The Mineral argus., 1884-10-02
THE MON'S CLAW.

dltlOn 70 COcD1n Onina5 ana Wnen, aIter tnIcs
long months Of illness in his Touraine home, h'
grew strong enough to walk q few yards on the
terrace Of the banks Of the Loire, with his moth
or and sister on each side Of him-how lovingly
they had nursed him, the good souls.-thOsC
shivering fits still came over him sometimes i
the autumn winds were colder than usual
"You should go to Pau for the winter" said
the doctor; "the climate is mild and not too hoI
JUST the thing for you-calming and soothing
and you viii come back TO your mother, in three
months time, 9 man again"
And 80 it was that, toward the middle Of No
vember, Julien de Rhe, leaning from his sun
lit window in the Hotel Garderes, looked out on
the sublime panorama Of the Pyrenees, putting
the while at those cigarettes which seem so de-
licious to a convalescent, and fell to thinking of
those he had smoked formerly in secret between
decks on the BordA. They brought back all the
sensations Of his sixteenth year.
"Why, the placei is full Of pretty women, y said
the young fellow the first time he went out to
listen to the band in tine Place Royale, and to
stroll in the sun in front Of the statue Of good
King Henry; and though he was neither a
hbertine nor a 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 ill that he never hoped to
wear it but once-on the black cloth of his
coffin.
1t had been a good idea, all the anne. to come
TO Pau. How beautiful it was-the sun that
10000 .-s4l--t H.-.s-- Al. liz $1,000
the wild landscape, with Its far-of boundary
of hills, and beyond its snow peaks rising into
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 mingling
together like the different songs of the birds in
an aviary. II is true that there were some dis
agreeable sights as well-such as the young
Englishman, for instance, in the last stage Of
consumption, who was wheeled about in q
little carriage by his servant, wrapped in
shawl and comforters; the Englishman who had
eyes like q boiled Goldfish, and wore q black
respirator over his mouth. Ali it was enough
to make one SILVER. And then after the first
movement Of pity-men are such egOtists-
Julien remembered what he looked Like him
self when he landed at Toulon, as thin as
a skeleton, with circles around his eyes like
two rings of chocolate; and he thought
thai now he was cured, he had had q narrow
escape.
And Julien de Rhe felt thatit was a good thing
TO be alive, to breathe the soft warm air out
there in the sunshine, well dressed, freshly
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
convalescent. and it was a case Of love at first
sight the day he saw MademOiselle Olga Bar
barine, the most beautiful girl of all the Rus
sian colony, jump from her horse in front of
the Hotel Gassion, 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 jumped on their horses together, 10
help her down. She took the first hand that
came, and as soon rs she was of her horse,
she kno cked on one of the tables in the veranda
with the handle Of her riding-whip, and call
ing for a cup of milk, which she drank at a
draught, stood there a moment, laughing,
looking like som 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
1hb anu ldnluB Ou Nor buOuAucTb. Du6 nelQ
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
on hair till 1t encircled her face like a halo.
Then, suddenly growing grave again, she
put down the cup on the table, gave a slight,
disdainful bow TO the group in pink, and walked,
with a queenly step, into the hotel, tapping
her boot with her riding-whip.
Three days later Julien de Rhe, who had
spent his time asking his friends, "Who is
she? / nm madly in love with her; / adore
her" etc, was introduced-not a very difficult
mafter-to the Barbarines, and made one Of
the squadron of admirers of the beautiful Rus
sian
Was she really a Russian, this intoxicating
creature, who had been galloping about all day
and Waiting all night, ever since the beginning
of the season. Yes, by her reputed father,
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 a New York banker named
jacobson, bad long kept up a haison 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 a convent at Naples, in
a school at Geneva; who had slept half her
ni0hts on the cushions of express trains, and
IN whose memory, as in a stereoscope, there
was nothing but a succession of watering
nlaees. seaside towns, winter cities, and other
places of fashionable resort, to which, for the
last fifteen years, her m~Other-stnl handsome
woman. in spite of the eruption on her face
had carried her blase person, her emu liner
samovar. and her pet monkeysg Alas! she had
country, this strange girl, who, with all tine