The Opelousas courier., 1886-06-26
HIS FRIEND,
BY MANLEY II. K

AEiaOlHe ddaHlS might truly DC called
fortunate girl. She was piquant enough
to have been wicked, but she was yer,
good she was good enough to have beer
ugly, but she was captivatingly pretty
she was pretty enough to have been poor
but she was ~paralyzingly rich-so ricl
that she might have done up her bang
In Government tours and no one would
have objected; for her father was a bank,
rupt by profession, and invariably broke
for ten cents on the dollar.
One might think there was nothing tc
add to these advantages, but Ariadne
had more. She possessed a troop of de.
voted friends, of all ages, both sexes,
and differing conditions of seryitude, OF
whom this narrative concerns only afew
yonng gentlemen. She managed to keep
them all happy, and enjoyed to the full
the various kind of pleasure they afford
ed her, for q long time preventing any
proposals on their part, which she was
most anxious to avoid, since she loved
none of them. Nevertheless she wa3 in
love. This is often so. Alcides Monroe,
the fortunate object of her passion, didn't
appear to reciprocate. This, too, is of
ten sO-perhaps oftener. And the more
she adored him, the more he didn't adore
her. This is the ~oftenest of all.
Matters approached a crisis. Ariadne
was altogether too fascinating to allow
her masculine friends to remain friends
any longer, and they became-not enc
mics, but something almost as bad-lov-
ers IN fact. And when d young lady's
lovers are not what she wants, and give
her no end Of pleasure as friends, it is
hard for her to refuse them and thus lose
their society forever.
Onemorning Ariadne was sitting in care
less thought. when George J. Fisher was
announced. George vas a produce-lr3ker
and he knew beans and all other vege-
tables intimately. He was always well
supplied with money, but particularly SO
at this tinae-the fresh, just-opening
summer time, when his country custom
ers were sending IN large consignments
Of early peas. This wealth he spent in
driving Ariadne out IA remarkably fine
style. He made the object of his afTec-
tons what might be called a business
nan's proposal, and awaited the result.
tsAlas, MI. Fisher, = said she; II must
decline. I do not love you; / can be
only d sister to your
That wasn't at all the relationship he
wished 70 stand iii to her. he said so,
and left.
my delightful drives are at an endto
sighed Ariadne.
Then there was another arrival. Karl
Friedrich Christian Ohrspelter, the ccle-
brated musician and pianist, who used to
play Wagner to her as long as the instru-
ment held out, and then sing until the
police interfered. On one occasion he
had fought q desperate battle with the
"GotterdaEnmerung,n and had three
pianos shot under him. He proposed ID
q horid Gothic style. She said:
ssAlAs, Herr ohrspelter, I must decline.
4 40 not love you; but you shall find ID
me b cousin. =
he was not satisfied, either, and de-
parted IN wrath.
Ariadne looked sad. 1.-THE music Of
the future IS the music Of the past for
hi, z said she. !
Another arrival. There seemed to be
erratic epidemic Id progress. This
time il was 4 talented young dranlatist.
He was very successful m composing
plays, because be read French with ease.
With him Ariadne had attended many d
first night, 4 and acquired d vast knowl
edge of things theatrical. His declera-
ton W. adapted bodily from the last
Paris success, and did credit alike I'd his
feelings and his memory.
Ariadne repeated her former speech,
and suggested that he should regard her
IS I'D aunt.
But he refused. 81 hare adapted II
most everything, said he; but ! can
not adapt myself 70 such 1 situation -
this.
4& 10 T%T i aK u E