Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-04-26

1
way-lent fifty louis without security and with
| out interest-but on second thoughts he in
sisted upon holding the scrip.
| women are SO short-sighted." he said after
making this condition, You would be selling
at the trst rise. These shares worth hold
| ing
Madame Qnijada was in sore need OF fifty
| louis. but il aided certain plan of hers that
Senior Perez should hold the stock. 1t gave
| her right of approach to him. His image
had dwelt in her mind ever since she came to
! Spain the image of wealth incarnate. She
had dreamed her dream about this rich and
| lonely old man. and the hour for the realiza-
| ton of that dream was at hand.
She wrote him piteous letter about a fort
night after Dolores left the convent, telling
him she was too i'll to leave her wretched home
and she was in want of money. She believed
that the dividend upon her Argentines was
nearly due. 1t would only amount she sup
posed, to a couple of louis. but forty francs
| would be something between her wretched
! household and starvation. She had now three
mouths to fill. Her daughter haG been with
drawn from the convent where she had grown
up and sharing the discomforts Of her
wretched lodging.
| Pedro Perez was not given to acts of charity
| and was not i'll the habit Of caring whether his
! fellow-creatures dined or starved; but Madame
| Quijada had contrived to impress him with the
! idea that she was a remarkably clever woman,
and that the world would be the poorer for her
| loss.
| Had the fatterer been old and ugly even
/ feminine tact and subtlety might have failed
to win his ear. but Madame Quljada still
| handsome and still young enough to seem at
tractive in the eyes of man who had passed
his sixtieth birthday. He was not in love with
| her, but he thought her Remarkably attractive
| woman, and instead of sending her fifty francs
| by his servant he went himself to see in what
kind of den SO much ability had found shelter
| He went, saw Dolores in all the splendor of
her fresh young beauty, and was conquered.
! He had never known what it was to feel his
| heart beat quicker at the sight of a womans
| face till he Madame Quijada's daughter
| He was subjugated at once and forever. His
| instinct urged him to make as hard a bargain
as he could with the girls mother; but the set
| Element to which he finally consented was more
than princely. Princes are seldom so gener-
Gus. Had Madame Quijada insisted upon his
sacrificing his last penny he would have done
it sooner than lose the woman he loved. Had
she insisted upon his marrying her daughter
he would have done it. Indeed, the chief con-
sideration that prevented his offering to make
Dolores his wife was his keen dread of ridicuie,
and the consideration that he could keep a mis-
tress under closer surveillance than he could
wife.
He selected the Rue st. Guillaume as a
neighborhood remote from the CAV and popu-
lar Paris of the Boulevards and Rue de Rivoli
in which the casual English and American Wis
itor delights, far also from the Champs Elysees
population of fashionable artists and Bohemians
of all kinds. The Rue st. Guillaume was old
fashioned, sober and eminently respectable
He chose a suite OF apartments in a grave old
house with an inner quadrangle-i house so
grave and silent that the stone quadrangle
might have been cloister. He furnished the
rooms with somber righteousness. and he
offered the cage to his shared bird with an air
OF devoted submission which might have be-
guiled her into fOrgetfulness of the bars which
al ne ter lT;Nnr
Madame Quijada he imposed the duty of
keeping guard over his sultana. The girls
hghtest whim to be studied and INDUCED
so long as that within did not lead to the gay
outer world and its frivolous associations
Dolores was to be queen. but her kingdom
was to be within stone walls. She WAS only to
take air and exercise under conditions of
supreme prudence. She was never to tiaunt
her beauty III the Bots de Boulogne at the
fashionable hour of the day but Madame
Quiz ada had a Carriage at her disposal i'll which
she might drive in the less trequented suburbs
OF Paris, or In the Bols at an hour when all
Paris elsewhere. These restrictions were
hard upon girl of eighteen. newly emanci-
pated from the monotonous rules and regula-
tions of u convent school and painting for
liberty.
''El Santo Corazon WAS q prison" she COM
planned, but at least had plenty of fellow
prisoners. This is solitary confinement"
She chafed bitterly against the dreariness of
made himself her master; but her mothers
stronger character had acquired complete do
mlnlon over her. and she had neither strength
of will nor courage TO rebel against her chains.
She submitted to her fate. She wore the costly
jewels which were her badge of slavery; she
gratlhed her girlish fancy in surrounding her
self with the loveliest flowers that the south
sent to Paris; and she might, perhaps have
grown reconciled to her position. and with but
slightest persuasion might have induced Pedro
To tyIyp hprf no ate OF IL
If she had not been SO unhappy to ,a!i IN
love with her cousin, Leon Duverdier.
During the first year of her residence IN
Paris Duyerdler was frequent visitor III his
aunts salon. He was about forty years of
age, handsome, audaclous, plausible, more
seductive in his ripper years than a younger
lover would have been, because more ex-
perienced in the articles that fascinate
| romantic girl. He had newly returned from
Spanish America, where he had been living a
rowing and adventurous life. now III one state,
now III another. making money no one knew
exactly how. but familiar figure at the
gaming tables OF every city III which he had
his habItation.
He came to Paris, set up his laboratory. and
described himself an experimentaist and in
ventor on the high road to great and useful
discoveries. Perez knew of the relationship
between Duverdier and the Quijadas and had
| met Duverdier on the bourse, but he dad not
know that this handsome cousin was frequent
NAS4tOl III nue. ~. IullldQ1ne, since the
| younger mans visits were always so timed as
| to avoid the master of the prison house. Had
| 1t been otherwise the old mans jealousy would
| have been quick to take alarm.
In her utter ignorance of life Dolores turned
/ to her cousin as the representative of all that
| Is most fascinating and most interesting in the
| outer world. Was 1T likely. then, that he
| would neglect his opportunities with Dolores
lovely and inexperienced girl who had the
command OF one of the deepest purses in
| Parisl
| He had too holy fear of his aunt to ap-
! proach his cousin in the guise of the seducer
but he contrived to win her affections as if I'M
awares, and she was perhaps all the more
| bllndly IN love with him because he had never
| asked her for her heart. He always affected
to respect her relations with Perez, and he told
| her bluntly that her mission in life was to
make the tnancier her husband.
| 1T Is your own fault that the marriage has
| not come off ages ago." he said; and then,
| when the girl answered him only with a deep
| sigh 1t was his task to console her. his task to
talk Of the happiness which might have been
had his lot in life been different.
Il am little better than pauper," he told
J her. land my life is full of bitter memories
| No woman who values her own happiness
| should link her lot with mine"
Dolores pondered over that phrase, bitter
/ memories" and she interpreted it after her
! own fancy, which told her that Icons youth
had been bllghted by some dark love story a
tale of fatal passion and broken hearts such as
she was reading about daily in the novels which
| her Rhlaf