Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1891-03-19
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THRILLING STORY OF THE
FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR.
HY MAURICE LEGRAND.
CHAPTER TX.
TO MEET AGAIN.

~ had come over Ninette
The listless apathy and weary
patience of her manner had been con-
verified into a feverish restlessness, a
desire for gayety, q hatred for the
solitude which short time before she
had so earnestly coveted. 1t pleased
her father to noe it, looking as he
did merely at the surface of the change,
not at the cause. For seventeen years
of her life he had neglected,
and almost deserted her. then,
when he had seen her in her fresh
young beauty, he made her but the tool
of his safety--the victims Of his
designs.
Long years ago, when the mother
had been fair, and young, and inno-
cent, as the daughter was now, he had
welded her in a moment of infatuation
which he had never cease to regret
He had loved her we'll for a time, but
he wearied of the tie that bound him.
Without feeling of remorse he had
forsaken her, as she in her agony and
suffering had only dragged herself
back to the home of her childhood and
died, knowing nothing of his fate. He
heard of her death and heard too of
the child she had left to the charity of
strangers, and yet neither sought her
nor took heed of her welfare till neces-
sity compelled him. An adventurer.
an agitator, a spy-all these he had
been by turns, but to serve his pur-
pose he had represented himself to his
| daughter as a martyr for the sake OF
| freedOm-a hero oppressed and
wronged by the haters of liberty. For
| time she believed him--only for
time-the mask soon fell off from his
face and she knew him for what he
was-a traitor to his country, a spy in
the service Of the foe who were filling
the length and breadth of the land
with misery, bloOdshed and woe!
Bound to him by tic too close to
break-seeing that a word from her
would have delivered him into her
husbands hands to die traitors
death-she had sworn, as he babe her,
as it lay in her power. He ruled her
by two things-her weakness and her
love. He promised she might live in
| peace and safety with Pierre Leroux,
so long as she betrayed nothing of his
existence or his treachery. But when
concealment was at an end, when she saw
the pitfall she had digged for her own
feet, great terror seized her. In the
passionate scOrn with which Pierre
had spoken of the fugitive deserter
she seemed TO read his fate. She
| q 1a,, L.
mon horror. and in furious contempt
for the coward, think nothing OF yield
ing him up to justice. She had nc
choice left but to shield him. and
thereby she made herself his slave
from that day forward; for to a man
skilled in diplomacy, intrigue, and
craft, she was an easy prey. Her life
was now fettered by his will, darkened
by his falsehoods. His own evil fame
alone sufficed to tarnish her reputa-
tiOn. and from the men who were his
associates she received scant courtesy,
though her beauty won her notoriety
with speedy success.
AS time passed on she grew harden
ed, reckless, defiant. She saw herself
abandoned By love-outlawed for no
cause-misjudged, condemned on all
sides, and seeing it, she laughed with
scorn at her own blindness, and
drank the cup of humiliation to the
last dregs.
OF late she gave no confidence TO
her Acknowledgment nothing OF the
shame that consumed and the misery
that held her. She came at his bid
ding and profited enough by his les
J sons to rule the men who surrounded
her: to enslave, cOquct. allure them,
so that they might fall reader vic
tins to the snares he spread. He deem
ed her content with her life at last-a
passive agent in his hands. He law
ished gifts upon her. He would have
her robed in costly dresses and deck
ed with jewels until her loneliness made
all men wonder; and while she smiled
and jested, and coquetted with the
heedlessness that was only scorn, and
the caprice that was only bitterness,
he looked on and was we'll content, and
thought her the same.
He did not see her in ner
| tCurs of solitude when