River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1884-09-04
THE LDN'S CLAW.

Julien de Rhe, lieutenant in the navy, had
come back in sad condition from his expe-
dition to Cochin China; and when, after three
long months of illness in his Touraine home, he
| grew strong enough o walk few yards on the
terrace Of the banks If the Loire, with his moth
er and sister on eaehside of him-how lovingly
| they had nursed him the good souls.-those
shivering fits still cane over him sometimes il
the autumn winds were colder than usual
'sYou should go to Pau for the winter, /" said
the doctor; "the climate is mild and not too hot
just the thing for ypu-calming and soothing
and you win como back to your mother, in three
months time, a man again"
And so it was that, toward the middle of No
vember, Julien de Rle, leaning from his sun
lit window in the Hotsl Garderes, looked out on
! the sublime panorann of the Pyrenees, putting
the while at those cigarettes which seem SO de-
hcious to a conyalescent, and fell to thinking of
those he had smoked formerly in secret between
| ecks on the Borda. They brought back all the
| sensations of his sixteenth year.
| 'sWhy, the place is full of pretty women y said
! the young fellow the first time he went out to
listen to the band in the Place Royale, and to
stroll in the sun in front of the statue of good
! King Henry; and though he was neither a
libertine nor fop, the sailor, beginning to en-
| joy life again. dressed himself in his best cap,
and his frock coat with the three new gold
bands, and the rosette of the Legion of Honor,
that his mother had brought to him when
| he lay in bed so i'll that he never hoped to
wear it but once-on the black cloth of his
coffin
1t had been good idea, all the same to come
to Pau. How beautiful it was-the sun that
warmed without burning, the blue heavens,
the wild landscape with ITS far-off boundary
nf and lie ria int
the sky And how amusing it was TO stroll
about in that cosmopolitan crowd among the
fair foreigners, and listen to their voices talk
ing every language in Europe, and minglipg
together like the different songs of the birds in
an ayiary. 1t is true nat there We're some dis
! agreeable sights as well--such as the young
Englishman, for instance, IN the last stage of
consumption, who was wheeled about In a
little carriage by his servant wrapped III
shawl and comforters; the Englishman who had
eyes like boiled goldfish, and wore a black
respirator over his mouth Ahl it was enough
to make one SILVER And then after the first
movement of pitg-men are such egotists-
Julien remembered what he looked like him
self when he landed at Toulon, as thin as
skeleton, with circles around his eyes like
two rings of chocolate and he thought
that, now he wascured, he had had narrow
escape
And Julien de Rhe felt thati was good thing
to be alive to breathe the soft warm air out
shaved, and proud of the rosette at his button
hole. And he gave money to the beggars,
gazed after the pretty women who passed
him, and at last stopped, feeling quite soft
ened at the sight to watch the pretty little
American girls in black stockings and gloves
and floating white dresses, who were dancing
in a ring around one of the trees of the Place
Royale, to the tune of the double-quick
march which the band was playing.
He was just ready to fall in love, this happy
wa n paa Of at rat
sight the day he saw Mademoiselle Olga Bar
barine, the most beautiful girl of all the Rus
san colony, jump from her horse in front of
the Hotel Gassioh, where she lived with her
mother.
1t was five O'Clock in the evening, and she
had just returned from the hunt The five or
six admirers, in pink, who had accompanied
her had jumpedCf their horses together, to
help her down. She took the first hand that
came and as soon as she was off her horse,
she knocked on one of the tables in the veranda
with the handle Of her riding whip, and call
ing for cup of milk, which she drank at
draught, stood there moment, laughing,
looking like some goddess of old with her
slender form distinctly outlined as if nodded
In her black riding habit and the waves of her
shining auburn hair loosened from her mans
hat and falling on her shoulders. She held
her empty cup in both hands, satisfied, and
as it were, intoxicated by the fresh beverage
and behind her the setting sun lit up her gold
en- hair till 1T encircled her face like halo.
Then, suddenly growing grave again, she
put down the cup on the table, gave slight,
disdainful bow tothe group in pink, and walked,
with queenly step, into the hotel, tapping
her boot with herriding whip.
