Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-02-23

are mistaken. / don't know YOU
And the other with sigh tries to read
the papers through glasses misty with
tears, and the daughter, like one bereft.
cast melancholy glances towards her old
partners, who know her no more. She is
about %, and her beauty, refined by grief,
has now a more penetrating grace. She
reminded one of a flower refreshed and
purified by rain and tempest. She had
lost much of that iveliness which had sug
gested a frisky young colt, and had given
her an air rather fantastic and excited.
Grave and sweet, she now seemed doing
penance for past pleasures and friyolities.
One day, while the band was playing
and the officers promenaded back and
forth, smoking, talking and laughing, she
recognized among the familiar forms she
saw day after day. new figure. In an
instant she saw again the Generals ball
and her timid lover, hidden in corner,
devouring her with his eyes, She said to
her mother, ooh, mamma Look there
the Lieutenant !"
He, too, had seen them, for he had grown
pale, and leaving his friends, advanced, hat
in hand. The old mother hurriedly folded
up her newspapers, and, pushing them off
the chair near her, with benevolent smile
offered it to the officer.
How are you, my dear Lieutenant
What an age since we met We are really
fortunate-but a thousand pardons-I call
you Lieutenant, and yet / see three bands
on your sleeves -
Then he grew red, and said that at the
end of the six months campaign he had
been made Captain, after the affair at
MIN Dimh, so many vacancies had oc-
Cured above him. Then he had been kept
shut up in Tuan-Kuan with lie Command
| ant Domino. They had a terrible siege of
five weeks in the breach repelling the furi-
GUS assaults of the Chinese, surging like a
sea of human beings against the ruined
walls of the fort.
He had been wounded the last day in a
| final sortie, but from distance, above the
clamor of the yellow hordes, he had heard
the French clarions ring out deliyerance.
| Oh, for that hour of exultation! He had
seen the enemy flying, the tri-color spread
to the breeze, and he had fallen without
regret, sure only of one thing-they were
victors
Later his condition had seemed SO grave
he had been ordered home to France with
| the cross of honor During the Journey
he had grown steadily better, and on his
| arrival had been recommended as chief of
battalion. The two women were silent
the mother, in her worldly wisdom, con-
sidering that he had gained ten years adj
vance over all the officers in his regiment.
The daughter, studying the young man,
| found him changed almost beyond recog-
milton, with his thin, pale face and his air
of command and distinction.
Was it possible she had disdained this
brave soldier, who had paid with his blood
for every step he had gained in rank
and who had come home with his future
. assured?
He meanwhile regarded her. Was it
she-thoughtful and sad--whom he had
known frivolous and exacting? Another
woman was discovered to him, thousand
times more charming in her sad and
troubled grace. She had enraptured him
before, she satisfied his soul to-day. He
had dreamed of her thus, This was his
very vision.
Pretty as ever, and hundred times
sweeter and more gentle. Their eyes met.
and in those of the officer she read such
alteration that she turned her head away
in some embarrassment Twilight had
fallen, the two women rose, and without
power to leave them, he saw them to their
door,
The next day he again found them at
the band concert, and SO for many DAYS.
He seated himself near the young girl.
and while the widow read her papers they
chatted increasingly, and yet talked Of
nothing.
December had passed thus in an init
macy every moment growing sweeter Yet
the Captain at times seemed troubled and
nervous. One day, in an excess of passion,
he pressed his arm against her breast, his
eyes shone, she thought him about to say
love you but he was silent, and she
saw shade of sadness in his eyes. The
agitation that he felt increased at the APP
proach of the new year. He went often to
Paris, and saw less of the widow and her
daughter. A secret dread harrassed him.
Had they been deceived? What mystery
was preparing for them?
On the 31st of December, at six o'clock.
he had not come Yet on New Years eve
the merest acquaintance comes to wish one
happiness for the year that is to be, and
how much more a lover. The widow was
reading the paper which contained the
latest promotions in the army. Suddenly
shegrew red and uttered cry. His name
is here He has his promotion. At this
moment quick steps were heard, and he, so
impatiently expected, enters He is pale
he stops before the two women. The old
widow holds out her arms to him.
'Oh, my dear boy-how you frightened
us?n
He turns to the young girl with bold
ness born of love. "Mademoisselle, l have
now an assured position to offer you. /
love you. VIII you be my wife ~
She pales at the remembrance of that
first refusal, and, thinking of all her brave
soldier has suffered to win his happiness,
she stretches out her hands to him, and,
her head upon his shoulder, her lips
against the rough shoulder-straps, weeps
for joy.-7ransldtsd from the French of
Georges Ohaet