The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1894-05-17

When Nine. PietrO disappeared from
the breakfast party she hastily threw a
veil like wrap about her head and passed
rapidly through the paved court into
the narrow street. Not slackening her
pace, she turned several abrupt cor
ners, and at last paused, breathless, be-
fore small postern i'll the rear wall OF
one of the oldest houses in that quarter,
lifted the cumbrous latch, but bolted
the gate inside after entering. Crossing
the large garden, she passed through the
deserted kitchen and broad, dimly lit
hallway, and assembled the wide stairs.
At their head she encountered a tall,
angular mulatress, erect, but scanned
with age her head scrupulously tied IN
the most flaring of Madras turbans.
To her Nine Pietro spoke few words
in gumbo French, and, not pausing for
a reply, passed to the lofty front draw
ing room on that upper floor AT the
door she paused
! The room showed what had been
luxurious elegance; but every piece OF
furniture, every ornament, the very
pictures on the walls, were of another
age. Scrnpulously neat, the ancient
woodwork glistening from recent rub
bling and the faded brocades showing
time, not wear, this salon might have
been transported intact from the Quarter
st. German and set down i'll New Or
leans for all that showed it belonging to
America or today. The old wrought
silver sconces held wax candles under
their glass shades; rare portraits OF sol
diers and diplomats i'll full dress, and OF
Vatican like ladies in directoire gowns
gazed down out of forgotten-era frames
there was no carpet, and the polished
aoor, black with age and OIL, had It's
baroness relieved by heavy rugs at inter
walls. Exquisitely worked wax flowers
stood under glass ovals on the hlgt
mantelpiece, under which the towering
l andirons of shining brass, topped by
hideous griflins resting on their paws
l would have delighted the inmOst soul
) of les plus nouveauX riches IN New
3 Yorks most envied coterie.
+, But while heavy, semi-tropical odor
: from the great garden below tioated INT
the wide windows, not one living Howe
broke the archaeological rigor of thi
s salon. Bouquets are of today; the SyS
u TEN here was of a century gone.
And so was the sole occupant of tn
:. apartment; for madame - as all tn
= world, save one, called Nine dAuvign
- Latour-had seen fifteen years of 1t whe
~ the Reign of Terror added the gulllotn
~ to the refnements of civilization. Sil
10 was then at school in Paris, and we
-, she remembered the murder by the mo
y of her cousin, the Chevalier Anato
- Marie d'Auvigne, while attempting
~ save from insult at their hands his roy
.,, mistress, the Austrian.
~ Far above the average height, al
IA with erect, stately carriage of her spa
" figure, madame's severely classic ia
10 was scarcely more wrinkled than mo
-, women's-especially most Frenchwol
- en's-at half her years. The once bla
"a hair was now worn in snow white mas
es. a la Pompadour, brushed well la
-, from the broad forehead; but the thi
90 arched eyebrows over the still brlllla
gray-brown eyes were OF Jelly VA
ba that gave peculiar power to the cal
av grave face. Aquiline nose, thin, firm
his set lips and long, oval lines of jaw
IT. aided this characteristic; and streng
N of physique, as well as Of character, "
bo indicated by madame's every moveme
aat She sat erect in carved back CHI
Gov reading n comedy of Moliere, and
we, read it without spectacles. CHANGING
: from her book to Nine. Pietro she "
d, coined her with slight gesture.
sod Enter, my child" she said in Gle
tha pleasant voice that had little echo
Law lightweight years in its vibrance,
,od using the singular personal of famiI
, - address. Thou art always welcome
the old home, although thou dost IN