Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1891-11-20
END OF A ROMANCE.

Renie Normand opened my studio door
the other afternoon and received the
hearty welcome he had right to expect.
We clasped hands, and after exchanging
ordinations 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 Mst, but
still we stood well on our feet and cur
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
D firmer and his curls that had once been so
blue black were strongly mixed with gray.
"You can rest," said to Pauline the
| model, who was staring at us, wondering
! at our silence, after the first greetings.
Il 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
oSSA
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
filed. 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 a few moments lighting our
cigarettes, which in the studio take the
| place of bread and salt. He held his in the
same peculiar manner l remembered SO
well 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 a
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
CURED up in the corner among the cush-
ions listening; no one minds model lis
tening.
$50 you have been professor all these
years at Bordeaux; but you came to Paris
sometimes?"
Eyes, once or twice year."
"And you never came to see nel''
"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"
81 am afraid am rather unsettled"
81 remember when you were settled you
were always talking of going somewhere.
But | am coming to Paris next year.
expect to have professorship here soon,
and then shall dispute you oftener But
tell me who will be there of the old set?"
1.-THE old set-not many" | replied shak-
ing my head.
where are the Grands," Ranie contin-
ued. who used to live on the Avenue de la
Grande Armee"
"Oh, they2 They-went back to England
years ago."
81 am 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 | 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 interrupted,
| 1.-The supper that night at Nine. Savage's,
the night of the snowstorm, when the
coachmen, not ours, sent in word they
could not wait longer, and Madame invited
them to supper"
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.
"Ennuir' he repeated.
| blown out by a draft of air.
sits awfuliy hot herel' exclaimed Pau
! line, who with woman's tact and wisdom
had thrown the window wide open.
| ''Are you sure she is dead?" Renie asked.
| Surel How could declare was sure to
man who looked at me as Renie did at
that momentf No." answered, Il am
not sure thought heard of her death
seyera! years ago, but may be wrong. I'll
write and find put"
THANK you, if you will. hoped TO see
her again some day. She was delightful
woman"
"A delightful woman" repeated. How
| was it ] had, for moment, forgotten he
had been fond of her? We had talked of
Barbison, and the way he said tBarbi-
son." with 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 Fontainebeau for
est from the painters, and came down for
a few days. They arrived after dark. were
shown to their lodgings through farm
yard and were Mortified with the entrance
to their quarters. But what could be
done? 1t was late, Paris was many miles
away, they must sleep somewhere, and so
they staid that night; and next morning
when they awoke the family were sur
prised to fad they had slept well, that the
| beds were comfortable, and, although the
| chambers were not luxurious, they were
very clean.
The sun WAC shining; they would stay
one day. as they had come SO fss. end all
that day they wandered in the forest and
its 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
| zethar, goHga long since out of fashion
| Renie was not Il painter, although friend
! of many painters, but student of phiose-
ply. He had a pile of books with him aud
read at times, but it was his vacation, and
| his studies never interfered with Miss
| Heen's plans or prevented him from being
always in attendance at any PICNIC, tea OF
forest ramble. One evening we went into
the forest. merry pack of US starting
early together and returning late in pairs
| and when we returned enc couple was
| missing, Miss kendle and Rene
! Mrs. kendle was very anxious. fearing
| her daughter had been lost and would hs
| deyoured by the wild beasts We tried tq
| oDpcoio bnr toIliuu bar fbof u :,