Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1884-09-12
A BOURGEOIS ROMANCE.

black dress and plainly braided hair,
was sitting at her desk at the back OF
the shop, writing quietly in an immense
brass bound ledger, Wien her husband
came home, after having done his COM
missions for the morning. Hestopped On
the threshold to gru,nble at his workmen
for taking so long q time to unload a
wagon from the Northern Railway, that
was drawn up by the pavement, filed
with dozen barrels of glucose for the
great chemist of the Rue Vieille du Tenn
pie. - 49,
II have bad news for you, said Mad
anne Bayard, wiping her pen in a little
pot of steel shavings, as her husband
came into the glass cage. "Poor Voisin
is dead"
"Leon's nurse! ALI, poor woman
And her little girl?"
'That is the saddest part of it, my
dear. One OF poor Voisin's relatives
writes to me that they are too poor to
burden themselves with the child, and
that they viii be obliged to send her to
the asylum. Oh, those peasants"
, The druggist stood silent for. mo-
ment, pulling his thick blonde beard
then, suddenly looking at his wife with
kindly eyes, he said:
"You know, Mimi, she is Icons fos-
ter.sister II we were to take her"
"That is what I thought" his hand
some wife answered, simply.
"That it right" cried big Bayard,
stopping over his wife and kissing her
on the forehead, without troubling him
self about what his wcrkmen and shop
boys might think Of it. "That is right
You are good woman, Mimi; we will
fetch little Norine home here, and she
shall be brought up with Leon. That
won't ruin us. And l have Just done q
grand stroke of business We will go
to Argenteuil Sunday and fetch the
child; il will be nice little excursion
for u.s.
They were worthy people, the Bay
ards, and an honor to the drug trade
Their marriage had joined two houses
that had long lived rivals: for Bayard
was the "son" Of the "Silver Pestle,"
which had been founded by his great
grandfather, 1856, in the Rue Vieille
du Temple, and he had married the
heiress OF the "Offering to Esculapills,
of the Rue des Lombartls, an establish
ment which dated back to the first EN-
pire, as was duly set forth by it's sign
board, copied from Guorin's celebrated
picture. Worthy people very worthy
people! And there were, many more
Like them still in the old Partisan COM
merce, whatever people may say, keep
ing up the old traditions, giving back
the pain benit to the parish church,
going to the upper boxes at the Opera
Comique on Sundays, and innocent
of the secret Of false weights. It
was the cure of Blanc Manteaux who
had made the match--he and his
brother of Santa Merri The cure
of Blanc Manteaux had administered
extreme unction to Bayard the IA
ther on his death bed, and it
had frightened him to see 81 young
man of twenty weighed down by
the whole responsibility Of such an i'm
portant house as the F'Silver Pestle," q
house famous for it's ipecacuanhas and
his confrere Of Saint Merri had been
very anxious to establish Mademoiselle
Simonin, whom he had confirmed, and
whose father, old Sinonin Of the "Off-
ing to Esculapius, famous for its cam
phors, was one of his most solid parish
toner's. Their joint negotiations sue
ceeded; the camphor and the ipecacu
anha---two excellent specialties-were
united in the holy bonds of matrimony !;
there was dinner and abaIl at Vefour's;
and for the last ten years Madame Bay
ard had worked quietly every day, win
Ter and summer, in her glass cage; and,
with her pale brunette skin q her SIM
ply braided hair, was the ideal Of all
the young shopmen in tho Sainte- Croix
de Ia Bretonnerie quarter.
For long time there had been a
trouble IN this happy home, D cloud
in the pure sky; the Bayard's had no
heir; and it was not till five years after
their marriage that little Leon made
his appearance. You may imagine how
ioyfully he was welcomed. Now they
would be able to write some day, under
the "Silver Pestle," these magic words
F'Bayard &, Son." Only as the child
arrived just at the isinglass- IN citing
season, when Madame Bayard's pres
ence in the shop was indispensable, she
could not think OF nursing him herself.
She, was obliged too. to give up the
idea Of taking a nurse for him at home,
on account Of the unhealthy atmosphere
of this corner of old Paris, and she was
obliged to content herself with a jour
ney to Argenteuil every Sunday, with
her husband, to see her son at his nurs e's,
Mother Voison, who was overwhelmed,
as one may suppose, with coffee, sugar,
and other delicacies. At the end
of eighteen months Mother Voison
brought back the baby in splendid
condition, ann now, for the last
two years, nursery maid, care
fully chosen, had taken the child
out for an airing every day in the
Square Of the Tour Saint Jacques, and
displayed the fine rosy cheeks and dim
Piles OF the future druggist to Eer COM
1aanions.s So that the good Bayards,
when they heard of the death Of Mother
Voisin, could not bear to think Of the
little girl who had been fed with the.
same milk as their son being abandoned
to public charity, and they went to
Argenteuil to fetch her. In
Poor little Norine.' For the. fort.
night since her mother YVES laid in the
grave she had been taken in by a <cou
sin, who kept an inn and billiard-room
and although not five years old, she
was already set TO wash the trlmblers.
Monsieur and Madame .Bayard thought
1e,,