The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1888-03-06

Chateau de Bonneville. The autumn had
been rainy and gloomy. The red leaves,
instead of rustling beneath the feet,
rotted in the burrows under the heavy
showers. sa----.--..
The well nigh naked forest was as damp
IS bathing establishment. AS the hunter
entered it and trudged along over the wet
grass and soggy soil under the great storm
beaten trees he found himself enveloped
by roisone vapor with musty smell
His dogs also seemed affected by the
wretched weather so detected did they
look, as, with dropping tails and reeking
skins, they trotted along close behind his
heels.
In the main parlor after dinner we had
been playing lotto to kill time, while gusts
of wind ratified the windows and on the
outside made the old weathercoclzs spin
like tops. Finding but little pleasure IN
the game we tried our hands at story tell
ing just as people are said to do in books,
but no one invented anything amusing.
The hunters related adventures that had
occurred to them while out shooting
massacres of rabbits, while the ladies
rackcd their brains in futile attempts to
discover Scheherazade's inspiration.
We were on the point Of giving up this
species of entertainment also when
young lady, thoughtlessIy toying with the
hand Of her maiden aunt, noticed on one
OF the old lady's fingers a small ring
made OF light hair. She had frequently
seen this trinket, but had never before
paid any attention to it.
AS she gently turned the ring around
her aunt's finger she asked
''By the by, auntie, what ring is this?
1t looks like the hair of child.''
The old maid blushed, became pale
then, with faltering voice, she said:
1T is so sad q story that l never like to
speak of it. 1t was the one great misfor-
tune of my life. ] was quite young when
it all happened, and vt the memory of it
is SO painful that 1 stu shed tears when
ever think about it."
AS a matter of course all wanted to
hear the story. The old maid at first
refused TO tell it, but finally she yielded to
our solicitations, and began as follows:
''YOu have often heard tell of the San
teze family. 1t is now extinct, but l was
acquainted with the three last men of that
race. They all died the same death. This
ring is the hair of the last one. He was
thirteen years old when he killed himself
on my account. That seems very strange
TO you, does it not?
Oh, they were singular race, insane, if
you wish, but the most charming lunatics,
craZed by love. All, from father to son.
were a prey to violent passions; t. o-sreat
impulses, which made them enthusiasts in
all they undertook, to such an extent, that
they would not have hesitated at a crime.
In them this passion was what ardent de-
VOtion is in certain minds Those who be-
come TrappiSts are not of the same nature
as our drawing room butterflies. In our
family we used to say: Sin love like aSan-
teze.p They all had curly hair and beard,
and large eyes, the light of which seemed
TO penetrate and disturb ones SOUL though
it would have been hard to say why.
The grandfather of the CHE of whom
this is the only souvenir / have, after
many adventures and duels, at the age of
65 fell blindly in love with his farmers
daughter. knew both of them She
was pale blonde, of distinguished ap-
pearance, with soft voice, and so gentle
look that she seemed Ia Madon- The old
nob1eman took her to his house. and be-
came so attached to her that he could not
be happy q minute unless he was in her
company. His daughter and step daugh-
ter, who lived in the chateau with him,
found this quite natural, so traditional
had love become in the family. Nothing
surprised them if passion had anything to
do with the case, and if they happened to
hear of broken ties, of parted lovers, even
of revenge being taken after a betrayal,
they both would say in the same afflicted
voice: t'Ohl how he Tor she) must have
suffered " Nothing else. They only
grew tender over dramas of the heart,
and never displayed any i'll feeling, even
when these dramas eliminated in crime.
Well, one autumn NJ. de Gradelle,
young man who had been invited to take
part in the chase, went off, taking the
young girl with him.
Mr.. De Santeze remained perfectly COOL
as if nothing had happened; but a few
mornings after he was found in his dog
kennel, hanging amidst his dogs.
His son died in the same way at hotel
IN Paris While spending some time in
that city in 1S41 he became enamored of
an opera singer. AS the lady did not re-
turn his love he hanged himself.
He left behind him son 10 years old,
and a widow, my mothers sister They
came to live with us, at my fathers place
at BertillOn. 1 was at the time II years
of age. 80
You cannot imagine what a remarkably
precocious child this little Santeze was. 1t
looked as If all the tenderness, all the er-
thusiasm of the whole race had fallen to
this one, the last of the name. He ALWAYS
seemed to be in dream, and for hours he
would walk all alone in the long avenue of
elm trees which leads from the chateau to
the woods. From my window / woulI
notice the sentimental lad stepping
Gravely along, his hands behind his back,
his eyes cast down, now and then stopping
to look up, as if he saw and understood
cnd felt things thatw beyond his years.
Often, after dinner, on moonlit nights,
lie would say to me: Come cousin. LET
us go out to muse" And then we would
start out together through the park. Fl
would stop abruptly in front of the glad
Where Heated that white vapor, that Ii
~adding with which the moon pads
VRehlng between the trees; then he W, I'D