Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-07-12
OMPHALE.

the equally dismal Boulevard St. Antoine upon she other. Between the boulevard and the hcsIse itself 0 few ancient elm trees, eaten alive by mosses and insects, piteously ex- tended their skeleton arms from the depth of a species of sink, surrounded by high black walls. Some emaciated flowers hung their heads languidly, like young girls in consump- tion, waiting for a ray of sunshine to dry their half rotten leaves. Weeds had invaded the walks, which were almost indistinguisha- ble, owing to the length of time that had elapsed since they were last raked. One or two gold fish floated, rather than swam in a basin covered with duckweed and half schoked by water plants.
 | My uncle called that his garden
 Beside all the fine things above described in my uncle's garden there was also a rather unpleasant pavilion, which he had entitled the "Delices," doubtless by antiphrasis. It was in state of extreme dilapidation. The walls were bulging outwardly; great masses of detached plaster still lay among the net ties and wild oats where they had fallen; the lower portions of the wall surfaces were green with putrid mold; the wood work of !the window shutters and doors had been badly sprung, and they closed only partially, or not at all A species of decoration, strongly suggestive of an immense kitchen
 
 ornamented the main entrance, for, in the time of Louis XIV, when it was the custom to build ''Delices," there were always two entrances to such pleasure houses for pre- cautions sake. The cornice, overburdened with ovules, foliated arabesques and volutes, had been badly .lismantled by the infiltration of rain water. In short, the "Delices" of my uncle, the Chevalier de Rioux, presented rather lamentable aspect.
 It was in this pavilion that my uncle had lodged me.
 The interior was less rococo than the ex- terior, although remaining in somewhat better state of preservation. The bed was hung with yellow lampas, spotted over with large white flowers. An ornamental shell work clock ticked away upon a pedestal, in laid with ivory and mother of pearl A wreath of ornamental roses coquettishly twined around Venetian glass; above the door, the four seasons were painted in cameo A fair lady, with thickly powdered hair, a sky blue corset. and an array of ribbons of the same hue, who had bow in her right hand, partridge in her left crescent upon her forehead, and a leveret at her feet, strut ted and smiled with ineffable graciousness from within a large oval frame. This was one of my uncle's loves of old, whom he had painted Diana. It will scarcely be necessary to observe that the furniture itself was not of the most modern style; there was, in fact nothing to prevent one from fancying himself living at the time of the Regency and the mythological tapestry with which the walls were hung rendered the illusion complete.
 The tapestry represented Hercules spinning at the feet of Omphale. The design was tor mented after the fashion of VanIoo, and in the most Pompadour style possible to i'm agine. Hercules had spindle, decorated with rose colored favors; he elevated his little finger with a peculiar and special grace, like marquis in the act of taking Q pinch of snuff, while turning a white flake of flax be- tween his thumb and index finger; his mus cular neck burdencd with bows of rib bons, rosettes, strings of pearls and thou sand other feminine gewgaws; and large gorge de pigeon colored petticoat, with two very large panniers, lent quite gallant air to the monster conquering hero.
 Omphales white shoulders were half GOV cred by the skin of the Nemean lion; her slender hand leaned upon her lover's knotty club; her lovely blonde hair, powdered to ash color, fell loosely over her neck-a neck as supple and undulating in it's outlines as the neck of a dove; her little feet-true reali- | zation of the typical Andalusian or Chinese foot, and which would have been lost in Gin derellas glass slippers-were shod with half | antique buskirs of a tender lilac color, sprinkled with pearls. In truth, she was a charming creature. Her head was thrown | back with an adorable little mock swagger: 1 her dimpled mouth wore a delicious little l pout; her nostrils were slightly expanded; 1 her checks had delicate glow-a patch cun- l ningly placed there relieved their beauty in a wonderful way-she only needed a little muStache to make her first class mousQue- taire.
 l There were many other personages also represented in the tapestry-the kindly fe- | male attendant, the indispensable little l Cupid-but they did not leave 0 sufficiently | distinct outline in my memory to enable me l to describe them.
 In those days I was quite young-not that ] I wish to be understood as saying that am now very old; but was fresh from college, and was to remain in mysuncle's care until I could choose 8 profession. If the good 1 man had been able to foresee that should l embrace that of fantastic story writer he
 would certainly have turned me out of doors 1 forthwith and irrevocably disnherited me | for he always entertained the most aristo.
 cratic contempt for literature ip general and authors in particular. Like the fine gentle
 man that be was, it would have pleased him
 to have had all those petty scribblers who
 busy themselves in disfiguring paper, and
 speaking irreverently about people of qual.
 tty, hung or beaten to death by bis attend
 ants.
 | We'll, then, had only just left college.
 was full of dreams and illusions; was as
 naive as rosiere of Salency-perhaps more
 SO. Delighted at having no more pensums tc make, everything seemed to me for the best
 in the best of all possible worlds. 1 believed
 in an infnity of things; believed in M. d.
 Florian's Shepherdess, with her combed anc
 powdered sheep; I never for a moment
 doubted the reality of Mime. Deshouliereh flock. believed that there were actually
 nine muses, stated in Father Jouvency'
 Appendix de Dis ct Heroibus" My reool
 lections of Berquin and of Gessmer had ere
 ated little world for me, in which every
 thing was rose colored. sky blue, and appl
 green. o holy innocencei sancta simplici
 tasI as Mephistopheles says.
 When I found myself alone in this fin
 room-my own room, all to myseif-I fel
 superlatively oyerjoyed- I made carefu
 inventory of everything, even the smalles
 article of furniture; rummaged every COT
 ner, and explored the chamber ip tue fulles