The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1891-10-16
Misre1Ianrnms.
END OF A ROMANCE.

A4Nb vi IA 1tOuL 11NO1lt
Renie Normand opened my studio door
the other afternoon and received the
hearty welcome he had a right to expect.
We clasped hands, and after exchanging
EXPLANATIONS of greeting and surprise.
peered earnestly into each others eyes.
For it was ten years or more since we had
last met, and we had changed in those ten
years; so we looked curiously into each
others faces. Ten years or more was
stamped upon us since last we met, but
still we stood well on our feet and our
hands clasped firmly; but how handsome
Renie had grownl He always was hand
some, but this, his mature manly beauty,
was wonderful. His dark once laughing
eyes now had subdued sadness in their
expression, his voluptuous mouth was
frmer and his curls that had once been so
blue black were strongly mixed with gray.
you can rest" l said to Pauline the
model, who was staring at us, wondering
at our silence, after the first greetings.
had many questions to ask Renie, and
many to answer about those past years, and
put down my palette and we lit cigar
cites and began our cross questioning.
How odd it is to greet friend you have
not seen for yearsl A friend you have
cared for, been intimate with and who sud-
denly dropped out of your life long ago.
You stand face to face with him again,
hold his hand and hear the old familiar
voice; and there is the same freedom and
familiarity in manner now as before, and
yet between you is an invisible space of
years, tremendous void that can never be
filled. In time many things can be ex-
planned and recounted to bridge over that
space; it may even be silently disregarded,
but it can never be completely obliterated.
Happy you are if you can make the old
friendship and the new join and forget the
lost years.
We gained few moments lighting our
cigarettes, which in the studio take the
place of bread and salt. He held his in the
same peculiar manner | remembered so
we'll when we were students, in those joy
GUS Latin Quarter days. We talked
hardly that, we asked question for ques-
ton, scarcely waiting for the answer, for
still we understood each other with half
word. We had known something of each
others lives-not much-from paragraphs
in newspapers, had exchanged New Years
cards-not much more; and that was very
little considering how intimate we had
once been in the Latin Quarter and after
ward in the long summer time at Fon-
tainebleau. And as we talked Pauline lay
curled up in the corner among the cush-
ions listening; no one minds a model lis
tening.
$50 you have been a professor all these
years at Bordeaux; but you came to Paris
sometimes?"
Eyes, once or twice year,
And you never came to see mep'
What was the use of ringing your bell
in summer"
THAT'S truel'
"Or in winter; twice tried to find you
when came up at New Years, and you
had followed the sun south"
II am afraid am rather unsettled"
Il remember when you were settled you
were always talking of going somewhere.
But l am coming to Paris next year.
expect to have a professorship here soon,
and then shall dispute you oftener. But
tell me who will be there of the old set?"
''The old set-not many" replied shak-
ing my head.
where are the Grands," Renie contin-
ued, who used to live on the Avenue de la
Grande Armee?"
"Oh, they? They-went back to England
years ago."
81 lam sorry; shall miss them. What
strange, delightful evenings-nights |
should say-we used to have there; and
what strange crowd it wasl Do you
know 1 always enjoyed those long walks
home in the gray morning light, long past
midnight, when no sound was heard on
the streets but the distant market wagons,
the Alsatian peasant sweeping, and the
early twittering bird"-
"And do you remember,'I interrupted,
"the supper that night at Mime. Savages,
the night of the snowstorm, when the
coachmen, not ours, sent in word they
could not wait longer, and Madame invited
them to support"
And what has become of Madame
Madame" Renie hesitated trying to re-
member her name, "who was Miss Ken
dle?"
"She's dead"
"Dead?"
All the light suddenly went out of
Renie's eyes that stared wildly at me.
Dead" he repeated, and then trying to
pull himself together asked, What did
she die Off"
"Ennui," answered turning away to
light fresh cigarette.
"Ennuip' he repeated.
The match was holding was suddenly
blown out by draft of air.
"It's awfully hot herep' exclaimed Pau
line, who with woman's tact and wisdom
had thrown the window wide open.
Are you sure she is dead?" Renie asked.
SureI How could declare was sure to
a man who looked at me as Renie did at
that moment? NO." answered, II am
not sure. l thought heard of her death
several years ago, but may be wrong I'll
write and find out"
''Thank you, if you will. hoped 70 see
her again some day. She was delightful
woman"
"A delightful woman" repeated. How
was it l had, for moment, forgotten he
had been fond of herr We had talked of
Barbison, and the way he said "Barbi-
son." with a tender note in his voice.
should have made me remember, but
did not.
For it was at Barbison they first met.
Her family had heard the praises of Barbi-
son on the edge of the Fontainebleau for
est from the painters, and came down for
a few days. They arrived after dark, were
shown to their lodgings through a farm
yard and were Mortified with the entrance
to their quarters. But what could be
done? 1t was late, Paris was many miles
away, buey uluSo steep SOueWuere, anu 50
they staid that night; and next morning
when they awoke the family were sur
prised to find they had slept well, that the
beds were comfortable, and, although the
chambers were not luxurious, they were
very clean.
The sun was shining: they would stay
one day, as they had come so far, and all
that day they wandered in the forest and
it's the old story-they stayed all sum-
mer. There Renie met Miss Helen, and
all that long summer they played croquet,
explored the forest and sang songs to-
Rether. SONGS long since out of fashion