Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1885-03-04
WAS 1T CHANCE OR DESTINYl

She was an under-teacher in a small
Protestant Partisan penSionndt. That
put into words means: she slept in q
dormitory with twenty children, the
windows being carefully closed at night.
fall, rising at five o'clock, Just saving
them all from asphyxiation. In winter
she had to SEQ that the chillblained
hands and feet were duly plunged into
the icy-cold water in the corridor where
the north wind blew in gusts through
the loose windows. For breakfast she
ate the watery soup thickened with
large pieces of bread and cabbage, OIL
made pastry with lentils; after which
she sat and shivered all the morning
in the school-room, heated by a small
iron basket of Goals set in the wide
chimney; the lunch of cold meat sliced
into thin enough pieces to go all around
once with potatoes or beans with red
wine, made pale with water, over, she
went into the garden and in summer
sat and mended the children's clothes.
In winter she walked the entire hour
TO keep from freezing. At the six
O'Clock dinner she was always asked
twice to the dry, tough meat, but it
was well understood she was to de-
Cline. From this time on until the nine
o'clock bedtime, she was first oversee
ing the children in the garden and aft
erwards at their studies in the school
room. All this can be told, but what
can not be told was the worst part of
1.-THE mental torture she had TO SUBJ
NIT to from Madame from the time she
found fault with the children's hair
in the morning, until bedtime, when
their lack of progress was attributed to
her want of attention. The truth was,
she was young and pretty, which
Madame could never quite pardon, nor
the independence and spirit she had
guarded during the two years this pain
full existence had lasted.
All the circumstances of her life
were sad enough to seem invented for
fiction. Her family had been one of
position and wealth in Scotland, and
when her father and mother died, the
little Lucy was placed ut one of the
best schools IN England and kept there
until it was discovered the money had
all gone through mismanagement; and
the only way her guardian could think
TO dispose of her, was to send her to
Paris with the few hundred pounds
left, to perfect her French, in order
that she might become governess.
At seventeen the money was all gone,
her guardian dead, and, having no
friends, she could do nothing better
than become the under-teacher.
1t is surprising enough also to be a
flight of fiction, that at nineteen her
blue eyes were bright, her slender fig
ure straight and her step light. She
was winsome rather than pretty, with a
certain quiet dignity come to her partly
from her ancestors, partly through her
innate superiority. The vivacity natu-
raj to youth, of course, was wanting,
nor could the most exacting critic de-
mand it here to complete the picture of
beautiful character.
Such was Mademoiselle Lucette,
when one day in vacation, she received
an invitation from Scotch lady and
gentleman who were in Paris for a few
days, to go with them to the Fe,e DIES
Loges, in the forest of st. German.
They, themselves, would continue their
route on to Rouen, but a French lady
to be of the party, would return to Pa
ris with her.
Madame gave very unwilling con-
sent. "You know the hours" she said;
Sat ten o'clock the gate is locked and
can be opened to no one after that
hour"
OF course she would be back long
before ten she thought, at she flew
along the streets to meet her friends at
the station, feeling like bird escaped
from the cage.
En- route the party divided, Lucette,
at the request of the French lady,
stopped with her at Reuil to visit NAL
maison, while her friends went on to St.
GERMAN, and this change in their plans,
slight rs it was, turned the whole cur
rent of her life. A rendezvous had
been agreed upon at the Chateau Of St.
German, but when they arrived, their
friends were nowhere to be found in
the crowd, so all they could do was to
get into van and drive through the
forest to the fete, where, among the
thickest of the trees, booths covered
with greon boughs were full OF small
menagcries-acrobats, giants and all
the rest of the accessories to such an
assemblage; large crowds were collected
where fried potatoes and fritters in
greasy cornucopias were being eaten
from the frying-pan, for this was the
principal object Of tho Jete, to eat the
fried potatoes, so dear to the Partisan
palate, in the forest. When night came
on, the coarseness of the scene changed
TO ono Of picturesque beauty in the
light OF myriads of colored lamps sus-
pended in strings between the trees and
festooncd around their trunks.
Lucette was gazing in wonder upon
the novel picture when wave of people
swept by and separated her from her
friend. At first she bravely tried to
find her and lost half an hour in the
pursuit; then, trembling and bewil-
dered, she hunted for van and was a
long time in finding one. When at last
she reached the station the train had
just gone and it would be whole hour
before the next one. She shivered with
CONSERVATION as her eye fell on the
clock and saw 1t was already past nine
and no possibility of getting home be-
fore ton.
The trembling bit Of humanity hud-
died into a corner to get out of sight
soon caught the eye of a young, fair.
haired man, pacing up and down, like
wise waiting for the train. She scarce.
ly noticed him for he was gentleman
and confined his observation to GOV.
ert glance. Every time his beat brought
him near her, and when she was AT
last In the coupe and glanced at her
vis-d-uis, she only thought; 'that is the
young man who was in the station, -
for in her impotence to get home she
had no room for other thoughts than
the snail pace mt which they were ad-
vancing. 1t seemed to her the train
crcpt; then came long delay In chang
ing cars, after which, at every few
minutes, they stopped att station. II
was simply maddcning. Arrived In
the city she had to take her place In
the long procession and wait another
eternity before shc could get through
the wicket. At last she was in the
empty streets flying toward her distant
home. OF course, when she reached