Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1891-03-12
LINK BY LINK.
THRILLING STORY OF THE
FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR.
BY MAURICE LEGI:AND.
CHAPTER VIII.
WRONGED.

CHAPTER VIII.
wRONGED.
GN the mill house the old Norman
81 woman, Mere Leroux, sat alone,
and watched in vain for the re-
turn of the son she loved, or the fair
girlish form that hal been won't to fit
to and fro through the old dusky
chambers and the quiet orchard
paths. y
For her. life had always been a
monotonous, uneventful thing, color
ed by no romance, and disturbed by
no storm; routine of labor made up
OF simple homely cares-sewing,
darning. spinning; Il days work in the
cornfields at harvest time; a weekly
journey to the market-place; a thrifty
care OF her households; watchful
heed of the fruits, and flowers, and
eggs, and vegetables that went 10 be
sold in the neighboring town in their
respective seasons. Her son had been
very dear 10 her, as all only children
and especially only sons. are to their
mothers. When he was fourteen his
father died, and from that day he
had been to the little brown
faced woman as her SOLE earthly idol
her one treasure. All her caro- and
thought were for him. In her sight
he could do no wrong; his life had
been pure, simple unchangeful as her
| own, and now
All! now she could only sit in the
chimney-cOrner spinning her fax, and
telling her beads, and listening eager
ly and untiringly for the firm bold
tread she loved so we'll, and which
never came.
A little olive-skinned women OF
seventy years, with a wrinkled face
and high, winged cap, and restless
eyes that ever and always glanced at
the open door, as if in search of some
thing they never saw. What was
she to any one? But in her there was
fidelity that never wavered; and
honesty that never faltered with
wrong, but scorned it for the thing il
was; and curious, far-seeing judg-
ment that had shamed and silenced
Rose Michel's slanderous tongue when
she sought her with the gossip Of the
village fresh on her lips.
s.Listen," she said, II am an old
woman, and not over wise, so they
say; but know this. the girl loved
Pierre as we'll as he loved her-I know
it. She has in no way wronged him.
He IS my sonny all. l love him
better than anything else; SO did she
Could do aught that would pain him
think you? No! Well, and she could
not either. Some evil has come be
tween them. He is so good, and she
she loved him. Some day it will
come right. The young, you see, arr
not over-patient; it is only the ole
who know how to wait" And thel
she spun on again, and would lis
ten to no more; and Rose Michel ant
other gossips skunk away from he
, could not shake, and love they coult
not fathom.
But evil things were told ant
believed of the girl-wlfe who had flci
from her husbands home and driver
him out to the warfare that was de
: vastating the land, and widOwin
hearth and home in every quiet vii
, lage, as we'll as in every quiet town.
D The story OF Rose Michel lost moth
ing by repetition. 1t was sweet t
:. the gossipers who had hated Ninett
for her radiant beauty and her grace
full girlish ways. It was received b
!, old and young alike with an avidit
= only second to an entire belief in II
o truth; and had Ninette appeared i
her old home there would not hav
. been one friendly voice to give he
). welcome-one face to smile on he
n again.
/. But she never came.
It How, or why, or where she had fet
d none knew, though rumor invented
hundred different tales on the subjec
each equally removed from the trutl
Mean while, Pierre LerOux lay i'll ar
helpless in the hospital ward ut Met
and the old, supplemented, faithf
woman ordered the household and a
tended to his mill and his crops
S best she could, and spun on untiring
n in her nook in the deserted kitche
Q waiting always for q step that new
p came-for vote that never greet'
J. her.
N 1t was we'll that she did not knO
that he was prisoner in the hands
the enemy. Had she done SO 81
would have run all risks, and with h
bundle slung across her back and h
- wooden shoes on her feet, have tram
. cd untiringly through the country I
g and wide, until she reached his cid
there TO tend and nurse him back
u health. But of his fate she was
total lguorancc, for scant news ev