The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-10-05

you, and not much time to tell 1T IN.
Years ago, when Jeanne left her convent
on becoming fiancee to M. de Miramon,
she met you at her first ball, and you
loved each other 1t was very foolish,
for you were cadet of your house, and
only n sous-lieutenant, and Jeanne had
not sou, so both the families were
furious; but all would have ended as
well as fairy tale if you had been rea-
sonable. Jeanne met you time after time
in secret, and promised any amount of
patience, but she would not run away
and marry you in defiance of her parents;
so you tormentcd her with doubts, and
shamed her with suspicious until she
dreaded those secret meetings almost as
much as she longed for them. AT last,
after making a more violent quarrel
than usual, you exchanged from your
regiment at Versailles to one in Algiers,
and left her no refuge from the re-
proaches of our father and mother but
to marry M. de Miramon. He might
have refused to marry her after hearing
her confess, as she did, that she had
given her heart to you, and that only
your desertion had induced her to con-
sent to their marriage. But he did not;
he had better revenge than that. He
married her, and for eight years he tor
tured her in every way that a jealous and
cruel man can torment proud, pure
woman. He opened all her letters, he
made spies of her servants, and not day
passed that he did not insult her with
some mention of your name. Our pa
rents died within few months of the
marriage, and l was at the convent.
There was nothing to be done with her
misery but endure it, knowing that she
owed it all to your Impotence. Can you
wonder that she is unforgiving ?"
He is leaning on the small table be-
tween them with folded arms and down
bent eyes, and he is very pale, even
through the bronze Of ten African sum-
mcrs.
- loved her always" he says, al
most inaudibly; then pauses; nor does
he finish his sentence, though she waits
for him to do so.
You love herr You could not have
wrecked her life more utterly if you had
hated her. Can you wonder that she has
grown to fear the thought of love that
has been so cruel to her as yours and her
husbands? Monsieur, my brother-in-
law died two years ago-God is so good y
continues Lucille, fiercely. Since then
Jeanne has been ut peace, and she shrinks
with absolute horror from disturbing the
calm which has come to her after such
storms. She fears you, she avoids you,
because-shall tell you whyN
She can see his lips culver even under
the heavy mustachc, but he neither
speaks nor raises his eyes
"She loves you," murmurs Lucille,
Just aloud.
He lifts his eyes now and looks at her
dumbly for an instant; then, rising, alb
ruptly walks away.
He comes back presently.
My child he says, very gently, "do
not try to make me believe that, unless
you are very sure, for if l once believe
it again, IL"
81 am as sure as that | live that
Jeanne has never ceased to love you, and
that you can force her confess it if you
will make love to me-"
"Il You! You are laughing at me :"
with a rush of color into his dark face
Do you think so i'll of Jeanne's sis
ter?' she asked, softly.
Pardon. am scarcely myself, and
| cannot imagine how"
Jeanne will not receive you because
she knows her own heart and is afraid of
it. She fears that you will destroy the
hard-won peace she values so highly.
But you are wealthy, distinguished, the
head of your namc-a very different per
son from what you were ten years ago,
and she can find no reason for refusing
you as my suitor if consent, and as my
chaperon she must be present at all our
meetings. You begin to understand!
Make her see that your love is not all
jealousy; make her remember-mak her
regret"
but, forgive me, when one has loved
woman for ten years, " with faint
smile, "there is no room in ones heart
for even prctensc at loving another"
eff there were, monsieur, | should
never have proposed my plot" she re-
plies, with dignity. 1T is because
have watched you all these weeks and
know that your love is worthy of my
sister that trust you. But it is not with
ones heart that one pretcnds. Entin, it
is with you, to consent or decline"
"Decline.n he echoes, with passion
none the less intense for its quietness.
"Does dying man decline his last
chance of life, however desperate it may
be ~
The next week is full of bitter sur
prises to the proud and patient woman,
whose pathetic clinging to her new
found peace Lucille so well understands
Though it is long since she has permitted
herself to remember anything of the
lover of her youth except his jealousy,
she has believed in his faithfulness as ut
terly as she dreamed it, and when she re-
ceivcs De Palissier's note asking the con-
sent of his old friend to his love for her
sister, the pain she feels bewilders and
dismays her With smile whose cyni-
cism is as much for herself as for him,
she gives the note to Lucille, expecting an
instant rejection of the man whose mo-
tives in pursuing them they had both so
misunderstood. But with gay laugh,
"Then my sympathy has been all with
out cause" the girl cries. "By all
means let him come, my Jeanne 1t
cannot wound you who have long ago
! nooeo1 10 raorot him and ho 10 Tho To-,