Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1890-02-05
AT ARROMANCHES.
The Untold, Hopeless Love Of the
Poor Fisher-Girl.

Such delightful ride as it Is from
Bayeux to Arromancbes in blossom
timel And, if one does not soon become
tired, it is quite as pleasant when one
walks. There are apple blossoms all
the way, and bright fresh grass by the
roadside. For long time, when one
looks back over the fat country, the
three tall spires of the cathedral at
Bayeux loom up above the apple bios
SONS and every thing else; but one
loses sight of them at last, and thinks
only of the great drifts of apple bios
SONS which fill the air with sweetness.
BY and by the Chateau de Tracy is seen,
half hidden by the trees about it; and
soon after the road turns, and there is
the single long street of Arromanches
before one on the edge of the cliff, and in
front the wide, curving bay. Perhaps it
is August when one goes to Arromanches,
and in that case he will see red apples
cleaning and twinkling among the
leaves, and the gardens at Arromanches
will be ablaze with tall spikes of holly
hook or lurid with gigantic sunfowers.
If one likes hollyhocks and sunfiowers
better than apple blossoms, it is better
o. people who go to Arromanches and lodge
at the Auberge Chretien go there for
the sake Of the bathing and not for apple
blossoms or sunfower disks. They are
mostly people from the larger Norman
towns, with sprinkling of English
tourists, and now and then stray Amer
lean or two.
Wilfred Avery is one of these last
Brought here by some random freak of
travel, he has found the quiet life at the
Auberge Chretien and on the silvery
PLACE below the cliff so agreeable that he
has stayed here week after week, with
the time of his departure still unde-
termined. Scattered about on the firm
white sands are many little red and white
tents, in the shade of which people sit
through long summer hours reading,
talking with each other, or, what is far
more profitable to a contemplative mind,
watching the sea. Wilfred does not find
the time hanging heavily on his hands
down here on the PLACE. He knows every
one about him, and as he is fairly good
looking, with cheerful, agreeable man
ners, he is general favorite and well
come guest under any or all of the red
and white tents. The fishermen like to
have him stop and chat with them while
they are busy about their boats, and the
bare-legged fisher girls, crossing the
sands with their nets across their shout
ders, often exchange a CHEEKY bon JON
with him when they see him under the
shade Of his tent. He is simple
natured, generous soul, who woul suf-
fer torture himself rather than pain any
one else by word or deed. Every day,
nearly, he writes q letter there in
his tent to his faro Il fan re in
America; and when the year of wait
ing is over in which he has promised
not to see her, to crafty some absurd
within of her mothers, he will return to
America and they will be married in
due time. Meanwhile he is amusing him
self in finding out all sorts of attract
i've hooks and corners of travel, with
the intention OF bringing Eleanor 10
them next year. Eleanor will be sure
to like Arromanches, he thinks, as ne
PAGES the hard white sands or Eambles
along the cliff. Sometimes at evening
he leaves the Auberge Chretien for a
chat with the fishermen sitting about on
their updrawn boats, just out Of the
readA of the tide. The lights on the
cliff above twinkle cheerfully, and
through the line Of spars and tangled
rigging the sea flashes white in the
moonlight. The young man takes .
placid enjoyment in it all-the gleam-
ing sea, the twinkling lights, the gossip
ing talk of the fisherfolk. He knows by
this time the family history of half the
jewellers in Arromanches. He knows
why Jeanne Vauvray will not marry
either Simon Cauchon or his brother
Alphonse, both of whom have been in
love with her from their childhood; why
Louis Dumont goes every Sunday tC
Bernay; how much money Henri Ser
ment made from his fish the year beforei
and Just what fish the etsre prefers foI
his Friday dinners. At least. ii he
does not know all these things, it Is not
for want OF hearing about them often.
And he is communicative in his turn,
lend tells them much about America and
of the many places he has visited in his
travels, to all of which they listen in
tently, but with an inward convic-
ton that Arromanches is better to live
in than any one of those strange foreign
places. But of Eleanor he says nothing,
Perhaps it might have been well to
have told them of her also.
One day he loses little keepsake
that she gave him--a small gold eye
glass hook--and all the youngsters in
Arromanches scamper about on the
PLACE the whole morning in search Of ii
for him. But they fail to find 1t, and
Wilfred feels little vexed over the
loss, for he remembers we'll the foolish
little talk, foolish yet SO sweet. when she
first fastened it upon his coat, months
before. Nine. Chretiea takes personal
interest in her ledger. like every one
else v Arromapches. and u quite dis