The morning call., 1891-01-25
LOVING A
DREAM Face.
De BalTiIG TELLS a Charming Story
Of a Schoolgirls Faith.
II. CAME NEAR PROVING FATAL.
4 Lover Framed BY GiTliSh In agiRduOI- Ar
dent Love Letters Deposited in a GTOttO.
DeT0ITiRg Fabricated Answers Approach
Of the Critical MOmaRt-Al Embarrassing
Situation The ODligiIg Substitute.
II CAME NEAR PROVING FATAL.
Written for THE SUNDAY CALL

J 7 the celebrated young ladies
I. boarding school of the Olivier
on \ Sisters, situated upon a 81 ent
- street of the Vielle Estrapade
II J \ quarter. the gardens of Whch,
i 0@up to the present respected by
the new buildings, occupy an immense
space, one October day, during the after
noon recreations, two Iyoung girls, Blanche
de CaStan, aged / and Jeanne de MeSlide,
aged -, disdainnG the amuSements of their
companions preferred to admire the rosy
and golden flames Of the setting sun, while
at their feet whirled the dead leaves, tossed
about nv the wind.
" Bat what ais you, my dear?" said
Blanche, pausing suddenly. Your eyes
shine with an unusual brightness, your
voice trrnbles. you walk with quicker
step than is your habit, and over all the
features OF your face breaks an EXPIRE ssion
Of Joy. What ails you? What has
happened to YOU? Have you by chance
found a treasure or some pearl as
large as a tiibtrt in that fOrSaken grotto
where little spring mumuTs. and where,
except yourself alone, no one ever enters"
"Ah! said Jeanne, you do right to
question me, for l have need to confide
something to you, and my heart burns TO
empty itself into yours. Yes. am mad,
l am in an ecstasy, l am happy That tor
ment, that happiness, that unknown en-
chautment If which we have so often
spoken. l know what it is now. luver
% You" cried Blanche.
THE IDEAL LOVER
listen, said Jeanne. " He is young
man OF L., handsome, with Short black hair
with pensiye black eyes, with a red lip,
above which has just started a slight black
mEstache, very thin-almOst invisible. His
neck Is robust, but rs white as ours. His
name is Henri. lie is studying to enter
~ti f'y-r f.- ln wi ha Sgt3 1 ba
B adores me. When lie thinks of me his eyes
glitter and grow humid. He hardly dares
- 10 call me Jeanne aud to utter my name IN
q whisper
But" cried Blanche, greatly astonishef
''wder- is he? Where have you seen him ?''
81 have not seen him." replied Jeanne,
'oni have suddenly Tecollected him, His
image has been distinctly traced in my
memory with the most fugitive details.
nave recognized the flash upon his teeth so
white, his long eyeIaShes, his brOws as if
~Narked with a pencil ana his proud mouth,
that soltens for me alone"
But, said Blanche, at the height of sur
prise, If you have not seen linn how do
you know lee eXistS?"
"Oh," resumed Jeanne, quickly, Il know
il, | see II, feel it. If he did not exist how
would lie be present in my nina? How
would | have learned his name? How
would l have OWNED that lie loves me-?
" here lie Is l know not; perhaps behind
thc high wall that shuts in this garden, for
we are ignorant as to WHO dweIls there :;
doubtless his parents. But that Of which /
am certain is that l feel myself in his pres
ence, beneath his eyes, very near him, and
he VIII md the means to show himself to
write, to overcome the absence that sepa-
rates uSp'
oh, my dear said Blanche. merrily. "all
this is a simple chimera, aud | advise you TO
frankly reRounce this dream"
!. You wicked girl!" cried Jeanne, whose
BOSOM heaved yoiently, Willie her look
grew fierce and down her cheeks great tears
flowed in floods.
Blanche Immediately strove to console
ler, but also to cure her and 10 make her
comprehend the childishnesS OF her dream
Of love. Far, however. from convincing
her she succeeded only in grieyiug and
wOuHdIug her. Tie recreation time came
20 Il close; the bell was already ringing to
recall the Young girls to the study-ToOm;
Jeanne still Wept, could not succeed in
Sitting her sObs, and trembling least some
.- 81 the teachers might hear them, Blanche
conceived 4 fatal idea.
