The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-11-08
WAS 1T CHANCE OR DESTINYg

w az OhAA7Sl4 WV LIME
She wa" an under-teacher IN a small
Protestant Partisan peaStORnat That
put into words means she slept in a
dormitory. with twenty children, the
windows being carefully closed at night
fall, rising at five o'clock, Just saving
them all from asphyXiation. In winter
she had to see that the chillblained
hands and feet were duly plunged into
the icy-cold water in the corridor where
the north wind blew in gusts through
the loose windows. For breakfast she
ate the watery soup thickened with
large pieces of bread and cabbage, or
made pastry with lentils; after which
she sat and shivered all the morning
in the school-room, heated bv small
iron basket of Goals set in the wide
chimney: the lunch of cold meat sliced
into thin enough pieces to 90 all around
once with potatoes or beans with red
wine, made pale with water, over, she
went into the garden and in summer
sat and mended the childreps clothes.
In winter she walked the entire hour
to keep from freezing. At the six
O'Clock dinner she was always asked
twice to the dry, tough meat. but it
was well understood She was to de-
cline. From this time on until the nine
O'Clock bedtime, she was first oversee
ing the children in the garden and aft
erwards at their studies in the school
room. All this can be told, but what
can not be told was the worst part of
1.-THE mental torture she had TO sub
NIT to from Madame from the time she
found fault with the children's hair
in the morning, until Bedtime, when
their lack OF progress was attributed to
her want OF attention. The truth was,
she was young and pretty, which
Madame could never quite pardon, nor
the independence and spirit she had
guarded during the two years this pain
full existence had lasted
All the circumstances of her life
were sad enough to seem invented for
fiction. Her family had been one of
position and wealth in Scotland, and
when her father and mother died. the
little Lucy was placed at one of the
best schools in England and kept there
until it was discovered the money had
all gone through mismanagement; and
the only way her guardian could think
to dispose Of her, was to send her to
Paris with the few hundred pounds
left, to perfect her French, in order
that she might become a governess.
AT seventeen the money was all gone
her guardian dead, and. having no
friends, she could do nothing better
than become the under teacher.
1T is surprising enough also to be
flight of fiction, that ut nineteen her
blue eyes were bright, her slender fig,
ure straight and her step light She
was winsOme rather than pretty, with
certain quiet dignity come to her partly
from her ancestors, partly through her
innate superiority. The viyacity natu-
raj TO youth, Of course, was wanting,
nor could the most eXacting critic de
mand it here to complete the picture of
beautiful character.
Such was MademOisele Lucette.
when one day in vacation, she received
au invitation from q Scotch lady and
gentleman who were in Paris for few
days, to 90 with them to the Fele deS
LoqeS, in the forest of St. German.
They, themselves, would continue their
route on to Rouen, but French lady
to be of the party, would return to Pa
ris with her
Madame gave very unwilling con-
sent "You know the hours" she said;
I'at ten o'clock the gate is locked and
can be opened to no one after that
hour"
OF course she would be back long
before ten she thought, at she flew
along the streets to meet her friends at
the station, feeling like bird escaped
from the cage.
En- route the party divided, Lucette,
at the request of the French lady,
stopped with her at Reuil to visit NAL
maison, while her friends went on to st.
German, and this change in their plans,
slight as it was, turned the whole cur
rent of her life. A rendezvous had
been agreed upon at the Chateau of st.
German, but when they arrived, their
friends were nowhere to be found in
the crowd, so all they could do was to
get into van and drive through the
forest to the tete, where, among the
thickest of the trees, booths covered
with green boughs were full of small
meuageries- acrobats, giants and all
the rest of the accessories to such an
assemblage; large crowds were collected
where fried potatoes and tritters in
greasy cornucopias were being eaten
from the frying pan, for this was the
principal object of the fete, to eat the
fried potatoes, so dear to the Partisan
palate, in the forest. When night came
on, the coarseness of the scene changed
to one of picturesque beauty in the
light Of myriads of colored lamps sus-
pended in strings between the trees and
fcstoOned around their trunks.
Lucette was gazing in wonder upon
the novel picture when wave of people
swept by and separated her from her
friend. At first she bravely tried to
find her and lost half an hour in the
pursuit; then, trembling and bewil-
dered, she hunted for van and was a