Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-04-26
rALL RIGHTS REsERVxDl
CHAPTER XIII.
vHKRE THE GOLD CAME FROM

ri M le vieux Perez, or Perez Peru. was
~ one Of the best known men Al Paris,
c. and yet he but rarely appeared in
those haunts where the world OF Paris most
loves to congregate. In the haunts of pleas
ure ne was almost stranger. He hung about
the eide scenes of no Boulevard Theater; he
freouented not the race courses of Longchamps
or Auteuil. He sat late at his club. playing
whist. but the club was quiet and altogether
out of the movement and he was an unknown
figure az those more fashionable clubs where
fortunes are lost at baccarat But there was
one place where Senior Perez reigned supreme,
where his name a word Of fear, his coun-
tenauce an augury Of gain or loss to thousands
That place was the Bourse. There Pedro
Perez a king among his fellow-men.
He was Spaniard by birth, though he had
lived nearly half a century in Paris. or rather
osciilated between Paris and Madrid during
that period. He dealt only in Spanish-Amer-
lean securities. That line was his specially
Many scheme had lived. faded and expired
within the limits of prospectus, while Perez
swept the money of the shareholders into his
own capaciOus pocket
Don Pedro had been only coulissier in
those days. but with the progress OF time and
the suppression of the privileges OF those fnan-
clal sharp-shooters-the guerilla band OF the
noble army of specula.ors-tbe Spaniard had
put on that electro-plate surface of honesty
which very often passes as genuine metal IN
the world of speculation. Investors followed
him and conided In him because OF his reputa-
ton for acumen and good luck. rather than be-
cause they believed that the Pedro Perez of
today was altogether different character from
that Perez of thirty years ago about whom such
queer stories were current.
He had been given the sobriquet of Perez
Peru because he was considered as deep and as
rich a. the deepest mine in that vast republic,
and perhaps partly because his complexion had
a Of that which ia had
dealt 50 largely.
The first ten years of Perez Peru's financial
Career had been years of struggle and petty
fraud. Petty fraud had failed TO make him
rich and tiTaid speculation had only served to
keep him. like Mahomets coffin, in middle
distance between the heaven of wealth and the
hell of poverty. Then came his heroic period.
which was short and sharp. holder speculation
and more uncompromlslng chIcanery. Five
years Of this hazardous adventure, in which he
escaped the galleys only by the skin of his teeth.
made him capitalist; and fifteen years a
cOulissier had educated him in the deepest
secrets of finance. There was not trick of
the Stock Exchange which Perez Peru had not
at his fingers ends. He could stand idle. with
his back against stone pillar and with his
crafty southern eyes looking farther into
fu;urity than any other eyes in that crowded
building. All that he touched after this period
seemed to turn to gold. 1t turned to dross
afterward, perhaps; but not till Senior Perez
had passed 1t on to somebody else. He was
never known 10 buy too soon or to hold too
long. In q word, he was financial wisdom per-
sOnified
Ia all the monotonOus years in which the
Stock Exchange was his only temple. the share
list his only Bible, Pedro Perez had lived with
an almost Spartan simplicity; not because he
begrudged himself the cost of luxurious living.
for personal expenditure, however profuse.
would have hardly made perceptble impress
sion upon his income. He spent little because
he cared for making money and did not care
Tor spending it. He had lived in the same
house III the hue Nlylenne for the forty Years
of his Partisan life. The house was within a
hundred yards OF the Place de la Bourse and il
suited him. The only difference that he had
made IN those forty years was to descend grad
ualiy from the scanty secluslon OF q single gar
ret to the space and comfort of the entire first
floor. He had breakfasted at the Restaurant
thampeaux during the greater part of the last
thirty years. In his decade of probation he
had fed only in his attic in some cheap
restaurant OF the Rive Gauche, where he
wandered in the cool of the evening. thought
full and solitary even before his thirtieth year.
The man was the financial instinct incarnate.
The passion for abstract mathematics which
Possesses some brains In his took the more
vulgar form OF mOney-getting; but the mathe-
NAUTICAL genius was there to high degree, and
some of his combinations were worthy of New
ton or Lapiace.
For five and thirty years of his Partisan ca
reer Pedro Perez had never been found guilty
OF caprice. He had come to be looked upon
a money-making machine, memorable as
steel and adamant, working always in the same
grooves, relentless. unvarying; when all at
once the report was circulated that Perez Peru
had come back from Madrid with ''harem,"
and for more than nine days Perez Peru's
harem was the standing joke in the cafes where
the Bourse was paramount. Perez Peru's
harem was the subject OF a caricature in the
most audacious of the little journals OF Paris
Perez Perus harem was the theme of a comic
song, almost as popular as the later "Gendre
de VI. Greyy"
The harem upon closer inquiry was found to
consist of three women whom Perez had estab-
lIshed In a second floor in the Rue St. Gull
laume. A mother and daughter, both hand
some, the daughter eminently so; a cousin,
plain and dowdy, or, If not absolutely plain,
faded and elderly.
The three women were seen one night in a
box at the opera. the young beauty resplendent
IN amber satin and diamonds. Every lognette
was turned to that box and for the next three
days all Paris talked of the dark beauty with
the diamonds.
she was wearing the wealth of Peru upon
her neck and arms, said the boursicotiers and
their following
After this Dolores was rarely visible to the
eye OF all Paris. If she went to a theater or an
opera. and she was but seldom allowed that
privilege. she was made to sit deep in shadow
as closely eurtained from the public gaze AS if
she had been the Pearl Of STEAMBOAT, chief
hght OF some jealous pashas harem.
Her story had but few elements of MYSTERY
albeit her secluded life gave n flavor of the
mysterious to her personality. She had been bar
gained for by Pedro Perez as sordidy as any
eastern slave that sold in a public
market place. The girl and her mother had
arrived IN Madrid some years before with an
appearance of ample means. and for a wear or
two Madame Quij ada had occupied an apartment
IN fashionable quarter. and had shown her
sell daily on the Prado. we'll dressed observed
and admired. She taken to be an adven-
turess aid free lance, but no one troubled
himself about her antecedents The police
had an eye upon her for the first few months
but could ind nothing suspicious iii her
manner of life. Dolores was at a convent dur
ing the three or four years in which she grew
from childhood 10 grlhOod.
Madame Quljada was not alone during these
wears o. her daughters education. Shortly
after her arrival IN the Spanish capital she was
joined by niece. who from that time shared
her fortunes, good or bad. The niece was in
troduced TO Madame Quiiadas acquaintances
as Louise Marcel, and she was said to have but
recently recovered from y brain fever. which
had seriously affected mind and memory. Her
aunt told her contdantes that this orphan
niece Of hers had been disappointed in love-
and that the BRAIN fever had been the outcome
Of her disappointment. However true this
may have been 1t was beyond question that a
more MISUNDERSTANDING woman than Louise
Marcel at this period could hardly be found on
thls planet. where If people sometimes take
their pleasures sadly they often take their
.,riefs lightly.
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