A DANGEROUS LETTER.
Since she was unable t. persuade her
friend that Henri did not exist, why should
she not play the parsonage herself, making
hin act and managing him according to her
fancy, Tree TO suppress him at the earliest
possible moment? She decided tn adopt this
plan that she deemed wise, but that was
destined to cause almost irrepara1 Die mis-
fortune, Tor passion Is never so formidable
as "hen it plunges on despite all obstacles,
guided by the terrible object Of youth.
Two days latter, having gone to sit for a
while in her fayorite grottO Jeanne found
there 4 letter, bearing upon the envelope
this address: Nile. Jeanne de MeSlide."
She fastened to open it, without th e least
establishment; on the contrary, she thought
that this expected lie liter was very late in ar
irving. She read il, devogTed il, even to the
b signature, even 10 that name Of Henri that
she had always in her heart and upon her
. dol glF faat hon of
believing herself beloved.
Written by Blanche de Castan, who with
herl5 years did not know much more than
her young friend, this letter was just such
an ,p!stle as girls in their teens are IN the
habit OF writing to each other; for that rea-
son it was the more dangerous and better
attained its aim, being exactly within the
comprehension Of the person who read it,
Jeanne thought it natural that her lover
should praise not only her beauty. but also
the details of her toilet and of her improve
meut al school; it seemed to her nothing un-
usual that Henri should know her class
room, study-roOm and promenade habits; it
was the contrary that would have aStonished
her. As she was begged to do so, she
answered without hesitation, without regret
like oman every young girl is a woman y
who has bestowed herself at once and for
ever. And she lett her letter in the very
place where she had found the fabricated
letter from Renri.
DELIGHTS AND TORTUREs
And this correspondence continued thus,
mad, ardent, infatuated, the more genuine In
Jeanne's eyes the more good naturedly it
plunged into the traditions of the fairy tales,
and in telling her of cOnqueTiug worlds for
her, OF seating her on thrones, of placing dia-
dems upon her fOrhead. Henri seemed to her
10 confine himself within proper limits and
to say precisely what he ought to say. But
Jeanne was not tie only one excited and
{ Singed by these Lagos full OF ecstasy and
madness, for in writing them, in reading
them, Blanche also caught the contagion
and, in her turn, tasted thousand delights
! and thousand t0rtures. She also loved
4 whom? Was it that Henri the role of
whom she was playing and who, evoked by
the imagination Of the two young girls, had
at last become really a living being for both
Of them? She was not aware OF this; she
would have been greatly embarrassed 10
assign an object to the passion that was
devOuring her in her tern: but she had too
imprudently PLAYED with love not to be
singed by that fame that spares no one. A
prey TO a deilrium that was none the less
violent because born OF a simple fiction,
having imprudently awakened in herself
the thirst for loving and being loved that
sleeps upon every feminine lip, it was now
with aimless, but in no wise simulated, ardor
i that she wrote the letters, the incendiary
4 language of which excited herself as dan
Z gerously as her friend Jeanne.
However, Blanche was the first to recover
reason, because she found herself brought
face 10 face with material embarrassment
she had not foreseen. The fact was that,
when the critical moment was very rapidly
= approaching, she no longer had the slight
est idea how to make the parsonage act with
whom she had audaciously charged herself;
Jeanne de Meslide. after the fashion OF all
young girls, wished to see her Henri and put
him in a condition to show himself, an en-
barassing situation for lover who has no
existence!
AN IMPERIoUs DEMAND.
Twice month Jeanne went to spend a
day at her mothers house; two other times
she took a promenade with the scholars.
Henri must be cruelty shOrn of Imagination
not to find some method of throwing himself
in her way to exchange a look with her.
She gave him thousand means to do so
That Henri eluded with a timidity that re-
semOled bad faith. But at last the moment