burdened only by knapsack
and field glass. Some one at Caen has
told him that he must surely visit
Falaise, and so he has come to the cas-
tie, and now, looking through his glass,
at one object after another, his gaze
has at last rested on Arlette at her
washing tank beside the Ante. The
glass is powerful one, so that he can
see her very distinctly as she beats the
soaped linen with her carrosse, and
afterward rinses the garments in the
clear running water; and he watches
her long time. At last, however, he
puts down the glass, and, after giving
his guide fee, he comes down from
the castle alone.
But it is no youth of 19 who sees this
modern Arlette, but man at least
eight years older, who has looked upon
m9ny beautiful faces before this. Why
should this one attract him especially?
But it does interest him, and he means
to see more of it, as Count Robert like
wise resolved long before. But the
American is quite as handsome as any
medieval Count can possibly have been,
though, as his figure is rather under the
middle size, Count Robert was prob
ably the taller of the two, on the gen
erally-accepted principle that medieval
heroes were men of commanding height.
But the clear, olive complexion, dark
hair and eyes and delicate mustache,
sweeping up at the ends in long curves,
Count Robert probably did not boast.
More than one woman had looked at
this Young American with admiring
eyes, and he knew very well that he
was handsome-perhaps had at one
time been n little vain of the fact-but
now, at 2G, he merely accepts it as
piece of good fortune. Any one looking
at the firm curves of the mouth would
see evidences of abundant strength of
purpose. Whether it would be exer-
cised with any higher aims than obtain
ing his own way was the question. He
had always had it without much trouble,
and he was not more selfish than most
men.
As he goes down the hill his mind Is
full of this pretty face he has just seen.
And whyno B.? He is taking life easily
this summer. When he returns to
America his work awaits him, into
which he means toplunge in sober earn
est; but at present he is enjoying life,
and has plenty of room for vagrant fan
cies in his mind But it is long dis
tance down the hill to the washing sheds
beside the Ante, and he is not familiar
enough with the town to find the near
est way; so that, by the time he reaches
the arch entrance, many of the women
have gone, and among them Arlette.
Those who remain glance shyly at him,
but he sees only that Arlette is not
there, and he goes TO his rooms ut the
Hotel de Normandie vexed Mt the disap-
pointment. He meant to have gone
back to Oden the next day, but now he
decides to remain in Falaise another
day, in the hope of getting n nearer
view OF the pretty face he has seen from