Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-11-01
THE LITTLE MARQUIS.

important parsonage Oh that department
and the most insignificant and powerless
Into his cradle the fairies had dropped al
the gifts of fortune but those two withou
which the others taste as ashes-love anc
happiness. His life was uncolored by the
the affections of home, and his days, like
his ragged little visage and his dull per
sonality, were vague with the yagueness o.
negative misery. Of his nurse he wa
meekly afraid, and his relations with the
other servants were of the most distinctly
polite and official nature He understood
that they were to do his bidding nomi-
nally, and compel him actually to do
theirs, pending his hour of authority.
With little broken sigh he envied the
happiness that he rootedly believed to &C
company the more cheerful proportions of
the cottager's experience, of which he oc-
casionally caught glimpses in daily walks,
remembering the chill solitude Of his own
big empty castle and the immense park that
seemed an expansion of his imprisonment,
including, as part of his uninterrupted
gloom. the kindly meadows and woods, the
babb;ing streams and leafy avenues, where
the birds sang of joys uncomprehended by
him
Play was as foreign to him as hope.
Every morning he grayely saluted the
picture of his pretty mother which hung
in his BEDROOM lovely picture, hardly
real in its dainty old-world charm, arch
and frail and innocent, the bloom Of whose
eighteen years had been sacrificed upon
his own coming, leaving a copy washed of
all beauty, its deIicacy blurred in a half
effaced boyish visage without character or
coloring. OF his father Herve never spoke
shrinking with the unconscious pride of
race, from the male interloper who had
been glad enough to drop an inferior name
and was considered by his friends to have
waltzed himself and his handsome eyes
into an enviable bondage. And the only
return he could make to the house that
had so benefited him was flying visit
from Paris to inspect the heir and confer
with his sons steward Whose guardian he
had been appointed by the old Marquis at
his DEATH, and then return to his city
pleasures which he found more entertain
ing than his Norman neighbors.
On Sunday morning little Herve was
conducted to high mass in the Church OF
Saint Laurent upon the broad high-road
leading to the town of Falaise. Duly
escorted up the aisle by an obsequious
Swiss in military hat and clanking sword,
with a long blonde muStache that excited
the boys admiration, Herve and his nurse
were bowed into the colossal family pew,
as large as a moderate-sized chamber,
roughly carved and running along the fiat
wide tombs of his ancestors, on which mar
BILE statues of knights and medieval ladies
lay lengthways. The child's air of melan-
cholv and solitary state was enough to
make any honest heart ache, and his pres
ence never failed to waken the intense in
terest of the simple congregation, and sup
ply them with food for speculation as to
his future, over their midday soup and
cider. Hard, indeed, would it have been
to define the future Of the little man sit
ting SO decorously in his huge pew, and
following the long services in a spirit of
almost pathetic conventionality and resig-
nation, only very occasionally relieved by
his queer broken sigh that had settled
into a trick, or furtive wandering of his
.ves that sought distraction among an
cestral epitaphs.
He was not, it must be owned, an en-
gaging child, though soft-hearted and tim
idlv attracted by animals, whose suscepti-
bilities he would have feared to offend by
any unlimited demonstration of affection.
He had heard himself described as plain
and dull, and thought it his duty to re-
frain as much as possible from inficting
his presence upon Others, preferring loneli-
ness to adverse criticism. But he had one
friend who had found him out and taken
him to her equally unhappy and tender
heart. The Countesse de Fresney, lady
of thirty, like himself, miserable and mis-
understood. Herve thought she must be
very beautiful for him to love her so de-
votedly, and he looked forward with much
eagerness TO the time of her widowhood,
when he should be free to marry her.
There was something inexpressibly sad
in the drollery of their relations. Neither
was aware Of the comic element, while
both were profoundly impressed with the
sadness. Whenever a fair, a race, or a
company of strolling players took the tyr
annical Count away from tresney, mes
senger was at once despatched to Saint
Laurent, and gladly the little Marquis
trotted off to console his friend.
One day Herve gave expression to his
matrimonial intentions. The Countess,
sitting with her hands in her lap, was
gazing gloomily out of the window when
She turned, and said, signing: ado you
know, Herve, that have never even been
to Paris !"
Herye did not know, and was not of an
age to measure the frightful depth of pri-
walton confessed. But the Countess spoke
In sadder voice than usual, and, in re-
Spouse to her sigh, his childish lips parted
in his own vague little sigh.
"When | am grown up I'll take you to
Paris, Countess" he said, coming near,
and timidly fondling her hand.
eyes, Herve," said the Countess, and
she stopped to kiss him.
IN. lie Comte is so old that he will prob
ably be dead by that time, and then can
marry you, Countess, and you will live al
ways at Saint-Laurent. You know it is
bigger than Fresney."
Eyes. Herve," said the Countess mus
ingly, thinking of her lost years and dead
dreams. as she stared across the pleasant
landscape.
Herve regarded himself as an engaged
gentleman from that day. The following
Sunday he studied the epitaph on the
tomb Of the last Marquis, his grandfather,
who had vanished into darkness of an I'M
explored continent with notebook and
scientific intent, to leave his bones to
whiten in the desert and the name of a
brave man to adorn his country's annals.
Herve was all excitement to learn from the
i Countess the precise meaning of the words
distinguished and explorer.
Countess" he hurried to ask, "what is
t to be distinguished
at is greatly to do great things, Herve."
"And what does explorer mean?"
"To go far away into the unknown; to
md out unvisited places, and teach others
ow much larger the world is than they
Imagine"
This explanation thrilled new thoughts
I'D ambition in the breast of the little