St. Paul daily globe., 1893-02-19
he divinity 1 hat Hedges.
WHY HE WENT TO KHKRTUM.

| SOO liCl Out VI lily uCdl, anu III tllC CfClE
ing, at the club, [ had it put to me with
much pointedness that my whist Was
distinctly off color.
by the strangest fuke in the world,
l met her again on the very next day
but one, and helped her out of iden;i-
cally the same predicament. This time
| 1t was down by the harbor, and sharp
| eddy of wind had torn her headgear
bodily from its moorings, pins and all.
The hat was light, flat-brimmed affair,
and took to the air like kittiwake. Its
flight Wds checked on she very brink of
the quay wall by friendly warp, and L
grabbed it just OH the hover. The
crown was muddied little, but wipe
from handkerchief soon put that right.
Then l restored it,
This time it was 'Je vouS remercie
! biep, M'sieu,' with as good Partisan
accent as one could wish for. For the
| second time, too! 1t was SO stupid of
her not to be more careful of her hats:
SO clever OF me to save the straw from
watery grave; but it was the third day
| OF the miStral, and so we might look for
I ward to a spell of calm weather. Iu
fact, she was evidently. inclined for
chat, when she caught sight OF some one
| Deck0ning in carriage OIL ahead, and
! gave me my congo, saying that she must
! go without delay. l should have felt
Inclined to press my company a trite
| longer if had followed my own incli-
nations. But [ saw she could be very
| dignitied little woman when she chose,
! and besides, [ thought that the old lady
i'll the carriage was her employer, and l
| knew that goJerneSSeS usually get it hot
when they are seen talking to strange
young men in public thoroughfareS. SO
/ WE EXCHANGED DOWS and married..
81 saw the carriage 90 through the
| flower market, and noting stall where
it pulled up went there afterWard and
| made purchase, not because | wanted
J bouquet, but merely as an excuse for
asking a question. But could not make
| out VINO my unknOWnS were. The stall
woman said they were not regular Gus
tomers. She did not know them in the
| least. She thought they were Russians
| because they were SO rich and talked
| French SO we'll; but they might be
| French. | made other Inquiries at tine
! club and elsewhere, but without sue
| cess. Perhaps my descriptions were
| too vague. Cannes is comparatively
small place, but everybody does not
| know everybody else. The winter pop
| lilation is shifting one. The only one
! suggestion had given me was that
| madame was the wife of Polish finan-
| cier who lived in Belgium, but after be-
! ing at some pains to meet that person
| in drawing room. found she was not
| the individual | wanted.
"You may think 1t strange that l was
putting myself to all this trouble, but
| the fact OF the matter was l couldn't
| knock that little governess girl out of
| my thoughts. 1t wasn't the smallest
use to start on the ESterelS again; L
couldn't paint one little bit. did moth
] ing but smoke and think and wander
! about the place in hopes OF stumbling
across her again.
II didn't see her for week after that
meeting down by the harbor, and was
beginning to fear that she had gone
away from the place. Ii she had gone
| believe | should have searched Europe
! through and through till | had found her
| again: but, as it was, that piece of mad
ness was spared me. was walking up
| toward the observatory one day when L
! came across her by the side of the
J canal. She was seated on a camp stool,
I buslly at work upon water color.
| IL believe l almost made fool of my
| self at first; very nearly gave myself
away, in fact; but we shook hands as
| if we had known one another for years
| instead of having met twice over
| hours before [ knew five minutes had
passed. wanted to carry the kit back
| for her. but she would not let me see
! her home. She had quiet little way of
! ordering that one never dreamed OF
| questioning. Indeed, one scarcely no.
! ticed at the time that her requests were
! practically commands. So | continued
nv walk, which hal been interrupted,
up toward the observatory. and she
picked up camp stool and paint box and
went Off briskly through the pines
toward the path below.
II had gained one thing, however,
that sent me Off jubilant at heart. The
sketch had promise and was most GER
! tainly worth completing. had i'm
! pressed this upon heraS candid profess
sional opinion, and she, after a little
consideration, said that she would prob
ably come back and finish it. 'Tomor-
row?' She laughed. Perhaps so, per-
haps not. When she had time. Good
by. Poor little governess, thought L,
that means you will come when they
give you holiday.
{. "However. as it happened, She did
come on the morrow, and on several
morrows, until that picture was finished;
and then she started another from an
other point, and worked as diligently at
that The canal was favorite walk.
This second picture was of tiny dell
full of browns and greens, deeper
among the pine woods. l suggested the
spot; she accepted my choice, and our
tetes-a-tete were never broken i'll upon,
II was to her merely .Journeyman
painter. kept the cash in the back
ground. preferrng not to bring that to
bear. Sne was to me the little goyerncss
who spoke English, French and Ger
man with equal t1uency. She had tray
eled widely-as dependent, [ pre-
sumed. What countrywoman she Was
| did not discover. did not even know
her name-nor she mine. 1t was truly
'un egoisme deuX.' And it was self,
not status, that each cared for in the
other.
''Of what we spoke l cannot tell you
accurately. So many things passed i'll
review before us. We seemed to have
bouDdlesS sympathies in common. She
was my ideal of Woman-utterly unaf-
fected, yet supremely self-respecting.
grew to know and reverence her char
acter as had never done Woman'S be-
fore. We met each morning by tacit
agreement. and each morning l seemed
to find out some new reason to admire
her more.
''And so the days were bright for us
during whole month, and then. as !
judged our mutual feelings had long
been as clear as the sky above US, |
thought to bring matters to a tardy eli
max.
10 her eternal credit be it said, she
tried desperately hard to stop me when
she saw what my speech trended to.
She commanded me to leave the subject,
and when | would not she rose from the
soft brown carpet of pine needles where
we were seated together and began to
walk quickly away. Isprang up, strode
after, and seized her wrist.
81 have told you that [ love you.'
said. You must let me hear whether
you will be my wife
"I can never be- she said very
quietly.
Il dropped her wrist-fung it from
me.
You have been fooling with me-
said. You must have seen from the
\ very first minute how cared. And yet,