The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1886-12-16
WON WITH A BOUQUET.
How Matrimonial Luck Came to = Young
French DiplomatIst-Love' Token.

How Matrimonial Luck Came to Young
French Diplomatist-Love's Token.
These Paris boulevard flower dealers
have wonderful taste for arranging flow
ers. There is one of them, Nine. Lion
whose reputation is European ever since
an incident with which she happened tC
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 dip
lomatist, 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
a scene that the lady went to the en-
press for protection. "Try and induce
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 plea
SAINT 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 who gave her the most magnifi-
cent bouquet that day fortnight, the EN-
press herself to be the judge, he believed
he would become her husband and none
other. But the confident in his great
fnFtIIYn or16 lic rroC6 flric
Russian let the days pass, supposing all
the time that his money could buy what
he wanted at 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 aristocratic
czar himself deigned to be interested.
while the Grand Duke Alexis was eager
as child about i. The Russian noble
man advanced and presented an enor-
nous bouquet. 1t was indeed beautiful
it was made up of the rarest flowers thGs
could be found in all Russia and had cost
something like 5000 roubles. At the
sight of it the young lady nearly tainted.
Surely it was impossible for her dear lit
tie diplomatist to ever excel such magni-
ficence. The other ladies of honor and
all those present showed their apprccia-
ton of their countryman's love token.
With a mocking smile on his lips the
count stepped forward, holding in his
hand two gilded boxes. In poitest
language he said that one of the boxes
contained bouquet 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 i'm
mediately all those present saw that he
had won; for never before was there such
a lovely combination of color and per-
fume 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; it took
nearly two days to get it, and then be
started for Paris. Arriving there he
rode straight to a famous flower shop
and told the proprietress what he wanted.
That night at 8 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
Mailmaison and gardenia, and these three
most lovely roses were set about with
white ilacs. Such bouquet was never
seen in the Russian capital and the en-
press without delay awarded the count
the young lady's hand. They were mar
ried and now living in Vienna, to which
embassy he was promoted only few
months ago.-Paris Letter.