Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1890-05-03

came to the heart OF the town, 10 the place
of fountains and palaces and gardefis and
flowers. IL was I'm the summer sunset. All
things were gllded by that western radiance.
Soldiers were marching along the Rue de
Riyoli, drums beating, trumpets biarlng.
Lamps were lit In all the cafes, crowds of
people were sitting about in the open
streets, the concerts In the Champs Elysees
were beginning their music and song, myr-
lad little lampions shining and twinkling
In the last rays Of the sun. C~leopatra's
Needle, fountains, palace, soldiers, statues,
trees, flowers, all fused themselves into one
dazzling picture before the eyes Of the two
bewildered, wearied young travellers.
20 Rose, how beautiful! how beautifulp
gasped Kathleen, breathless with rapture.
"How happy we shall be hereW
But while thcy stood admiring the foun-
| tains, listening to the martial music, the
shades Of evening were descending, and
they had still to find shelter for the night.
| Useless to look for such a shelter in this
| region Of palaces. Rose took her sister by
| the hand and walked on, trusting to Fate to
carry them 10 some humble district, where
| they might find friends and economical fare,
as they had lone everywhere on the way,
thanks TO Roses Instinct for discovering the
fttest places, the right people.
Stars were beginning TO flash and tremble
mon the blue river as the orphans went
over the bridge beyond the Louvre into that
| poorer Paris on the left bank of the Seine.
| Here they roamed about In the twilight till
they drifted somehow into the Ru. Git lie
C1url and at the door of one Of the shabby
old houses T. use saw d fat middle.aged mat
ron, with a goOd-natured face, of whom she
asked for advice as TO a lodging.
The matron heard her story, and at once
spread her motherly wing over both girls.
| There was a gdrni q furnished third floor
i'm the middle house in the yard. The rooms
were small Just two little rooms and a tiny
closet for kitchen; quite big enough for two
girls. She led the way, introduced Rose to
the concieTgc-whose husband was a shoe
maker, occupying the basement Of the house
and who went painting up the narrow
stairs, key in hand, to show the lodging.
IL was very small, very shabby and cheap
although IL was, the rent seemed a great
deal TO Rose, after her experience OF village
lodgings OH the way; but her new friend
told her she might walk miles and get moth
ing so cheap In all Paris 30 she took heart,
and hired the apartment for a month GER
tain, paying the fifth Of her golden pieces,
OF which she had spent just -four upon the
road, as an instalment Of the rent. And
then. still directed by her stout friend, she
went 10 a crcmerie round the corner, and
bought some milk and rolls and a little
cheese for supper; md the sister sat down
In their new home, 30 bare Of many things
essential for comfort, and laughed and cried
over their first meal in Paris. Kathleen was
| aIptonN kxp.4.rsnaI .,ith Fatfnn,a and axaitn~
ment. All the way they had come, even in
the midst Of her girlish gladness, she had
been haunted by fears Of pursuit. The
Reverend Mother would send the gardener
after her, and have her taken back and shut
up In the sun-baked room where the rats
lived.
"But now we are safe" she said, with her
head on her sisters shoulder, and Roses
arm round her, I'VE are safe in Pats. and
If Reverend Mother sends after us, we'll go
to the Emperor and ask him to take care OF
us. We are his suhiec:s now" This was
In '63, when the Empire wa in Its glory,
and there was a sense OF power n SPLEEN
dor in the third NapOleon's dominion over
this beautiful modern Babylon, such as
must have been felt in Rome under the po-
litic sway of Augustus. These girls felt as
II they were in a fortress, now they were
within the charmed circle Of imperial mag
nifcence.
Years OF struggle and poverty and indus
try and self-denial came after that happy
evening when the girls sat in the twilight,
dreaming OF a bright future cut though the
training was severe, 1t was perhaps, the best
and noblest school in which humanity can
be educated. The sisters were never un
happy, for they were together, and they
were free. Rose was sister, mother, guar.
stan. "a. the world of love and shelter fui
Kathleen, who bloomed into exquisite love-
illness In that humble Partisan lodging, a
fair flower blossoming unseen, with, hap
PLY, few TO note her beauty.
Rose found only too soon that education
was a drug in the Partisan markets. After
heroic efforts TO get employment as a morn
Ing goyerness in a BRIDESMAIDS family, she
fell back upon the only industry which Of.
fered itself. and, by the help of her frsa
Partisan friend, Madame Schubert, the stout
matron who had found her a lodging, she
got employment as an artificial fower-maker,
In which art SHE progressed rapidly, and, in
q couple of years, attained q perfection
which insured her liberal wages-wages
which enabled her to maintain the little
lodging, and feed and clothe herself and
her sister. The fare was of the simplest,
and there was a good deal of pinching need
ed to make both ends meet in that luxurious
expensive city of Paris especially in winter,
when fuel made such an inroad upon the
slender purse; but somehow the girls never
knew actual privation, never went TO bed
hungry, or were haunted In their slumber
by the nightmare of debt. The little rooms
on the third story were the pink Of neat
ness. Kathleen was housekeeper, and her
busy hands swept and busted and polished,
and kent all .a.:ags bright. The modes
gray or Drown merlno towns were never
shabby or dilapidated. Collars and cuff
were always spotless, and the little feet
neatly shod. There were always a few half
pence for the bag at Notre Dame, and there
was always a loaf to divide with q poor
n%eighbor, or a cup of soup for n sick child.
On the other hand, the pleasures Of the
sisters were of the rarest, and, perhaps, that
Is why they were so sweet. A steamboat
excursion once or twice in q long summer
to some suburban village that was almost
the country;a visit TO cheap boulevard
theatre once or twice In the long winter.
But o, how heavenly was the scent of lime
blossoms, how exquisite the verdure OF sum
mel meadows, to those who tasted the lux.
ury so seldom! And how vivid and real was
that sham world of the stage to those who
so seldom saw the curtain rise upon that
paint and tinsel paradise!
Rose and Kathleen lived as humbly rs
grisettes live, and dressed as grisettes dress
but they preserved the secluded habits OF
English l~adies-knew no one, and spoke to
no one. outside the narrow enclosure Of tina,
little stone-paved yard in the Rue Git lie
Ceur, with Its three houses divided into
twenty domiciles. Among these dwellings
the sisters had made u few respectable ac-
Quaintances, including Madame Schubert,
the stout matron who grew more and more
obese as the years went by, who was de-
scrihed somewhat vaguely as a petit RENTER,
and whose only business In life was to know
the business of her n~eighbors, and to attend
upon an ancient coffeccolored pug almost
as obese ~ herself.
As she was their first, 90 was Madame
Schubert their best and most intimate friend,
and, indeed, thsOne only person whom the
Demoiselles O'Hara visited and received In
this vast city Of Paris. She was always
their companion and rrctec.rcss in those
happy excursions othe country. those fairy
like nights at the theatre. 1t was she who
supplied the secluded damsels with news OF
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