Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-06-07
THE WATERBURY EVENING DEMOCRAT. FRIDAY. JUNE . l8s

tude. when she took oil her rich raiment and dashed her jewels on the floor, and drew forth from their hiding place the peasant dress and the wooden shoes of old, weeping over them as 0 mother weeps over the tiny garments or the broken toys of her dead child.
 He had thought to buy forgetfulness for her with gold. It is n mistake mon often make.
 It seemed to her that all love, peace, content, had died out of her life forever. Her heart felt chill and cold to every emotion of pain or joy aliko. Her one brier dream of gladness was over, severed sharply as by sword-killed utterly, and forever.
 Days might come and go, suns would rise, and nights would fall, and the great stars would throb in the skies, and gleam over the peaceful pastures and the flowing waters of her old home; but never more would she stand there and look out at these things with the thankful heart and tremb- ling joy she had once known; never moro would he. l.s be ono with the love she had lost, and tho tenderness she had betrayed. So she told herself. and there was no voice, to say her nay, and no living thing to speak of consolation.
 It was brilliant day, cold but fne-the sky without cloud, the sun without shadow on It's brightness. The whole city was alive with tumult and excitement, for large num- bers of returning troops were to march through with their prisoners of war and trophies of victory. and all were eager to greet and gaze upon the returning heroes.
 In an open carriage placed at their service by one ofthe most ardent admirers of Ninette (and.most reckless followers of fortune as represented by baccarat and napoleon) sat Leon Monprat and his daughter. She was exquisitely dressed in rich soft ve!vets and furs, which made her delicate beauty fairer and moro pquant by contrast. But on her face was the shadow of an unspeakable pain, dread that had never loft her since the moment whom she learnt this was no mere review of troops, as she at first had supposed, but triumphant entry of tho Prussian corps with their disarmed and humiliated pris- oners.
 Ere long the air was rent with thunders of welcome. The music of military bands rang out in riotous glee. The sound of drums, the rattle of musketry, the clash of bells.' all gave their tribute in one mighty tempest of greet ing.
 Ninette turned dea dly pale and leant back amidst the soft cushions of the carriage. She saw great gathering mass of figures marching steadily toward her. She saw the hutter of the standards, tho colors of torn and tossing flags, the gleam of musket and carblne barrels, the swarthy faces of the men, the arched glossy necks of the curveting chargers, the hues of brilliant uniforms, all the great vast sea of moving color that flashed and fused itself before her wondering eyes with the background of that clear blue sky-the glittering warmth of the golden sunshine. She drew deep gasping breath. It was a sight altogether new, wonderful. bewildering.
 Louder and more deafening grew the cheers clearer rang the wild rich music of the bells; moro exhilarating sounded the merry rataplan of drums and the glorious strains of the national war song. The folds of tho torn battle flags futtered in the breeze men and women laughed and wept like children as the squadrons passed rapidly by.
 Suddenly great cry fell across the tumult -a cry whose agony and remorse startled all within hearing-a cry that reached to the passing troops, who, with down-bent heads, and shamed and bitter hearts, marched in the rear of their conquerors.
 One man turned his weary eyes in the di- rection whence 1t came. He saw woman's face with wild, despairing eyes. that held his own fixed and electrified in their incredu- lous amazement, and their agonized dread Then he was swept onward with the im- petuous advance of that marching force while his heart seemed to stand still with the agony of that discovery and the horrors that 1t revealed.
 "Ninette-Ninette what was it2" implored Leon Monprat, as she fell back in the car riage shaking and ghastly as though she had seen the dead return to life. A wild, hysteri cal laugh burst trom her lips. Tho anguish that assailed her strength was more than she could bear.
 "What was it?" she echoed, in a voice harsh and strange as madness. "Only a face-my husbands face And I thought the world wide enough to keep us-apart.