Three days later Julien de Rhe, who had
spent his time asking his friends, 'sWho is
she? am madly in love with her; ] adore
her" etc, was introduced-not a very difficult
matter-to the Barbarines, and made one of
the squadron of admirers of the beautiful Rus
sian
Was she really Russian, this intoxicating
creature, who had been galloping about all day
and waltzing all night, ever since the beginning
of the season? Yes, by her reputed father,
her mothers first husband, the Count Barba-
rine. But every one knew the mother had
been divorced just at the very time of her
daughters birth, and that Madame Barbarine,
whose father was New York banker named
jacobson, had long kept up liaison that was
almost public, with a northern prince-some
Christian or Oscar. Had she any nationality,
this child who had been brought up, by turns,
in a Scotch nursery, in convent at Naples in
a school at Genera; who had slept half her
nights on the cushions of express trains, and
in whose memory, as in stereoscope, there
was nothing but q succession of watering
Places seaside towns, winter cities, and other
places of fashionable resort, to which, for the
last fifteen years. her mother-still a handsome
woman, in spite OF the eruption on her face
had carried her base person, her emu her
samovar, and her pet monkeys? Alas she had
no country, this strange girl, who, with all the
modesty of a maiden, had the audac1ty of a
boy, and who said laughing at herself, Gas
for me, am neither from London, nor from
Paris, nor from Vienna, nor from st Peters
burg. l am from he table d'hote."
Had she any relations? None, it seemed
Hor true father-the Oscar, or Christian, TO
whom Madame BaIbarne so often alluded had
been dead several years, and her father ac-
cording to the lav-the Russian count-had
never taken any notice of her He was com
pletely ruined, and had no other means of ex-
istance but his gun He was dead-shot and
earned his living by winning prizes at the pig
con matches, like a sort of civilized Leather
stocking AS for the countess, though she had
periodic attacks Of motherly sentimentalism
that set ones teeth on edge they rang so false,
she was blessed with the most perfect, absolute
and utter seIfishness When Olga, who was
then eight years old, had had typhoid fever,
and nearly died of it, Madame Barbarine, while
she was nursing her little girl for appearances
sake, never once forgot to put on her greaced
gloves at night to keep her hands white.
Julien de Rhe learned all these things when
he enrolled himself in the flying squadron that
was always man@uvring round about Madem-
oselle Olga Barbarine. Yet he fell in love
with her desperately, this strange and touching
girl, who looked him so straight in the face,
and who, the day the lieutenant was introduced
to her by mutual friend, said to him, as she
lit her pheresli cigarette:
''Ahl you are the man who is SO much in
love with me? How do YOU dOIp
And she shook his hand like man.
He fell in love with her, the good honest
sailor, and to love her all the more that, be-
fore long, he come to understand and pity her
For he was not mistaken; Olga was strange,
and badly brought up; but she had no CO
qnetry, and her soul was proud and true. Who
knowsy Perhaps she felt the vanity of her
life of pleasure and agitation. What is GER
tain is that she judged, and judged sev erely,
all those young fellows who danced atten-
dance upon her in the hunting field, and wrote
their names on her programme every evening.
They were all in love with her, but none of
them really respected her, for there was not
one among them who had as yet made up his
mind to ask her to marry him. And she
treated them pretty roughly, and called them
to order-with a good stroke of her riding
whip like the handsome horsewoman she was
when they yentured to whisper too close in
her ear in the whirl of a waltz, or to squeeze
the hand she held out to them in good-fellow
ship. Julien, whose refinement of heart
stood him instead of quiekness
of perceptions Is often the
simple minded who see the most clearly-had
discovered the hidden treasures of loyalty in
the soul of this patTician, who was In reality so
He loved her for her beauty GER
tainly and his senses reeled when he felt her
lean upon mis- arm in the pauses OF the dance
this grand, fair woman, with her dark eyes,
and her skin that seemed so like the rose after
storm, when, in her nonchalant way, she |
talked to him, intoxicating him with the violet |
fragrance of her breath and the glitter of her
starry eyes. But he loved her as well, he loved |
her above all for the pain she hid so proudly;
and his heart burned as he watched the cad, |
sorrowful glance that Olga bent on her mother |
when Madame Barbarine at her four-to-eix |
tea-sitting with her back 70 the light to hide |
the black spots on her nose, against which |