Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1892-07-01
PUSH.
BY EDGAR FAwCETT.
Copyright 1891, by the Authors Alliance

CHAPTER TX.
Kathleen obeyed. After the ladies
had left the balcony Eric again joined
them. "If you will kindly wait just
there by the fountain" he said, point
ing towards charming aquatic design
in bronze whose spirits of water had
caught the slant sunrays and turned to
liquid gold, II will at once cause you
and monsieur to meet. And remember,
please, we call him monsieur he pre-
fers It,"
"And I am to speak with him in
French2" asked Kathleen, somewhat
nervously.
"If you wish. suppose you do not
speak Saltravian9"
Heavens, mop she exclaimed, still
more nervously, and not noting the dry
twinkle in Eric's eyes.
1.-THE king will probably address you
then in French. But if you prefer
English he will accommodate you. 1t
is one of the great self-delusions of his
reign that he speaks English at all re-
putably."
Here Mrs. Kennaird broke in, with
her blithest laugh: "Oh, my dear
child speaks French very prettily," and
as Eric departed with bow she turned
to Mrs. Madison, who had just rejoined
her, and said in q voice made purposely
loud enough for him to hear:
What a delightful man this Mr..
Thaxter is! No wonder the king likes
him so!'
Clarimond, who did everything with
grace, soon had himself presented to
Kathleen and her mother precisely as if
he were some ordinary friend of Eric's,
with whom the latter had CHANGED to be
moving among the paths.
And it oil went off so casilyr' as
Mrs. Kennaird remarked after. BE
fore we knew it, Kathleen, he had
shaken hands with both of us, and had
asked you if you didn't want to go with
him and sec tho carp fed in the great
marble basin of the 5r0ndes ea,1r!"
kathleen and the king walked side
by side, it is true, but they only paused
for moment to watch the carp dine,
afterwards passing on to where the ter
races of the palace dropped grandly
down to an artificial lake, and a hun
dred windows blazcd like huge dia-
monds or rubies where the westering
sun smOte them. Above, on the long
marble balustrades, two or three pea
cocks were perched, one pure white as
the sculptured stone itself; and below,
half way between the lny-pads and the
rustic landings, foated a few stately
swans.
Somewhere behind one of those ra-
diant windows the princess of Brindisi
sat, and near her was Blanca d'Este. 1t
was quite probable that the king knew
he rislzed maternal observation during
his present saunter with the young
American lady whom he had sought to
| know. Since the arrival Of his mother
he had not presumed thus publicly to
| associate himself with any new foreign
| acquaintance If Kathleen had been o
man her disrelish might have had its
limits. At present there in her palatial
ambuscadc, with her cherished Blanca
to share tho humiliation, whether real
or fancied, this disrclish became n
boundless disgust.
sit pleases me greatly, mademoi-
sclle," the king was meanwhile saying,
in his flexible and almost native French,
that you should so care for Saltravia
after so brief a stay here"
| Glow can one help caring for it?'
| returned Kathleen, as they paused on
one of the vclvct-swarded terraces.
Looking sideways across her shoulder
she perceived that the same group
which had accompanied the king before
they met were following him now, at a
distance respectful and discreet. She
perceived, too, that her mother and
| Mrs. Madison were also not far behind
them. This was possibly what her COM
panion wished. 1t struck her that he
was a gentleman, this comcly and fas-
cinating monarch, who wished many
things most dccisively, and who had
the art of making his desires operative
with the same cool ease that belongs to
the touching of an electric bell and the
summoning Of needed lacquey.
"Thc weather here" she continued,
sis always so enchanting" And then
she looked into Clarimond's face with
one of those smiles that his dislike OF
commonplace women had even thus
quickly caused him to feel was the har-
binger of something at least quickened
by piquancy. II am already sure, mon
! sieur," she added, chat la pline ct Ee beau
temps are subjects which you control al
pleasure. You keep the first amiably
cxiled and you allow the last, like
ono Of your ancestors court-jesters, tc
do all the genial things that it pleases.
Clarimond laughed: ''No, mademoi
selle," he replied, you overrate my
powers of dominion. I'm more sensible
than that far-away English king who
commanded the sea to obey him, or thai
Persian one who whipped it with rods.
For the first time Kathleen looked
full into his face. Let it be forgiven
her when recorded that the curiou.
completely which we call woman't
heart throbbed strangely. No woman
was ever really the lover of two men a
the same time; but many woman ha!
believed that she could have loved (anC
passionately and truly loved) some maj
whom she has known while still loving
the object Of her first allegiance. Per
haps it was this way with Kathleen
perhaps the fact of Clarimonds grea
= rank wrought with her moro than sh'
would have wished to tell. Women ar,