Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1889-07-25
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A THRILLING STORY OF TIE
FRANO0-PRUSsIAN WAR.
ny MAURICE LEGRAND.
CHAPTER VIII.
NY MAURICE LEGRAND.
wRONGED.

wRoNGED,
E1N the mill house the old Norman
"a woman, Mere Leroux, sat alone,
and watched in vain for the re-
turn of the son she loved, or the fair
girlish form that hal been wont to fit
to and fro through the old dusky
chambers and the quiet orchard
paths.
For her, life had always been
monotonous, uneventtul thing, color
ed by no romance, and disturbed by
nosstorm; routine of labor made up
of simple homely cares-sewing,
darning, spinning; a days work i'm the
cornfelds at harvest time; weekly
journey TO the market-place; a thrifty
care of her households; watchful
heed of the fruits, and flowers, and
eggs, and vegetables that went 10 be
sold in the neighboring town in their
respective seasons. Her son had been
very dear 10 her, as all only children
and especially only sons, are TO their
mothers. When he was fourteen his
father died, and from that day he
had been to the little brown
faced woman as her sole earthly idol
her one treasure. All her care and
thought were for him. In her sight
he could do no wrong; his life had
been pure, simple unchangeful as her
own, and now
All! now she could only sit in the
chimney-corner spinning her flax, and
telling her beads, and listening eager
ly and untiringly for the firm bold
tread she loved so well, and which
never came.
A little olive-skinned women OF
seventy years, with wrinkled face
and high, winged cap, and restless
eyes that ever and always glanced at
the open door, as If in search of some
thing they never saw. What was
she to any one? But in her there was
fidelity that never wavered; and
honesty that never falterBd with
wrong, but scorned it for the thing it
was; and curious, far-seeing judg-
ment that had shamed and .6ilenced
Rose Michel's slanderous tongue when
she sought her with the gossip OF the
village fresh on her lips.
'Listen," she said, Il am an old
woman, and not over wise, so they
say; but know this, the ginl loved
Pierre as well as he loved her-1 know
it. She has in no way wroGged him.
Hens my sonny all. | love him
better than anything else; SO did she.
Could do aught that would pain him.
think you? No! Well, and she could
not either. Some evil has come be-
tween them. He is so good and she
she loved him. Some day it will
come right. The young, you see, are
not over-patient; it is only the old
who know how TO wait" And then
she spun on again, and would lis
ten to no more; and Rose Michel and
,other gossips skunk away from her
presence, abashed by q faith they
could not shake, and love they could
not fathom.
But evil things were told and
believed of the girl-wlfe who had fed
from her husbands home and driven
him out to the warfare that was de-
vastating the land, and widowing
hearth and home in every quiet vii
lage, as well as in every quiet town.
The story of Rose Michel lost moth
ing by repetition. 1t was sweet to
the gossipers who had hated Ninette
for her radiant beauty and her grace
full girlish ways. IL was received by
odd and young alike with an avidity
only second to an entire belief in its
truth and had Nfnette appeared in
her old home theme would not have
been one friendly voice to give her
welcome-rOne face to smile on her
again.
But she never canJG.
How, or why, or where she had fed.
none knew, though rGnor invented a
hundred different tales en the sub ect.
each equally removed fEom the truth
Meanwhile, RerPe Lerolx lay i'll and
helpless in the hospital ward at Metz.
and the old, ssmple-mindsd, faithful
woman ordered the household and at
tended to his mill and his crops as
best she could, and spun on antiringly
in her nook in the deserted kitchen,
waiting always for step that never
came-for voic that never greeted
her.
IL was well that she did not know
that he was prisoner in the hands of
the enemy. Had she done SO she
would have run all risks, and with her
bundle slung across her back and her
wooden shoes ON her feet. have tramp
cd untiringly through the country far
and wide. until she reached his side.
there to tend and nurse him back to
health. But OF his fate she was In
tctal ignorance, for scant news ever