Milford chronicle., 1889-06-21
PHRASE.

EItQutnbtIS OF COulSSeS az the GuilLelel
still remember a certain 'Phrasie-a girl Of
10, modest, slim, quiet eyed-who used tC
wait with her sisters cloahs at the wings
She did not dance herself; when only baby
she had turned her ankle in practicing her
little steps under her mothers tutelage-oh
that hard, green eyed Mere Crugeaudl-and
though she had grown up beauty, marvel
Of grace and symmetry, the ankle was stiff
what you, mesdames, who danceat the Hotel
Continental, would have called supple The
Crugeaud family called it stiff. See therel
Hundreds, thousands Of francs lost for little
thickening Of bone. So 'Phrasie sold flow
ers, and went on sometimes as page. n
she had only had talent for acting But
dancing was the sole talent Of the Crugeaud
4 family
For girl Of no more than sixteen to dis
Rppeari You conceive, at the time, what
surmises, what astonishmenti Not but what
many people could tell you where she was;
ali, to a certainty! They could tell you, but
they did not. Him, hmi you don't knowl
Stall 60 over the Jena bridge, turn to your
left and-follow your nose, my dear fellowl"
Oracles, you see, must observe approved me-
thods. However, 'Phrasie was soon forgotten
by the chorus girls and pompiers and fire.
quenters Of the coulisses-most Of them-and
when the Crugeauds said that she had gone
to America they were laughed at All, yes,
America lies across the Seine-and Vile
d'Avray is its capital-perhaps.
But one Sunday morning, not long ago,
Madeleine Crugeaud-she is the oldest-she
played Mademoiselle Apollon, in L'Olympe
Aux Femmes, you remember-took her cigar
cite from her straight lips at Vile d'Avray,
and said, carelessly, but candidly; II tell
you, Phrasie never came here; she went 10
America; she is in America now-at Phila-
delphia.n
''Ah, thatI And why did she go to Amer
tca, thenF'
''Shall I tell youl" said Madeleine, still
carelessly. ITO avoid the CONSUMPTION, mon
cherl"
Yes, it was to avoid the CONSUMPTION that
q white aprOned flower girl, an exile from
her native violets and marguerites, yet find
ing home among the sweet meadow flowers
OF foreign land, sat in the doorway Of a
hugo financial palace in the broad, stray
Cling, rectangular city which Penn, the
Quaker, dedicated to peace and brotherly
love. Money rules In Philadelphia now
money, and strange fertile renaissance,
which erects colossal and daring temples to
the Quaker Mammon.
The glittering streets are long and straight
and narrow, but the populace expands and
spreads itself out, laughing nasally but
joyously, in the broad wooded parks and the
rich grass fields that surround the city To
these parks and fields 'Phrasie came in the
early, dreaming spring mornings, mornings
touched with light, inconstant haze, 50 soon |
to slip away before the suns smile, and gath |
cred her violets and lilac sprays, returning |
still early with full basket to the great |
thoroughfare, Chestnut street She break |
tasted on the swift train that bore her back /
to the city; Il moment suficed to eat her |
frugal rolls and fruit And when she arrived |
at her doorway she sat down and sang to her |
self, under her breath;
Je ne suis plus Ia Marjoaine.
It had been on the impulse Of a sudden /
Of temptation and horror that this
Marguerite Of the coulisses had fed to save
herself-hed to land which she knew only
by name Poverty, i'll fortune, oppression
these one can fight against and still cling to
ones home; but when ones home itself, ones
mother
An, do not let US speak Of thatl
And yet an exile suffers Yes, even though
she finds compatriots to lodge with, her own
tongue to sound in her ears, an honest life;
even though her sisters write to her, not I'M
kindly, though capriciously and half mock
lngly; though her adopted homo is kind,
and every one encourages her; though
laughing, harsh voiced young mechan-
les and clerks come and make love 70 her
-ah, but an honest love, you comprehdhd, an
open, young Jacques BOnhomme love, without
frenzy or deceit-the sort Of love that is so
rare at the Chatelet, except in the brains Of
lome Of the vaudeville writers, and there It
stays-ia spite of all this, an exile regrets. her
heart IS heavy, and the violets In her basket
win into faint blue cloud as her eyes gaze
over them far away into a land of poplars.
And the young clerks and mechanics, could
40 one Of them remove the cloudl
One day there came down Chestnut street
! new figure; 'Phrasie had never seen it be-
ore among all the haneurs and hurrying men
II business A tall mana militaire, quoii-
'ronzed, sinewy, superbly handsome, with a
ong, slow step that carried him quietly past
'ther pedestrians BE had the air of an eagle,
md a silken, black mustache covered his
mouth 'Phrasie stopped in her singing.
The militaire halted as he espied her basket,
1e bought bunch Of violets and fixed them
n his coat, Then he paid her with a smile,
md double price, and walked on
'Phrasie had only started because ne looked
o much like a Frenchman.
Almost every day after that the militaire
ans with his magnificent stride to the exiled
iris basket and bought flowers from it.
Ind be always paid double. He always
ought viOlets; he picked up a bunch from
10 basket, smiled, nodded, tore off the little ,
Peen leaf and slipped the flowers into his
-ttonhole Then he walked on Perhaps J
one Of the clerks or mechanics had been
her f,-I,s L..
Can one honestly pay doublel !
In the cOulisses flowers may sell at hun !
redfold prices, but such militaires are one !
mong hundreds
When one first sees them one trembles; !
nd what Of ton timesi OF twentyi :
The little French girl had many regular !
istomers already who smiled at her Many
these spoke French to herewith that
merican accent which is so pleasant and
DpEciative. 80 hot was the May-so op- :
-essive and dusky-that the regular Gus Z
mers noticed that their little friend was
rowing pale. MATS enanl So many women
low pale In America In the summer, it was !.
} wonder.
The compatriots with whom PHRASE 9
dyed noticed it, too. But they were con- =
lrned at It and babe her sleep more and be y
intent with little less earnings She was \
% ambitious Aud the remit Mazettel that a
light wait.
II only he had spokenl II only he would Z
eaki You see it was weeks now, two or =
ree weeks, since she had seen him first; and Z
rmerly, in the coulisses, night-a half !
1ur-v- g
Daniel and formerly in the coulisses she : !
ld known so easily how to evade her tor q
entors-had known the ground so bitterly ?
en-there there was mover any dangerI
II he did not speak, how could she answer e
M How could prisoner behind these 3 !.
Diets, against this lofty granite tower, es- II
She knew that he was not a Frenchman-
must be an American. Had he spoken to
II in French, one can understand-one is u
miliar with danger, Ell bien, one knows p.
100 Ladies' Wanted.