The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-06-16
MARGARET AND LUCILLE.
The story of an Illinois Man who Cared
More for a Field of Corn Than for
Ruins.

The story of an Illinois Man who Cared
More for a Field of Corn Than for
Ruins.
At the Lord Warden Hotel in Dover we
found Jean Vallot, a Swiss courier, who
had spent his life in the service of travellers
between England and Italy, and who accom-
panied us during tour of several months
in Western Europe. He was at least sixty
years of age, though still alert and vigor-
Gus; and in his manners there was that
Difference to his employers and that AFRO
gance to inn-keepers and servants which
characterized the cOuriers of the last gen
Grafton, whose office was far more impor-
tant than is theirs of this day of railways
and multiplied facilities for travel. How
imperiouS he was when he dared! He never
allowed anyone else to assist us in and out
of cars and carriages; he pushed aside the
walters at the hotel tables, that he alone
might attend us. He was scrupulouslv
polite in his salutations, yet if the least UNI
usual service was required of him, or if his
advice as to routes and conveyances was
not taken, his frigid air and frowning brow
and compressed lips showed selfishness and
a stubborn will, and, while strictly proper
in demeanor, he had, when he pleased, the
faculty of making one thoroughly uncom-
Portable.
All we ever learned from him of his his
tory was what he told us one evening at st.
Martins, on the road from Geneva to Cha
mount. 1t was a wild night and we were
the only guests at the inn. By blazing
wood-fire we were forgetting the chill and
fatigue of the day, when | noticed that
Jean, who stood i'll recess waiting for his
morning orders, was intently perusing a
letter. 1t was the first indication we had
seen that he had any interest beyond him
self, and l said:
'You have letter, Jean; I hope it brings
you good news.n
htNaithar troOd nor had M
is from my girls"
"Your girls! Where are they? and how
old are they? and what are their names?
Pray sit down and tell US all about them"
- ttErhefe is not much to tell, - he replied, as
with respectful bow he took the proffered
chair. "They are Margaret and Lucille,
fifteen and eleven years old, and | have
them at a small pension near Bruxelles."
"And where is their mother?"
''Sbe is dead these five years."
"Poor girls that is sad"
eyes, and no, mademoiselle. She was
good woman, but always ailing. If she had
lived | could not have paid the doctor and
servant and kept the children at the pen
sion too. Now | hope they will soon be
able to do something for themselves"
"Was your wife from your own coun-
try"
80 no, from England. Perhaps a Swiss
woman would have been stronger, and
made me less of trouble, but Margaret Dane
was pretty girl and very good-tempered,
and seemed healthy enough in those days.
She was Lady Vernon's maid, and | was
their courier through a long journey. One
Sunday an accident kept us at a dull little
town in Bavaria, and whether | had taken
glass too much of beer, or how it was,
never can explain; but lost my head and
asked her to marry me. | was forty and
she only twenty-one. 1t was a great mis-
take. She had lived at the Hall and was
used to comfort, and had done very we'll
alone; but, as said, she was always ailing,
and she brought me five children; only two
of them however-Dieu merci survived
their first year. had no particular fault
to find with her; l suppose she did as well
as she could; but 1T would have been far
better if she had remained a lady's-maid
and | bachelor"
"lf this was your feeling, Jean, it is not
strange that she was always ailing,' and
has been five years dead. She must have
been very unhappy"
81 dare say she was, but couldn't help
1t. was unhappy myself. And that's the
way with half the people in my station if
they would only speak their thoughts The
truth is, mademoiselle, no man should
marry who hasn't plenty of money. There
was my friend, Louis Meyer, at Bruxelles
he was getting on capitally-had engage
ments with the best parties and a thousand
francs laid by, when he must needs marry
young gouvernante-English, too-and
now he is far more unfortunate than am.
L saw him when we were there, and he told
me he had been obliged to give up travel
ing and was then acting merely as valet de
place, picking up what he could here and
There with an occasional evenings wait
ing when there were festivities at the court.
And why! Because he has ten children
eight of them daughters; and one of the
eight cripple-think of that! the eldest
girl, Just thirteen, he has apprenticed to a
hnlr-nTnGCnr ha nv{fx L
the lace-making; but still there are five,
and one of them will never walk. Iuste
ciel!"
"Yet he surely has some pleasure with
his famly?"
pleasure !'-with shrug of the Shout
ders-"lt isn't pleasure he is looking for,
but breadD
but his case is an unusual one."
ma fol! no. There was Maurice Hahn
of Strasbourg, who had always been very
prudent man, only rather given to foolish
sentiment-liked his room hung round with
bits of pictures, and never forgot mass.
He had saved so much that he hoped another
year to take small inn on one of the boule
wards and begin business for himself.
What did he do but marry a widow he
found at the Adler in Trieste, an Aus
trian, with two boys and not sou; and all
because he fancied she looked like the Dres-
den Madonna! He has never come back; a
wiser man rented the Lion dor: some one
saw him lately among the walters at the
1Adler;' and you may be certain that by
this time he wishes he had been content to
admire the widow at a distance, as we do
the saints in the churches. The only one
of my set | ever knew better himself by
marrying was Henri Caller, from my own
village near Geneva. His wife was from
Rouen, but had keptlodgings in London for
twelve years. She was older than he, and
anything but handsome; but she had laid
by a good bit of money, and she made a
comfortable home for him between his