Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1893-11-10
MADAME'S STORY.
A FRENCH CANADIAN SKETCH.


"'Aud what became of Marie?" l
asked. "She married, did she not?
or d'dsle, now? l remember there
was ON excitement.
8siftdarur siigiheti. ii is very long
story
"Tell me Madame" l begged. I
give the story in her own words. /
would that l could give her accent.
Her English was almost perfect, though
rather studied and occasionally con-
fused as to lenses. But her singularly
pure, clear voice and faint foreign
softening Of each syllable made her
charming to listen to.
"Wel, as | think | told you long
ago, Marie went away from me for one
long year When she was very little,
sent her to convent i Toronto,
and | do not see her very often. She
grow so pretty, so spirituelle, the pale
pink face and big eyes, black eyes, and
long lashes, oh, She is beautiful
She sway like rose i'll the morning,
quite slender, and her small feet do
not hurt the flowers. She is a flower
herself, charming. She com sthome,
and the lads in the village Sire dis
tracted and | am too. 1t is very hard
to watch Maria. She is 50 quick and
so beautiful She laugh in my face
and say DO not fear my mother, l
Away stay with you As for the men,
I hate EN- all Then she dance away
with the pale-pink ribbons flying from
the pink robe, and the lads follow her
.exerYWAes44 She read Iove-stories.
novel, she call them, and they pIt
strange things in her head
She will not marry the lads in the
village, she say, but some rich man
Will come from the city and take her
away, and ], her mother, will have
plenty of beautiful dresses and maid
to wait upon me Then [ scold her
and say do not want those things,
and she must marry lad that | shall |
choose for her Then she dance away,
throwing the roses at me, and the
ribbons futtering everywhere, always
ribbons and flowers with my Marie,
and when she pass, the curling hair
all tumbling around her, there is
always a sweet perfume in the air.
You remember her when she came |
from the convent?"
nod Who wouldn't remember
that wild-rose of a girl, with the dain-
test foot poet ever raved over, with
slender, 1.-THE, ever-dancing. little
figure with her pretty gowns following
every movement, with her glorious
merry black eyes and the sea-shell
pink ON her cheeks Remember
Marie? l. who hid followed her /
floating ribbons, had picked up the
roses she let fall, had been as crazy
about her rs ever vas village lad
Remember her Yes, as one remem-
bers a sprite, a fairy, delicious
dream. sigh MS one signs for de
parting youth. Those mad happy
days hove nothing to do with me now.
A moment ago-a day ago was
bored, cynical, blase, and now | would
give my life to be dancing once more
through the woods after Marie-after
flowers and streamers and floating
gown catching on the wild-rose bushes
after Marie. If once more the woods
could seem as green, the sky as blue,
girl as fair as Marie
so she will not marry, and by-and
by a girl from the convent write Marie
to visit with her at her home, and |
am tired and | let Marie go. She
stay one whole year, and weary for
her and she come back When see
her, the tears come in my eyes. She
is pale and thin and so quiet. l feel
dreadful. ask what the matter
is, and she say Nothing at all. But
|, her mother, know better, and
watch and wait. One day a letter
come for her, and it is mans hand
writing on the envelope Marie take
it and say nothing at all Then / feel
bad, very bad. that my little girl have
alover and that |, her mother, know
not of it. After "A long time she tell
me his name. 1t is Jean LEROY, and
she knew him at the house Of her
friend, and he tell her he love her,
and | ask her if she love him-although
[ think it not right that / do not
choose for her and she say she do
not know. But one day Mons-Mr
Leiroy come and say
Why You not write me, Marie?
and she say to him that [ am her
mother, and he bow very low to me
and say;
Madame, | love your daughter.
and [ write and ask her when I NAV