Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-08-12

was not that quite as good as the half
dozen countesses she read about in the
society columns of the papers? And
then the romance-although it would
be as well not to have it too widely
known; and if it was money trouble,
We're there not many hundred thousand
dollars belonging to the Burt-Robin-
sons. and but three to divide it among?
Then Maurice was so handsome, and
played so grandly-only the sooner he
stopped playing the better. And so
Miss Lillian dreamed and planned, Sit
ting in faultless attitude in large
armchair, slowly fiuttering her Wat
teau fan, while the breeze as softly flut-
tered her filmy draperies. Next to her
sat mamma, as dutiful and obedent as
the American mamma usually is in
families of the Burt-kobinson stamp,
and back of them the French girl with
Gwendolen sprawled all over her lap.
The first time the eyes of Jeanne Le-
fevre and Roller had met, something
like an electric shock had passed be-
tween them. Jeanne had thought it
was hate, although it might have been
love, as the boundary line between these
two emotions is not always clearly de-
fined. Jeanne s father had been an Of
ticer in the French army, from Alsace,
and had been killed in the sortie from
Metz: and Roller had actually belonged
to the army of occupation, and had
spent two years in garrison at Strasburg.
as she found out in some way. Natur-
ally she hated him, and Roller, seeing
the fierceneSs of the hatred that famed
in her pretty face, had determined to be
revenged on her. He had had his vic
tories. and he said to himself that he
would make this black browed French
girl yet give him soft glance out of
her Southern eyes.
He had way of looking at her ten
derby. intently-that exasperated her.
He played at her, things she knew, full
of sentiment and longing, that made
her yearn to box his ears. And yet he
was so stealthy about it. He saw, what
every body saw, what filled Mrs. Burt
Robinson with anguish, that Lillian was
making what is vulgarly and with vul-
garity called "a dead set'' at him.
Why, he could not imagine. Why
any girl on earth, with Lillian's
beauty, her youth and her money,
should want to marry a man whom ev-
everybody supposed to be penniless
German violinist, was beyond him. He
mistakenly fancied that titles without
money were not valued in this glorious
Republic; and having squandered all
that he could lay his hands on, and hay
ing nothing but his violin at present be-
tween himself and starvation, he saw
no more reason why Lillian should de-
vote herself to his capture than to that
of the cOrnet, who was also Il remarka-
bly, good-looking young fellow. But
Miss Lillian knew her game. Count
Roller palace in Munich fixed it. She
would not in the least mind being
Countess Roller, and if the violin cpl
sode got out it could be treated as a
lark.
Miss Lefevre, sitting far back, and
glowering darkly at the handsome
young German, rather amused Lillian,
day, she remarked that she didn't be-
lieve Roller was Count at all. Some
thing like thrill of fear shot through
Lillian's heart. Suppose, after all her
languishing and posing, the violinist
should turn out no more than the cor
metz But she treasured herself; she
had Mr.. Prescott Fairbanks word for
it. and when, after a triumphal progress
to Munich, giIded by the Burt-Robinson
dollars, she burst upon New York in a
blaze of glory as the Countess Maurice
Roller, she would reap rich harvest
for her penetration.
After a while little rivulet of talk
began to trickle between the violinist
and the sofa whereon the Burt-Robin-
son sat. Very deity Roller would get
the French girl in conversation. They
would talk about music in the pauses
between the nocturnes and concertos,
and Koller would, inadvertently as it
were, drop into French. This made
Jeanne tingle the first time he did so.
When the music was over, and the peo-
pie would stream out of the vast room,
Roller got into the way of sauntering
along toward the Burt-Robinson cot
tage, and finally to sitting on the little
red and green porch. In vain Mrs
Burt-Robi entreated, almost wept,
and pointed out to Lillian how necessary
it was for them to do like other people,
and that Roller went to no other cot
tage. Pink and white Lillian had some
of that nerve and enterprise about her
that had helped to make Josiah Burt
Robinson, out of small beginnings, one
of the greatest hardware men in New
York. The Van Santvoords and the
Van der Trunks had made overtures to
Roller on the strength of the floating
reports, which day by day became cryS-
talized, about his superiority to his en-
ployment, and of this Miss Lillian did
not fail to remind her mother. And so,
with heart urnings and anxietieS and
much gossip. Roller gradually became
an habitVe of the Burt-RobinsOn cot
tage.
For himself, he thought It much bet
ter to sit in the shade and watch Lillian S
graceful white-robed figure swinging in
the hammock than to drink beer and
play domnoes with the cornet. His
whole soul was absorbed in one idea
to make money enough to get back to
Germany crcditablv, and with an outfit
which would not reveal the straits to
which he had been put after getting rid
of the handsome allowance made him
for his tour. Jeanne Lefevre was an
episode. Americans puzzled him, but
this French girl he saw through easily
enough. She hated Germans; she laid
her orphanhood, her poverty, her
changed position. all to the Germans,
and she fed her resentment on this cool,
handsome young fellow. Roller adored
dark eyes, and Jeanne's glowed so
charmingly when they rested on little
Gwendolen, which was the only genuine
thing in the Burt-Rohinson family. BY
slow degrees he got Jeanne to look at
him. and then gradually the fierceness
melted out of her face; and when she
smiled she was beautiful The first time