Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1890-02-05
tressed to hear Of bis loss.


course of his life, and when it is not one
thing it is sure to be another. The
week before Monsieur came she lost a
silver pin that she had had for twenty
years, and about the same time her
cousin at st. Aubin lost his best COW,
and so it was, and she was very sorry for
monsieur, but what would you? If one
did not lose things sometimes perhaps
one might be happier than Ie Don DSeu
intended-who knows?" Wilfred laughs
softly to himself at this bit of philosO-
ply, and madame hastens into the inn
yard to speak to Pauline, the maid, who
is gathering about the pavement in her
wooden shoes, quite forgetful, appar-
emily, that it will soon be time to serve
the dinner. The look of vexation re-
turns to Wilfred's face when he is alone.
81 would rather lose almost any thing
else," he says to himself Just then
there is knock at the glass door of his
room, which opens upon the gallery en-
circling the duberge on the inner or
courtyard side. A tall, good-looking
fisher-girl stands there bare-footed and
bare-legged, holding in her hand the
missing eyeglass hook.
''Is it this which Monsieur has lost?"
she says, somewhat timidly. Wilfred
eagerly responds that it is.
~ found it on the PLACE but now"
says the girl, 'as was coming back to
the cliff with my net. Alphonse
Cauchon, 1t was he who said to me that
the American Monsieur at the Auberge
Chretien had lost it, and Monsieur will
see that 1 have brought it at once to
him."
at is very good of you to take SO
much trouble, says Wilfred, gently, and
he is about to offer her a coin for the
service she has rendered him when the
girl shakes her head decidedly.
"But no, Monsieur, it is not necessary
to pay Elise Rigault for doing simple
duty that costs her no trouble or pains"
True, true" assents Wilfred, "but
Elise will not mind, l hope, taking some
little thing from me that will help to
keep the American in mind after he has
left Arromanches." And, saying this,
he hands her small, velvet-framed
picture of the Sistine Madonna which
stands on table by him and on which
his eyes happen to fall at that moment.
Elise takes it hesitatingly. Coz.
Surely" she says, Monsieur can not
mean for me to have thisp' And she
looks from the picture to Wilfred, and
from Wilfred back to the picture, in be-
wilderment.
''Yes, that is just what do mean"
answered the other, with decision.
al 1o0lro al A. .oz-.
many little devices for comfort and lux
ury-for Wilfred has something of the
sybarite in his composition-andt then at
the good-looking owner of them all, and
seems for a moment lost in thought
Monsieur is very kind" she says at
length, land he may be sure that Elise
will not forget him." And then she bids
the American good-evening, and goes
down the steep gallery staircase to the
inn yard, and disappears in the twi-
light, holding the velvet frame fast in
her hard hand.
Wilfred is too glad to regain Eleanor's
gift to think very much about the man
ner of its restoration, but the next
morning, as he sits under his tent, he
sees the fisher-girls crossing the sands
not far away from him. Among them is
Elise. bon jour, Monsieur" they call
out as they pass. Elise is the last one,
and she turns her head for another look
at him. He waves his hand kindly, and
she smiles and hurries on to her com
panions.
The days go on quietly at AFRO
manches. One day is just like another,
but the young man does not mind that.
The walk down the PLACE after break
fast; the reading and writing under the
red and white tent; the chats with the
occupants of the other tents; the walks
towards Bayeux or elsewhere in the
afternoon; the evening spent among
the fishermen and their boats-these
things are what fill up his harmless, if
not severely profitable, days. Every
day the lines of bare-legged fsher-girls
crosses the silvery sands and every day
he waves his hand lightly to Elise and
thinks of her not again till the next
time he sees her.
Elise's memory is longer. Indeed, he
is never far out of her mind. When she
is alone she repeats softly to herself the
words he said to her, and wonders
vaguely If all Americans are like him.
So the days go by with her; each with a
little pain, the cause of which she does
not quite know; each with little
sweetness in it when she sees him under
his tent on the PLACE, orcatches glimpse
of him in the village.
But August comes at length to its
end, and Wilfred makes up his mind to
leave Arromanches. Every one is sorry
to hear that he is going, and fully half
the village gathers about the diligence
in front of the Auberge Chretien on the
morning of his departure. All the
Chretien household are there in full
force, of course, and with them many
of the fishermen and fsher-girls, and a
greater number of small children than
one would have believed existed in the
entire hamlet. It is an exceedingly
pleasant thing to be young and gen.
eral favorite. and Wilfred enjoys very
much this spontaneous evidence of his
popularity. The farewells take up a
good deal of time-so much, indeed, that
the diligence is at least twenty minutes
late when it starts for Bayeux.
81 shall come again next year." calls
out Wilfred from the diligence, and
then, amidst a general cry of bon voy-
age, Monsieur, the diligence rolls away.
At the Chateau de Tracy the diligence
stops to take on another passenger, and
here, by the roadside, Iyilfred sees Elise.
He does not dream that she has taken an
early walk along the Bayeux road that
she may see him once more after all the
others have said their farewells. But
SO 1t is, and fortune has been kind to
her, for the stopping of the diligence
has given her the opportunity for 3
word with him while the luggage of the
0ew passenger is being taken ON. She
has on her sabots now, and is very neat
ly dressed.
Monsieur must know that ] had an
errand at the Chateau, and so / could
not bid him farewell, as the others said
Oh a. % L.