Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1891-07-24


Boston Transcript.
MARIE LAFARGE.
"Where shall we go for our holiday"
asked my friend Haywood, as we sat. at
hueAkfast one day toward the end of July,
i1sB-.
Haywood and l had been friends at COL
Aegn, and had lived together in chambers in
Tho Temple ever since we left Oxford.
We shared each others tastes and amuse-
Jmeuts and were, in fact, inseparable.
1--WE seem to have done everything" re-
marked ], in reply to Raywood's question.
Gan you suggest anything newt"
lie Us do some mountaineering"
w have already been to Switzerland
ftwice.n
What I mean is, let us 60 off the beaten
track and find out new places for our
SELVES"
"Agreed," said I. so in a few weeks time
I'VE were of to the Alps.
After a few weeks in Lucerne, where we
had friends. we went south to Niterlaken,
land then set out to wander among the less
lfrequented portion of the Bernese Ober-
land, and it was on this excursion that we
heard of Marie Lafarge.
swell, we're certainly having a good
time" remarked Haywood one day as we
|tramped along, "but so far we haven't had
a single adventure"
w are on the eve of one now, perhaps,
tor the barometer is going down rapidly,
land to be caught in a violent storm on the
edge of this precipice would be no Joke"
"Why look at the Finsteraarhorn! There
Is q storm brewing sure enough. Is there
q village anywhere about, I wonder,' said
Haywood, whose ardor for an adventure
had cooled when he found it might be near
lat hand.
eyes; according to the map there are a
few huts about a mile further on"
Lets hurry along, then," and we did.
We reached the village just as the storm
burst. The hamlet consisted of some half
dozen dwellings built on a narrow ledge of
rock.
We looked around for a hosiery, but
saw none. We went up to a peasant wom-
an standing at the door of a cottage, or,
rather, a hut, and asked for the inn.
There is not one," replied she, looking
establishment at the question.
what do tourists do, them"
"They never come here"
"1s there no one who will give us a
nights ledging?" asked haywood in dis
may.
"Any of us would do so willingly" re-
piled the woman kindly, but we nave no
suitable accommodation. Nine. Lafarge
might put you up. sir. She has the largest
house in the village, and madame never
.1OaQQ the phonoQ of oorripD o~-ths-- A.
dame is not one of us. She comes from
Geneva" added the woman disparagingly,
"But madame is in such Distress inter
posed the woman's husband. "She has
just lost her poor ~stepdaughter in q dread
itul manner There is reason to fear the
poor girl has been murdered"
Then it would be useless to disturb the
poor woman" said !.
Il don't know" replied the peasant wo-
man, who appeared shrewder than her
husband Mime. Lafarge is not one to miss
"a chance of earning money, and I never did
think her heart was 80 set on that girl
Marie as she pretended. If you offer her
good terms she'll smother her grief for a
time. Grief can always bide."
I'VE will try, at all events; thank you"
said I, and taking one of the woman's chill
sdren as guide we went toward the dwell
ing of Nine. Lafarge.
"What has happened to this girl that
your father speaks OFF, asked HAYWOOD of
the lad.
With some circumlocution he told a
story, which was briefly as follows:
Mime. Lafarge, who was a widow, had
. daughter and a stepdaughter. The lat
ter, Marie by name, had inherited a little
fortune from her mother, and, being also q
charming girl she had been sought in mar
Iriage by most of the eligible young men of
her own and the neighboring villages.
. ! She was a coquette, however, in an limo
cant, girlish fashion, and while not posi-
lively discouraRing any, she gave accept
iance to none.
handsome daring young fellow from
the next village, Max Reikmann by name,
seemed likely, however, to be the happy
man, and he and the coquettish Marie
we're on the point of being betrothed when
Marie set out one fine afternoon to meet her
lover and-never returned.
This was about three weeks before the
DAY on which we arrived at E.
Whom do they suspect" asked Ray
wood.
The boy would not say at first, but a lit
q tie cross-examination elected the fact that
suspicion was divided between the miserly
'stapmother, who had inherited the poor
r girls property, and the lover, who was
known to be of a passionate disposition
and desperately jealous.
Most people suspected the lover, how
ever, more than the stepmother, inasnuch
Jas some friends who were spending the
day with Mime. Lafarge and her daughter
witnessed the departure of Marie to meet
Max. Nine. Lafarge, however, had left
her guests for a short time after Marie set
lout, though, as far as they knew, she had
mot quilted the house. Max himself en-.
tered the house Of the Lafarges an hour
later, appearing much excited, and asked
why Marie had not met him as she had
promised.
"Have the remains of the poor girl been
found yet?o asked Haywood.
mo. II she fell over the precipice at the
point people think likely she never will be
1lfound. A man fell over last year and they
haze never seen q trace of him since"
Presently we reached the house of the
HAfarges.
1t was the last in the hamlet, and stood
somewhat apart from the others. It looked