San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-04-13

ANYTHING to happen unseen or unheard.
would have told you il you would have
stopped for moment and leaned over the
little counter in Nine. Charpentier's shop,
and if you had evinced the faintest curiosity
in the subject, that no one was ever seen
about the house across the street but quad
room.
almost white, tall and tlBin-like q ghost.
1t is she who always answers the ring at the
garden gate not that that is often Ma fol!
The butcher with a bit of meat, the baker
the milkman, for, just heaven, one must live
even in a house like that! For the rest, every
Saturday, as regular as clock work, as
m'sieur may see for himself if he chooses,
Just as the clock strikes ten, one may see the
priest and the physician meet at the little
garden gate 1t is opened for them-a little
Wayne more they disappear. In an hour,
perhaps more, perhaps less, they come out
That Is all | could tell m'sieur no more if
was at confession, and he was the father con-
fessor himself" and Nine. Carpenter
shrugged her shoulders up TO where the
great GOLD hoops dangled in her big ears, and
made gesture that said, plainly as words,
that she washed her hands of all that went
CD behind the closed doors of the d'Ayril
house.
AS for Adele, the stately quadroon who
opened the gate for the priest and physician,
she could have told the secrets of that guarded
house, for about her they all conferred. She
knew thse when once the heavy door swung
to and the three stood facing each other in
the narrow path where the priests caSsock
brushed against the physicians broadcloth,
that they would, motion her forward and she
would'lead the way to an upper room where
q wan faced woman sat in silence, or else
walked up and down the floor mutterihg,
mutterfng, muttering to herself On the
way, Just at the head of the steps, was a room
with iron barred windows and padded walls,
whose only furniture was thick, soft mat
tress fastened to the floor. As they passed
that room the physician bowed his head and
the priest made the sign of the cross. Neither
spoke, but they turned towards Adele, ques-
tioning her mutely.
NO" she answered; mot this week. She
has been very quiet"
Without a word they passed on to room
where shrill, maniacal laughter could be
heard, and there, walking up and down, up
and down the long room, was figure, so wild
eyed, 50 haggard, with such disheveled hair,
so wildly black against tn Gcath!y p2!lor of
her face. she scarcely seemed a creature Of
this world
Attic sound of footsteps she turned towards
them For moment her crazed brain Strug-
gled with new sensation, and then with Il
shrill laugh-more sad than any sob could be
she began again her wild walk up and down
the long room.
The priest drew his coarse serge sleeve be-
fore his face, and the physician, Injured as he
was to the sight of pain, felt his lips tremble,
for they they had both known and loved the
mad woman all her life. Presently the priest
said sadly:
"OW time has not yet come, my son; pa
thence, patience" And the two turned and
walked silently to the gate, followed by'Adele,
with the key in her hand. The three paused
once more in the narrow pathway, and the
physician, turning abruptly to the woman.
said:
''You do not repent having undertaken the
charged Nine. d'Avril will never be sane
again, and if you weary of your life here she
can be placed in an asylum. Poor creature
she knows nothing of her surroundings! She
is often very violent; are you not afraid of
herr"
mo, no, nor' cried the woman, passion
ately; sit is my atonement. Not for myself
God, what has,my life been that 1 should
fear the fortunes of hell? 1t could not be
worse than the misery haye known, but
would make atonement for those who sinned
for me-"
The priest said nothing, but he laid his
hands for a moment on the bowed head and
then passed out through the little gate.
Many, many years before, when Adele was
young and beautiful, with the weird beauty
Of the quadroon, soft and 1eeting loveliness
like duSky summer night, she had belonged
to rich sugar planter in one of the Creole
parishes of Louisiana She was intensely
beautiful. All the sensuous dwellings,, all
the wild, passionate grace of her savage an
cestry, all the stately pride of bearing of her
white blood met in her and made her like the
dethroned princess of, some eastern legend.
Such women were only too naturally the
prey of their owners, or of some neighboring
g?andee who was enthralled for a moment ny
their beauty. Adele's fate was the fate of
her kind-with this difference. A planter
fell wildly, madly, passionately in love with
her-and wanted tOmarry her She was will
ing to sacrifice country, home, friends, every
thing to his unreasonable passion for the
beautiful slave. He offered her owner any
price, but the naughty old Creole, who would
have died to preserve the integrity of his
caste, Indignantly refused to listen to terms.
Adeles lover pleaded, stormed, threatened in
vain.
But Adele's child is my son."
Monsieur lie grande shrugged his shoulders.
'M'sieur, that is a detail Of your life with
which l have nothing to do"
If miscegenation was ever brought on
Louisiana it would not be through his fault.