Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1885-01-11

kby s;16 ihb}e. Ard f6otirN 5<s 81 t61<
biszih& ard c<eekEng apoa tic sfmpis
stone ke<rth. A hook Or tHo LAY upon he
shelf it TIE sides abe glanced esasiQai q
their titles ~ she passed, and saw that
fkey we're some Of Toargeniefs latest
novels 8 pa~per.cUeered lola fresh from
Paris. q yolnlae each Of Tennyson. Brown
ing, Carlysle end Swinburne, Q Demidof.
an Emile Augier. q Revue des Deux Mon
des, and q late number Of an English mag
azine. She valued these things at
once for their own sakes, but still more be-
canse she felt ~instinctively that MAJ had
taken the trouble to get them there for her
beforehand in this remote and unciYilized
corner. She turned to the piano; q light
piece OF Sullivan Law open before her. and q
number ofairs from Chopin, Schubert and
Meudelssohn were scattered loosely on the
Top, one above the other. Her heart was
too full TO utter a word, but she went straight
up to her husband, threw her arms tenderly
around his neck, and kissed him with the
utmost fervoF. MAJ smoothed her way
fair hair gently with his hand, and bis
eyes sparkled with conscious pleasure as he
returned her caress and kissed her forehead.
After awhile they vent into the next
room TO dinner-a small hall, somewhat
barbSric in type, but not i'll furnished; and
Olga noticed that the two or three servants
we're very fierce and savage looking Buriats
OF the most Tartar type. The dinner was a
plain one, plainly served, of rough country
hospitality; but the appointments were all
European, and, though simple, good aud
sufficient MAJ had said so much to her Of
the discomforts of his mountain stronghold
that Olga was quite delighted to find things
on the whole so comparatively civilized,
clean and European.
A few days sojcurn in the fort-it was
rather that than q castle or o village
showed Olga pretty clearly what sort OF life
she was hencefoIth to expect. Her hus.
bands subjects numbered about a hundred
and fifty with as many more women aud
children); they rendered him the most
implicit obedience, and they evidently
looked upon him entirely as a superior being.
They we're trained to a military discipline,
and were regularly drilled every morning
By MAJ IN the queer old semi Chinese couri-
ward Of the Wondering castle. Olga was 50
accustomed TO a Russian military regime
that this circumstances never struck her as
bling anything extraordinary; she regarded
il Only as a part of the Baron's ancestral
habits rs a practically independent Tartar
ebitftsin.
Week after week rolled away az thu fort,
and though Olga had absolutely no one to
whom she could speak but her husband TOR
the Buriats knew no Russian save the word
of commandl she didn': find the time hang
ing heavily on her hands in the quaint, old
tsshioned village. The walks and rides
about were really delightful; the scenery
vas grand and beautiful to the last degree;
he Chinese locking houses and Tartar
dress were odd and picturesque like a
scene in a theatre. 1t was al so
sbsurdly romGcric. After all, Olgo said
20 herself with . smile more than once, II
isn't half bad being married 10 q Tartar
ctieftain up in the border mountains, when
you actually come to try il. Only, she con
Used in her own heart that she would prob
ably always be very glad when the winter
came again. and she got buck from these
L Qua ain solitudes to the congcnial gayety
OF rotolSk or Petersburg.
Aud Maxwell, MAJ loved here distract
ed!y. No husband on earth could possibly
iO'e a woman better.
Still, Olga could never understand why
Ee sometimes had to leave her for three or
four DAYS together, and why during his alb.
scpce, when she was left all alone at night
u tie solitary fort with those dreadful Bari
ats, thew kept watch and ward so carefully
all he time, and seemed so relieved when
MAJ came back again. But whenever she
asked him about it, MAJ only looked grave
aud anxious, and replied with a would-be
careless wave of the hand that part of his
duty Was to guard the frontier, and that the
Gear had not conferred a tile and an order
? o him for nothing. Olga felt frightened
ard disqaieted on all such occasions, but
somehow felt, from Mas manner, that
he must not question him further upon the
matter.
One day, after one Of these occasional
excursions, MAJ came back in high spirits,
ard kissed her more tenderly and affection
aisly thar ever. After dinner he read to
her out Of a book of French poems a grand
piece of Victor Hugo's, and then made her
lit down to the piano and play him his fla
vosite air from der FreischutZ' twice over.
When she had finished, he lesnt back in his
chair and mUrmured gentlY in French
which they always spoke together-"And
this in the mountains of Tartary! One
would say q soiree Of St. Petersburg or of
Paris"
Olga turned and looked at him softly.
What is the time, dearest Mar she said
with a smile. Shall | be able to play you
sill that dance of Pinsutt'sT'
MAJ pulled out his watch and answered
quickly, "Only 10 o'clock, darling. You
have plenty of time still"
Something in the look of the watch he
held in his hand struck Olga as queer and
unfamiliar. She glanced at it sideways,
and noticed hurriedly that MAJ was trying
o replace it uEobseryedly in his wsistcoa
pocket. 81 haven't seen that watch before
,he said suddenly; let me look at it dear
viii youY'
MAJ drew it out and handed it to her
With affected nonchalance; but in the un-
f,rcuIrent o fhis expression Olga caught a
glimpse OF hang-dcg look she had never
reiore observed in il. She turned over the
~stch and looked on the back. To her im-
TsuSe surprise, il bore the i%nitisis, #. de
\" engraved upon he cover.
These letters don't belong to you, MAJ"
he said, scanning it curiOusly.
MAJ moved ~uneasily in his chair. "NO."
lie answered, mot to me, Olga. lists
an old family relic-sn heirloom, in fact. 1t
belonged to my mothers mother. She a
a-Mdlle. de Kerouae, I believe, from Nor.
Gihnn in Brittany"
Olss's eyes looked him through with q
strange, newborn suspicion. What could it
all mean? She knew be was telling her a
islsehOod. Had the watch belonged--to
snmn nAhar lndu2 Mhat uas The manninn