Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-03-01

Take the trouble to seat yourself
Monsieur" said Mile. Lafont, pointing graci-
ously,to the only unoccupied chair. which was
placed opposite her own MY good friend
yonder"-with a glance at the door through
which Florestan's introducer had retired
"tells me you want information about
some former ledger. was born in this house
and have lived in il nearly ninety years"
THAT is a curious thing to happen in such
a restless city as Paris" said Florestan,
interested in the sad, old face, the dull and
barren life. "How came it, Mademoiselle,
that your life was thus uneventful
There are many such lives in every great
city, Monsieur-lives that are Of little more
account than the life of a limpet on a rock
My father was flung like q weed on the ocean
OF Paris lad of sixteen, without friends or
home. His father was a lawyer, prosperous,
successful; his mother was a beauty sought
after by the best people in Paris All his boy
hood had been spent in the stormy atmosphere
OF the revolution, but the troubles of those
dreadful years seemed hardly to have touched
his home. His father was in constant employ
ment and had voice in the Senate where
his eloquence made him a man of mark; his
mothers friends still focked around her.
except when now and then the guillotine made
sudden gap In the circle. The Brotherhood
In whose house my father had been educated
were broken up and dispersed. He was az
home in idleness, enjoying his life and all the
fever of the time-waiting till his father
should have leisure to take up the thread of
his education, hoping to follow in his
fathers footsteps as q successful ad-
vocate, full Of belief in the golden
harvest OF that bloody seed which was being
Down broadcast through the fairest cities OF
France. Boy as he was he was already an ar
dent politician, and had the entree of more
than one club where opinion ultra red.
One night he went home from a turbulent de-
bate at one Of his clubs to find the servants in
tribulation and his home desolate. His father
and mother had been arrested and taken to
the Conciergerie- Within a week they had
both passed by the gate which Fouquier Tin
vile kept on the road to Eternity. All their
nne friends were powerless to help them or
afraid to interfere. My grandfather had ne
elected his private interests for the cause of tke
republic, and he died deeply in debt. Credi-
tors took possession of house and property
and my father wandered about the streets,
his fathers friends"
The old woman paused for few moments
and then, seeing that her listener was warmly
interested, continued in her slow deliberate ac-
cents, quietly reciting story which she had
told to all corners for more than half a CEN
tury:
"Chance brought him in his desolation 10 the
threshold Of this house. He sat down upon the
step In front OF the shop door; not because he
chose that place above any other but because
he had reached the limit of his strength and
must needs drop somewhere. The shop is kept
by shoe maker now, and it was kept by shoe
maker then, a Proyencal, whose father was
head gardener to Madame du Barry and who
had come to Paris to seek his fortune in the
golden days Of court favor. Madame du
IA va hsa Lid
was all at an end; Francois Vial and Lis wife
were struggling on as best they might. mending
and making shoes for red republicans"
They were not too poor to have pity on
your father, / take il, said Florestan
Their hearts were larger than their means
Monsieur. They saw fainting lad sitting on
their doorstep with his head leaning against
the door post, and they took him Ill and fed
MIN and comforted him He told them that he
was the son of suspects who had been guilIo-
tined, but that did not brighten them. Thoy
took him into their home and nursed him
tnrough long illness, a low fever the result
OF grief and exposure. He had been wandering
about the streets nearly week before they
took compassion upon him-wandering abont
and sleeping III dark corners of the city with
only few pence between him and absolute
starvation. Francois Vial and his wife were
ehlldless and they took fancy 70 the ornhan
and taught him their trade. He had no other
friend IN the world to help him, for those OF his
fathers friends who had not been swept away
upon the strong tide Of blood had left the
country, and there was no one TO help him ex-
eept these good people So he who was to have
been an advocate and a senator Was conten, to
make and mend shoes, and he fell in love with
an orphan niece Of Francois yial-a little fair
haired girl who had comforted him In his sor-
row for his dead parents-and he married her
when he was three and twenty. and when the
newborn century was opening IN splendor and
glory. He had quite reconciled himself to his
humble ayocation- BE was content TO remain
what destiny had made him. His mind seemed
TO have fashioned itself easily to that humble
sphere. j have often wondered that il WAS so.
that the blood in his veins did not revolt
against that daily drudgery, that narrow sordid
IL was strange, assuredly. that he never
tried TO get back into the sphere from which
be had dropped"
Il think that in that long illness OF his, when
bis mind was wandering most OF the time all
The links that connected him with ais past life
may have weakened. till the influence OF that
life wac nearly lost, and he was able to begin a
new existence among low-born people without
feeling much pain in the change. At any rate
he never made any struggle TO regain his lost
place in the woodland later, when Francois