Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-07-29
ROMANCE OF A BOUQUET.


sion OF a Lady.
The Paris correspondent of the San
Francisco Chronicle tells this romantic
story:
The boulevard flower dealers are some
of them rather good-looking. and they
certainly have wonderful taste for ar
ranging flowers. There is one of them,
Nine. Lion, whose reputation is Euro
pean ever since an incident with which
she happened TO be connected got into
the papers.
One of the secretaries of the French
Embassy at st. Petersburg fell in love
with one of the ladies of honor to the
Empress. Unluckily for the young di-
plomate, she was already engaged to be
married to very wealthy and titled
Muscovite, but she could not help show
ing her preference for the noble French
man. Thereupon the Russian made
such scene that the lady went TO the
Empress for protection. TRY and in
duce Her Majesty to accord your hand
to whichever of us two shall produce the
most beautiful bouquet said the secre-
tary to her, and she promised she would
do so. The Empress loved her very
much indeed, and readily yielded to an
arrangement which promised to be
pleasant in any event She sent for the
young lady's father. who laughingly
consented to all that was going on.
Then the Russian gentleman was COM
municated with, and when he was in
formed that mademoiselle's hand was
for him that gave her the most magnifi-
cant bouquet that day fortnight, the
Empress herself to be the Judge, he be-
Heved he would become her husband
and none other. But, confident in his
great fortune and his own good taste,
this Russian let the days pass, suppos-
ing all the time that his money could
buy what he wanted ut the last moment.
The day arrived when the love gauge
was to be decided. That part of the
palace in which the Czarina lives was
the scene of great excitement. Even
the autocratic Gar himself deigned to
be interested, while the Grand Duke
Alexis was as eager as child about it.
| The Russian nobleman advanced and
| presented an enormous bouquet. 1t was
indeed beautiful; it was made up of the
rarest flowers that could be found in all
Russia, and had cost something like s.
900 roubles. At the sight of it the young
lady nearly tainted. Surely it was inn
possible for her dear little diplomatic to
ever excel such magnificence. The
other ladies of honor and all those pres
ent showed their appreciation of their
countryman's love taken. With mock
ing smile on his lips the Count stepped
forward, holding in his hand two gild-
ed boxes. In politest language he said
| that one of the boxes contained bou-
quet for the lady he loved the other
held few flowers which he humbly
begged that the Empress would deign
to accept. Then he handed the two
ladies each her bouquet, and immedi-
ately all those present saw that he had
won; for never before was there such a
lovely combination of color and perfume
as in those which he himself had brought
! from Paris. For the instant that the
gage had been thrown down he applied
for leave of absence. 1t took nearly
two days to get t,and then he started for
Paris Arrived here, he rode right to a
famous tlower-show and told the pro-
prietress what he wanted That night
at O'Clock he was on his way back to
Russia, and in the large basket which
he looked carefully after day and night
were niftos, souvenirs de Malmaison
and gardenia, and these three most
lovely sorts of flowers were set about
with white lilacs. Such another bou-
quet was never before seen in the Rus
sian capital, and the Empress without
delay awarded the Count the young
lady's hand. They were married, and
are now living in Vienna, to which en-
bassy he was promoted only few
months ago. You sec what a man in
! love can and will do.