News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-06-26
A LIFELONG LOVE.
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH.

| TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH.
Gas the marquis has said, began the
old doctor, Glove is an affair of tempera-
ment; for my part passion came under
my observation that lasted tifty-fve
years, without day of respite, and was
terminated only by DEATH"
The marquise clapped her hands.
"Isn't that nice p cried she. "How
delicious to be loved so What happi-
ness to live fifty-five years envelol ID by
such affection How happy he hould
be, and how he ought to bless life, the
man who is adored in that fashion ~
The doctor resumed with smile:
"Indeed, madame, you are not de-
ceived upon the point that the be-
loved being was man. You know him
he is NJ. Chouquet, the apothecary of
the town. AS to the woman, you knew
her also-she was the old chair
who came every year to the chateau.
But l will make myself better under
stood"
The enthusiasm of the ladies mad
cooled, and their countenances expressed
disgust. as if love had no Business save
with elegant and high-born people.
The doctor continued:
sThree months ago I was summoned
to that old woman's death-bed. She had
arrived the day before in the wagon
that served her for dwelling, drawn by
| the sorry horse you have seen, and ac-
companied by her two huge black dogs,
her friends and guardians. The cure
was already there. She made us her
testamentary executors, and, to explain
to us the meaning of her last wishes, re-
lated to us the history of her whole life.
l know of nothing more touching
"Her father and mother both were
chair-menders. She had never lived in
a house built upon the ground.
"When young she had wandered
about. ragged and dirty. They stopped
lust outside of the villages, along the
bitches: they embarrassed; the horse
cropped the grass; the dog dozed, his
muzzle upon his paws, and the child
rolled amid the verdure, while her par
ents mended, in the shade of the roadside
elms. all the old chairs of the commune.
They spoke but little in that travelling
dwelling. After the few words necessary
to decide who should go around among
the houses uttering the well known cry,
1.-THE chair -mender is here p they be-
gan to twist the straw, sitting opposite
to each other or side by side. When the
child strayed too far or endeavored to
make the acquaintance of some village
urchin, her fathers angry voice recalled
her with, "Will you come here, you lit
tie wretch ?" These were the kindes.
words she ever heard.
"When she grew larger they sent her
to gather up the broken chairs. While
thus engaged she became acquainted
with several lads here and there, but il
was then the parents of her new friends
who roughly recalled their children,
shouting, will you come here, you
slovenly boy? I'll teach you better than
to chatter with bare-footed vagrants =
soften the little lads threw stones al
her.
'Some ladies having given her few
sous, she kept them carefully.
Zone day-she was then twelve years
old-as she was passing through this
district, she met back of the cemetery
little Chouquet, who was weeping be-
cause a comrade had stolen two sous
from him. Those tears of little bour
geois, of one of those lads whom she
imagined in her weak vagrant's head to bt
always contented and joyous, upset her
She approached, and when she knew the
reason of his trouble poured into hi'
hands all her savings, seven sous, tina
he naturally took, wiping away hi
tears. Then, wild with Joy, she had the
audacity to kiss him. AS he was atten
lively gazing at the money, he let he
go ahead. Seeing that she was neithe
repulsed nor beaten, she began again
she hugged him with all her might, will
all her heart. Tn enshe ran oft.
"What was passing in her miserabl,
, head? Had she attached herself to thi
, boy because she had sacrificed her vaga
bonds fortune for him, or because sh
had given him her first tender kiss? Th
l mystery is the same for children as TO
l grown-up people.
"For months she dreamed of that cor
ner of the cemetery and of that boy; il
the hopeof seeing him again, she robbed
her parents, pocketing sou here, ant
and another there, from the money sh
collected for chair r-mending, or the sum
with which she was sent to buy pro
visions.
"When she returned to the distric
she had two francs in her pocket, bu
she could only catch glimpse of tn
little apothecary, looking very neat
through the window of the paterna
shop, between a bottle filled with rec
iauid and a shelf we'll stocked witt
drugs.
''She only loved him the more, fas
; cinated, agitated, rendered ecstatic b.
this glory of colored water, this apo
theosis of sparkling glass.
"She kept i'll her memory the inef
faceable recollection of him, and whel
she met him the following year, back o
the schoolhouse, playing marbles will
his comrades, she hugged and kissed
him with such violence that he howlet
with fear. Then to quiet him she CAV
him her money-th1ee francs, twent.
eentimss--a genuine treasure that b