Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-07-02

A1G w 0 N LIAR
SnaEr mere was now dead Silence.
Alonzo. with wholly new emotions,
watched him while he gave the picture
fresh impetus of survey.
"You can name your price for thisr'
he suddenly said. turning and facing his
companion once more. al want 1t. /
want it very much"
81 did not wish to dispose of it, mon
sieur."
Not wish to,dispose of ftp shot the
quick and caustic response. "But, man,
| will pay you a,fortune for it'll Come,
| now Whateveryou please to ask shall
be yours by tomorrow morning" And
| then the eyes of these two men very
| meaningly met. Clarimond read in the
| Others gaze a refusal ucold and OBJ
durate-and perhaps he read there the
| cause of this refusal as well However
it may have been. an abrupt change
| took place in him. ''You spoke of vul-
garlty not long ago." he said, visibly
dlsarrayed and walking toward the
door of the studio. "It is l who
| am vulgar now. Pardon me-" And
at once he fastened from the apart
ment- With his eyes fixed on the por-
trait, Alonzo sank into a chair. "The
king loves herI" left his lips in Hurried
whisper. He closed his eyes, clenched
his hands and surge of ungovernably
jealous feeling seemed to flood his soul
CHAPTER X.
Clarimond, with scarcely more than
| nod and handclasp to Eric, who wait
ed below, sprang into the carriage
which had brought him from the palace
| and returned there at once. He chose
to dine alone In his own suite of cham
bers, and at dinner drank little more
wine than usual Afterward he went
into his mothers apartments, where she
was receiving a very select assemblage
that chiefly consisted of the highest
Saltravian nobility. Having saluted his
mother he moved about the rooms for
some time, and at length paused quite a
while before Blanca d'Este, who was
looking exceedingly handsome in a
gown of blue satin embroidered with
silver.
1.-THE princess almost gave up expect
ing you," she said, looking at him very
earnestly with her sweet, infantile.
china-blue eyes
"Am so late?' said Clarimond.
| NOb MONSIEUR DuU we
or, should say, her highness feared
lest other attractions would detain you. u
He saw the sly innuendo, but chose ia
pretend that it escaped him
Really, I do not understand" he
said. "Other attractions"
Blanca flushed at her own boldness
And yet the courage of desperation pos
sessed her soul That soul was no longer
in bondage to the church. A new re
igion had enthralled it. Women have
rarely found it difficult to love kings
and Clarimond, If he had no royalty fo1
background, would have appealed tc
almost any woman's heart. AS it was
he fired both the heart and imagination
of Blanca d. Este. In spirit she was al
his feet with that sort of genuhection
which Is tinctured by pang of intoxi
Gated reclklessness. And yet her mien
(ice over hame) was calm enough as she
now replied:
81 mean the handsome young Amer
lean girl, monsieur, whom you honore6
so greatly this afternoon"
"You saw me?" Clarimond rather
lightly said. "And you think honored
her? 1t seemed to me as if honors were
easy, as one says in English whist!"
"Oh, monsieur!" Blanca cried; anc
while she looked into his face, which Of
late had grown to her more than kingly
had grown to her, indeed, almost like
the face of god-she ardently persist
ed: For you to speak like thatl Fol-
you to even hint that q mere nobody
should not be honored, and very greatly
honored, by the least smile from your
He watched her for moment n.
though she half irritated, half shocked
him. ST am man." he then said, with
great simplicity and gentleness. "Hov
can be more and why should not dis
like hearing it suggested that I an
more?'
"You are a king" replied Blanca
you are a king with along ancestry o
kings behind your
, He laughed softly and shrugged hi
shoulders, glancing about him at tn
walls of the festal room in which they
stood, with its panelings of white ant
, gold, with its huge clusters of wa.
lights for side chandeliers beaminl
above other huge clusters of prism
like stalactites, and with its ceiling
, where cupids drove in chariots draw
> by butterflies through gorges and owe
, causeways of rosy and azure cloud.
at means very little to be a king
nowadays, ne SAID A6 least IL mean
very little to me-"
; 81 am so sorry" she answered. &c
, am SO intensely sorry4"
, "You have been talking with m,
r mother" he replied 'It is easy to SCI
: that you are full of her views and pre-
! judices."
mo, they are mine,'' she averred
: Call them what you please. IL hat
30 to address you as monsieur but thi
l Is your command, and what can one d.
j but obey it? You are royal, and maj
!, esty' is your rightful form of address
And then the way in which you despis
and hout all ceremonial Oh, this i
! harder to bear still You should hav
! entered here, just as you should wall
| abroad, with your equerries, your gen
tlemen in waiting. All, it is terrible
4 terriblel 1t saddens me, 1t wounds me