The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-28
CUT BY THE COUNTY.
NOVEL BY MISS M E. BRADDON,
Lady Audy phantom Fortune Dead Mems Shoes Etc



dency to pulmonary consumption, and granted a
generoushearted girl, the result may be calcu-
lated upon as a certainty. Of course you fell in
love with him on the spot"
II am not that kind Of person, Colonel. l
don't suppose / should ever have given him a
serious thought if it had not been for the acct
dent which introduced US to each other. He
talked good deal to frumpish little elderly
woman who was toiling at a big altar piece, and
who looked as if she worked for her living. He
had such bright winning ways that could not
help noticing him-a little. Mademoiselle Bouge,
the governess, said he was the handsomest young
man she had ever seen. One day dropped my
mahl stick"
"On purposel"
"Oh, Colonel, how can you think so meanly of
met No, it was pure accident He few to pick
it up. thanked him, and then he fingered and
began to talk"
''Was he a Frenchmanl"
IA thorough Partisan. He told me- in the po-
litest way, that my flesh tints were too blue, and
gave me some excellent hints about colour.
Then he went back to his easel, and took no
further notice, except particularly graceful
bow when left the room. When I went back
two days afterwards he was there again, at an
other Wouvermans. He bowed when went in
gentlemen bow first in France, you know-and
could not be so bearsh as not to acknowledge
his bow / got onto my platform, and poor
Mademoiselle Bouge sat on her usual bench and
stared at the pictures in her usual sleepy way.
My hand trembled so that I could hardly paint. "
"And you dropped your mahl stick again."
mo, Colonel! How can you imagine such con-
duct? You have evidently poor opinion of
girls. l went on painting, wretchedy, for half
an hour or so; getting that poor Madonna bluer
and bluer with every touch of the brush, and
just as was beginning to despair of her the
young Frenchman came over to me, and asked
me if would allow him to give me a few more
hints upon coloring and harmony, and so on. l
neither said yes nor no, only murmured vaguely,
| like a shy simpleton as I was. He seemed to
think this gave him full permission, and he took
the picture in hand and told me how had gone
wrong and showed me what to do. This was the
| beginning of our friendship, which came about
very gradually, almost unawares; but in a fort
| nights time we were friends. We did not talk
much. That would have been impossible in a
| public room, and under the eye Of Mademoiselle
| Bouge; but he used to contrive to give me a
1
| fully clever at slipping the letter under my
color box, or into my hand, without poor old
| Bouge seeing him.
"He had done the same kind of thing very
| often before no doubt"
''You ought not to say that, Colonel, it is not
| like your usual kindness. No, he told me, in his
very first letter, that he had never been really in
love before"
They never have muttered the Colonel.
HE wrote the loveliest letters"
| 'And you answered themF'
II was obliged to answer sometimes hardly
| knew how wrong it was. You see had been
| brought up in a place where l knew everybody,
| and | had no idea of being afraid of strangers
| I told him who was, and how I was finishing
my education at Madame Sartoris and he told
| me his own history, and that he was an orphan,
| quite alone in the world, and that he belonged
! to good old Burgundian family, and that he
! had come to Paris to study art"
IA regular Bohemian, no doubt"
| 'You ought not to say that, godfather He
| always looked like gentleman though his
clothes were shabby. And although he lived on
the left side of the Seine in the students quar-
| ter, his manners were perfect"
''And his name. He had name, suppose y
His name is Victor de Camillac," answered
Grace, with dignity; 'and am engaged to him. y
''Really and truly engaged to himl That is
carrying things rather far with young man
with whom you only exchanged few words
about painting, and half dozen surreptitious
love letters"
''There were great many more than half a
dozen" answered Grace ''he wrote volumes.
| He gave me letter every time l went to the
Louvre-such clever letters, so eloquent, so
poetical"
II know the kind Of thing. He is one of those
men with whom letter.writing is COMPLAINT
must have been a very sleepy parsonage to have
had no suspicion of what was going on under her
| nose"
"Oh, she had her suspicious. poor soul. but
persuaded her to keep my secret. l blush to say
that appealed to her meanest instincts"
| ''As how2"
'You know the canfectioners at the corner Of
the Rue Castiglione"
| 'No"
Don't youl How pity you 1t is one of the
| best-I believe it is the best confectioners in
| Paris. used to take Bouge there every after
noon when we left the Louvre. Now, dear,
used to say, take whatever you fancy, and the
poor soul used to revel in eclars and choux and
| brooches, and meringues and red currant syrup
| to an alarming extent"
| 'How she must have missed you when you
| left school," said the Colonel, laughing.
| He could not bring himself to be very angry
with his goddaughter for this folly OF hers; nor
could he think very seriously of this Interchange
of love letters with a shabby genteel French
man. The whole business seemed, at the first
blush, too foolish for grave consideration; and
yet, on reflection, Colonel Stukely told himself
it was kind of folly which might entail dis.
| dSISCoulO Consequences. NSiy OioaSECOdOlO IL
the young man were scamp; and the circum-
| stances favored that inference.
And do you mean to say, Oracle he began,
after pause, that you have engaged yourself,
| in black and white, to a man of whose sur
rounding and antecedents you knew absolutely
nothingp
II knew everything" she answered, indg
nanty Victor told me his whole history. He
was thoroughly frank. He confessed that he
had only just enough to live upon poorly, and iu
a poor quarter. His father had been ruined by
the Mexican war, having been tempted to put all
his money into Mexican bonds. When his father
died Victor came to Paris to study art, in the
hope of becoming distinguished painter. like
MISSIONER or Vidal If l would promise te
marry him he told me he should have new
incentive to industry, perseverance, patience
hottest and purest incentive"
THAT fetched you," said the Colonel; land
you promised