The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1891-10-16
FERROUS and touching.

ferrous ana touching. She was Il Rus
sian, Countess Marie Baranow, a very
great lady, of exquisite beauty. You
know how beautiful the Russians are,
or, at least, how beautiful they seem
to us-with their delicate noses, their
sensitive mouths, their eyes so close
together, of an indefinable color, a
blue gray, and their cold, rather hard
charm. They have something wicked
and seductive, naughty and melting,
tender and severe, utterly charming to
Frenchman. At bottom, perhaps, it
is only the difference of race and blood
that makes us see so much in them.
Her doctor had, during many years,
known that she was threatened by a
disease of the chest, and endeavored to
persuade her to come to France for the
winter, but she obstinately refused to
quit st. Petersburg At last, in the
autumn of that year, the doctor COM
PEELED her to leave for Mentone.
She was alone in her compartment of
the train, her servants occupying an
other. She leaned against the window
little sadly, watching the country
and villages as she whirled past, feel
ing very isolated, very lonely in life.
At each station her footman, Ivan,
came to see if his mistress had every
thing she desired. lIc was an old
servant, blindly devoted, ready to obey
any order she might give him.
Night fell, the train rolled on at full
speed. She could not sleep, she was
totally unnerved. Suddenly the idea oc-
Cured to her of counting the money
given to her at the last moment in
French gold. She opened her little bag
and emptied onto her lap the glisten-
ing stream of metal
But, of a sudden, Il breath of cold air
caught her check She lifted her head
in surprise. The door opened. The
Countess Marie, in dismay, threw a
shawl over the money spread out in
her lap and waited A moment after
ward man appeared, barehcaded,
wounded in one hand painting and in
evening dress.
lie reclOsed the door, sat down and
looked at his neighbor with glttcring
eye, then wrapped his wrist in hand
kerchief
The poor woman felt faint with
fright. This man must have seen her
counting her money and had come to
kill her and steal it.
lie still fixed his gaze upon her,
breathlessly, his face drawn, evidently
awaiting to spring upon her.
lie said, brusquely:
Madam, have no fear"
She answered nothing. She was in
capable of opening her lips. She heard
her heart beating and buzzing in her
cars.
81 am no malefactor, madam" he
continued.
Still She said nothing; but in a sud-
den movement she made her knees
knocked together and the money
poured onto the carpet like water
from a spout.
The man stared in surprise at this
flow of gold, and at once stopped to
gather it up
She, terrified, rose, casting all her
gold onto the carpet, and rushed to the
SOor to throw herself onto the line.
Bat he perceived her intention, Sprang
up seized her in his arms and forced
her onto the seat, holding her by the
wrists
Listen to me, madam am no
thief. AS a proof | am going to gather
up this money and restore it to you
Bot am a lost man, a dead man. I'M
less you help me to pass the frontier |
can tell you no more. In one hour we
shall be al the last Russian station, in
one hour and twenty minutes we shall
be en- the other side of the boundaries
of TIE empire. Unless you aid me l
an lost. And yet, madam, l have