Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-12-06
HIS OLDEST FRIENDS.
HER FIRST LOVE AND HER
SECOND HUSBAND.
WRITTEN FOR THE EVENING STAR BY
MISS II. E BRApDON.
CHAPTER I.

MAXINE ST. WALLER loved the only
AVA daughter Of one of Napoleon HIS gen.
erals and modestly offered himself and the pos
sibilities Of q journalistic career, which had
been full of golden opportunities, all flung to
the winds He enlarged upon the great things
he might and would do in literature and poll
tics il he were but urged by the noblest in
centive to labor. the responsibilities Of q hus-
band who idolized his wife. Gen. Leroux
smiled the bland, plying smile OF age that has
forgotten the sensations and dreams Of youth.
II cannot marry my daughter to possibili-
ties, however brilliant" he said 81 know you
have had q brilliant career and you have taken
life at break-neck time, as il it were
. waltz at the Mabille. The question OF
her future has long been quietly settled be-
tween her mother and me on the one part and
scouple Of old friends Of ours on the other
part"
Maxine knew Lucie Lerou1 well enough
her soft, pliable nature, her loveof father and
mother, her severely religious training at an
Ursuline convent-to be very sure that she
would obey her parents and marry the sutton
they had chosen for her. 1t was hopeless to
night against his fate; the common burgeoise
Nemesis called Prudence barred his path to
happiness.
He went of to Algiers, and in that original
society amid scenes of fairy-like enchant-
ment, he tried to live down his love- and at least
succeeded in finding life endurable and full of
inspiration for his pen. He still in Africa
when he saw the announcement of Lucie's mar
rage. The Bridegroom was Charles Colnet
an iron founder of established position and
large wealth. The match was a good one. and
Gen Leroux and his wife were to be congratu-
lated upon having done remarkably well for
their daughter.
Maximes business in life was to forget her.
He was not able to do that yet awhile, but he
was able to fling himself heart and soul into his
literary work-embittered. hardened, but
strengthened BY the one honorable passion of
his life. by having loved nobly and in vain
From being known as one of the cleverest jour-
nalists of his day he became famous as the
author OF a novel which struck a new string
upon the seven-stringed Tyre OF earthly passion
and heavenward-looking hope.
Then by an unexpected inheritance from an
uncle 81. Waller found himself land owner of
some Importance. and furnished with means
which justified his taking life exactly as fancy
dictated So he settled quietly down in the
noble Louis TreiZe chateau and for
the FIRST year of his possession de-
voted himself to the almost impossible
task Of improving upon perfection. He might
have fallen into a settled melancholy but
for new and most unlooked-for happiness
that came to him three years after his enrich
ment. Charles Colnet went the way of all flesh
with an awful suddenness early in the spring Of
that year, and III the following summer Maxine
met his old sweetheart at La Bourboule ILL
nervous and fragile pale March primrose
shaken and scared by the shock of an unloved
husbands death, childless and altogether
des~ Nndent
Tire could be but one result Of such a meet
ing To Maximes eye the pensive and aiiing
woman was more interesting if less lovely than
the girl he once had hoped to win. And then
what exquisite delight 1t was for him to watch
the return of the old loneliness, like the grad
ual glow and glory of a summer sunrise, as the
widows heart reawakened to the old love- Yes,
she had loved him always, she confessed when
they parted late in September. she to return to
Paris to arrange her affairs and prepare for
second wedlOck, he to go back to the woods
and gardens of st. Waller, and to elaborate
that which he had been celebrating for the last
three years. He had to prepare the apartments
OF the new chateau. Everything had been
pronounced complete from garnet to cellar,
but nothing in existence could be good enough
for the new mistress of his home and the old
mistress of his heart
The wedding solemnized in Paris a wear
after Charles Comets death. This was the be-
ginning OF new existence for Maxine st. VAL
her. All things looked brighter colored in the
sunlight of domestic happiness, but youth that
Is spent. Is spent No man can make himself
young again. least Of all the man who has taken
those strong years Of manhood between twenty
and forty at a swinging pace. The latter years
OF that man are like the tired hunters return
stableward after grand run with the hounds
The horse may have done prodigies between
AOOu usuHuOWn, Ne mas Ddu MS 0ay and
must creep quietly home to rest. The most
famous physician in Paris had told ST. Waller
to be careful of himself.
''iou have burnt the lamp Of life rather too
hercely, he said There is, however, oil
enough left for a good many years to come If
You viii only husband it"
This was sage warning, but it is difficult
for man who has won the fruition of his fond
est hopes to remember the shadow on the dial
creeping on with slow, inevitable progress.
her Oay aalf 81. L.
his new life and TO the delight of his wife's So
ciety. She was delighted with her surround
ings at the chateau, pleased at the idea of
spending the greater part of every year in that
tranquil home, far from the excitements and
dissipations OF republican Paris. Her hus-
band friends we're her friends and although
there was a faint flavor Of the Quarter Latin
and the Bal Butler still clinging to those old
comrades they were all OF them men of intel
lect and some Of them men of mark-literary
men and painters who had made themselves
famous, or, at least, fashionable: advocates
whose horid eloquence had but too often made
the forger or the parricide appear rather the
victim than the Criminal and had found extern
uating circumstances in the darkest story of
crime.
II was in the second autumn Of 81. Walters
welded life that party Of these friends ar
rlved at the chateau. intent upon enjoying all
the sports and pleasures which st. Waller lie Roi
could anord-hawking, shooting hunting, YEA
even the music of the village Orpheonistes and
the dances at the village fairs. Maxime's
friends were all men. Iucie supplied the
female element, and brought around her half
dozen Of the most elegant women in Paris.
widows or wives on furlough fresh from their
seaside holiday or their cure in Auyervne or
Savoy, Schwalbach or the Pyrenees Every one
was charmed with the chateau Pretty women
went buzzing up and down the Corridors.
peering into the grim seventeenth century
turrets, huttering up and down the corkscrew
stalrcases with much music of light laughter
and frou-frou Of silk and lace
They were delighted with eyerytbins lint
perhaps most of all to find that very audseious
painter Of Partisan boudoirs, Toipache and
that daring analyst of the female heart. Yiyien-
the novelist, on the premises.
There Is something very awful in the idea
OF living FOR fortnight in the same house with
two such men" said Madame Evremonde. the
banker widow; lone feels ones principles in
danger of being gradually undermined. IN
Viviens conversation Is anything like his
books"
"Thank heaven it isn't" said St. WALLER. "or
u. Nivien would be intolerable. Social ANALYSIS
r. Q very good thing to dream and dozs over.
with cigar and ones feet on the fender, but
10 have 70 listen to the analyst expoundinR his
theories-9uelle corvee.''
One Of the first inquiries from the lady Wis
ttors was for the family ghost
"Of course there is a ghost-some sad storv
OF jealous husband and q murdered lover
perhaps, or q faithless wife shut up in one OF
those too delicious turrets?' said Madame Bel
fort, who was stout and sentimental-a kindly.
sdlpose creature, who offered to the fashiona-