Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-09-28

THE LIONS CLAW.

Lieut.. Julian de Rhe naQ returned from
his station in Cochin China in q sad
plight, but now, after three long months Of
illness, he had commenced to improve and to
be able to take the air on the terrace over
looking the Loire, supported by the arm Of
his mother or his sister. The fresh air of the
river, however, growing chill with the ap-
proach Of autumn, made the young man
cough and shiver.
"He must winter in a warmer climate, the
physician had said. "Send him to Pau, and
in three months he will return to Lorraine
and to you, Nine. La Marquise, entirely
restored
This was why Julian de Rhe, leaning from
his sun lighted window in the Hotel de Gar
deres, contemplated the magnificent pano-
rama of the Pyrenees and smoked the cigar
cite Of returning health with SO much enjoy
merL It seemed to him that he had resumed
his youth and the feelings Of sixteen years
"Tiensl but this Pau is full of lovely
women" said Julian to himself, as, lettering
in the sunshine before the statue Of King
Henry on the Place Royale, he looked about
him and listened to the strains of tho military
band.
Neither a coxcomb nor in any sense lib
ertine, our young sailor was blessed not only
with strong love for the beautiful in life,
but the vanity of his age as well, and he has
tened to seek out and don his uniform, cap
and jacket, with its three golden stripes and
its rosette of the Legion of Honor, with
pride in which one is never too old OF too Ill
to indulge. Some way or other, Julian was
conscious of an ever recurring sense of pleas
ure that il was Pau upon which the doctor
had settled as a measure toward GONZALES
cence. 1t was exquisite, this golden sun
shine which warmed without burning; this
azure sky, the enchanting landscape and dis
tant amphitheatre hills, their peaks of snow
nesting among tie clouds Besides, it was
amusing to Iningle with the cosmopolitan
crowd among these beautiful foreigners, and
to listen to them chattering in all the tongues
of Europe, like the different songs Of the
birds in an aviary.
Breathing the warm sweet air in deep full
draughts, basking in contentment and a con-
slant sun, carefully attired, freshly shaved
and proud as boy of his glittering rosettes,
Julian de Rhe was happy and grateful for
the boon of life in a world to beautiful.
Throwing pennies to the beggars, watching
with glowing eyes the lovely women who
crossed his path, playing with the children in
their long black stockings, red shoes and fly
ing skirts, dancing beneath the trees of the
Palace Royale, time sped on, the hours into
days, the days into weeks and months
+ =
Enchanting conditions under which to fall
In love- were they not2 And this happy con-
valescent received the thunderbolt the day he
saw Mile Olga Barbarine, the most beautiful
girl of the Russian colony, descend from her
horse before the door of the Hotel Gassion,
where she resided with her mother. 1t was
about 5 o'clock in the afternoon She was
returning from fox chase, and the five or
six red coated adorers who accompanied her
leaped to the ground, almost upsetting each
other in their eagerness to assist her to dis
mount. She let herself glide indfferently
into the arms of the first conner and stepping
into the veranda ordered them to serve her
with cup of milk at once, which she drank
where she stood, the graceful curves of her
slender figure displayed by the well fitting
riding habit, the heavy braids of her copper
colored hair escaping from the chimney pot
and spreading over her shoulders. A mo-
ment later, with q nod of dismissal to the
galIants who attended her, she passed into
the hotel
Three days later Julian de Rhe, who had
spent the intervening time saying to his &C
quaintances, ''Who is shea In PHYS name
tell me, for | am madly III love with herr
adore her!" was presented, Lot very difficult
thing to accomplish at the house of the ladies
Barbarine and at once took his post in the
squadron of lovers surrounding this beautiful
Russian But was she Russian, after all,
this fascinating creature, who since the COM
mencement of the season galloped all day and
waltzed all night? Yes, by her reputed
father, the Count Barbarine, the first hus-
band of her mother, though everybody knew
that the Countess Barbarine was divorced be-
fore the birth of this child, and for a long
time had been the morganatic wife Of a noble
from the north-a Christian or an Oscar
something
The countess herself was the daughter of o
New York banker by the name of Jacobson
Had she nationality ct al, this beautiful
Olga, brought up on q regimen of daily
switchings part Of the time in tho frozen at
mosphere Of Scottish rursery, again in
Protestant boarding school ct Genoa, tho rest
OF her existence passed upon the cushions Of
railroad trains-who could pass before her IN
memory, Ike the pictures Of tho etcreoscope,
all the watering places Of Europe, al tie sea-
side resorts and winter Etatioys, where her
mother, q beautiful woman s.ill In spite OF
her made up complexion, had pronenadod
for twenty years with all her worn ont airs
Of coquetry, her sanovar and her cage Of
pampered Eaonkeysf
Alasi Ii was true, she had no country, this
strange girl, who combined within herself the
moieSty OF q virgin with the boldness of a
boy.
II am neither of London, OF Paris, Vienna
nor St Petersburg" she would say with q
smile sadder than any tear; II am only Of
the table d'hote."
Had she any farnily9 None ct ell; her real
father, the Christian or Oscar of the north,
of whom the Countess Barharine was never
weary Of talking, bad boon dead for many
years, and as for the Russian count, her
father In name and law-providcd you
stretched it little-he never troubled him
self about her. Utterly ruined in fortune,
he had really no means of existence save his
unerring gun, and gained a living by going
from city to city and winning the prizes at
the pigeon shootings, a sort of civilized
Misunderstanding, in fact, TO be found in more
places than between the leaves of Coopers
romantic novel.
And Olga's motheri In spite Of her per,
odical and maternal tendernesses, which
grated upon all ans deceived none, she was
endowed with an egotisrn selfshness, alb
solutely sublime, and which never for mo-
ment found Itself at fault.
Julian de Rhe learned all these details only
after be was enrolled in the flying squadron
maneuvering ceaseleSsly in the wake of Olga
Barbarine. 1t would have made no differ
ence, however, had be heard them before,
for be had begun to love, to truly love, this
strange Yet irresistible girl, who looked him
in the eyes with the candor of a child, and