The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-02-25
LEGEND OF A BAYOU.


had been jet black, like his eyes, but now
a soft touch of white was blended with the
dusky curls.
Lounging On broad wooden settee fac
ing the Bayou Galere, the actor, Bently
; Ray, stretched his shapely limbs and half
closed his dreamy gray eyes
Mile. Armentine Rouquette was the
third of the group, and very beautiful
young woman she was, as she gently
swayed in an ample antique rocking chair
and played with the leaves of the novel in
her lap.
By permission, the gentlemen were
smoking long, dark Mexican cigars. Vines
festooned the veranda, and some heavy
masses of foliage were thrust against the
roof by the outstretched gnarled arms of
a great live oak. In the air wandering
sounds of leaf rustic, bird song and wave
ripple testified of the tropic summer at
hand
Twilight was coming on, but the moon
would soon prevail and the delicious
dewy GOODNESS was suffused with the fra
GRANGE Of many flowers
Mile. Rouquette had been reading aloud.
The story was romantic, with ghost fit
ting through it; A dead girl who came
back to haunt her recreant lover and to re-
fleet a CHASTITY terror into every pleasure
that offered itself to him.
As the light failed the book was aban-
doned at point where the spectral maiden
seemed about to force her lover to commit
suicide
What nonsensep' exclaimed Mile. Rou-
quette. "As If a man ever could be at
| fected in such a wayf'
what do you think of it?" she asked,
turning to the actor. st is neither prob
able nor dramatic, is it?"
Your reading has dazzled my judg-
meDt, or the story is very fine" he an
swered, with certain observation-disclosures
in his tone and manner. There seems to
be a story within the story. Don't you
| feel the singular influence of the strange,
the weird suggestions that exhale from it?"
Placide Rouquette looked from Ray to
Mile. Armentine and laughed rather me-
chemically
| The young lady shrugged her fine shout
ders and made pretty little creole gesture
with her hands-a gesture half of mdltfeF-
ence half of playful impatience.
A servant black as night came to bring
| her light wrap. She took the rather
gaudy slken thing and flung it carelessly
about her. Ray regarded her through his
cigar smoke with the eye of an artist, with
the imagination of lover
Some wild night, sister mine, you will
see somebody's ghost" remarked Placide,
putting forth a slender white hand and
touching her lightly in a sort of sardonic
playfulness. Your fisherman lover, he Of
the giant frame and buccaneer mustache,
will die of despair and send his spirit to
haunt you"
"Hushl | will not permit such talk"
she quickly responded, with considerable
show of vexation. You know there is
nothing of that. Why are you always
making such illusions? do not relish
them. Placide; indeed do not"
The actor arose and laZily paced up and
down in the dusk. while the white moon
began TO show through rift in the foliage
of live oak The breeze had sunk to a
mere zephyr odorous, spicy, touched with
indescribable balm.
In those days plantation life in the low
country of the south was not what it now
is; it had lost nothing of it's almost medi-
Seval charm. The actor felt the subtle in
fluence with which he was surrounded.
Armentine Rouquette had captivated him
at New Orleans, and he had followed her
to her country home. Here he had, at the
urgent invitation of her brother, fingered
for fortnight of delicious, almost delirious
experience.
The luxury of a hospitality that knew
no limit, the reStfulness of the old, richly
furnished mansion; the drives, the rides,
the sails the conversations, the dinners,
the siestas and, above all, the fascinating
beauty of Mile Rouquette had enveloped
and entranceG him.
One thing, however, he had discovered:
Mile. Rouquette did not return his love,
but he remained near her, very calm and
apparently self possessed, after this blow
had fallen upon him He felt that he
ought TO have gone away Immediately,
that it was quite foolish in him to linger,
but the spell of the old, dreamy, languor-
Gus south was upon him. He could not go.
The remark just made by Placide had
touched the actor in tender spot. He ha9
seen the stalwart and romantic looking
young fisherman, aud it was not in his ma
ture to hear him mentioned without
twinge of bitter resentment. Ray was a
northerner, but not all of the fiery blood is
in the south Notwithstanding Nile. Ar
mentines qlick and indignant denial, he
felt that this big fellow had crowded him
out of her thoughts, and he could not re-
sist letting fall n sarcastic remark
when Mile. Rououette becomes Nine.
Bruyere," he said, nonchalantly bowling be-
fore her, the Iish of the sea and the fowls
of the air viii know their queen and do
her homage"
When you connect my name with that
Of Felix BrlIyere you insult me-" she ex-
claimed rising and looking back and forth
from the actor to her brother. He is not
my social eoual-he is but a rough fisher
man of the bayou. viii not remain and
hear more OF your rudeness"
Her tone and manner were between
earnest protest and mere whimsical pre-
tense Of yexatior- She was hard person |
70 interpret when she saw fit TO be en-. |
NAUTICAL The truth is she did not know |
herself II she could have looked into her /
own heart and calmly read il SIZE would +
have found that she loved Felix Bruyere. /
but her nature was double aud conflicting Z
Born and trained an aristocrat 81 ariSto i
crlrs. exclusive, lofty, a wOrshiper Of fam +
lily as the word was undersgoos; among 4
the CID representatives al southern society. /
she FELT herself incapable OF loving any
man not himself OF her degree.
She turned away from tho gentlemaa
after a moment, and was walking ia the
direction OF the hail, when the actor Joined
her. She looked up al him with quick