The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-11-08
THE JERSEY cry NEWS. THURSDAY. NOVEMBER S. 1894

/ should have died. / have o little box Of
q house at Longjuneau, q regular little
nest, not very big, you know, but very
pretty, and ] am going there to wait for
better days.
There is only one obstacle to this plan,
madame, which is that / shall not allow
you to pass"
She looked at the captain in astonish-
ment. Probably no man had ever dared
to speak to her in such a o n before, and,
not understanding such a rough injunc-
ton, she looked about to sec whether help
was possibly to be found among h rest
of us. z
The lieutenant looked rather indiffer-
emily, enthusiastically, as one whose
mind and thoughts were elsewhere. He
was no ally.
Behind him was the second lieutenant.
He was smoking with his usual impas-
siveness. Neither did his large, round
eyes give promise Of help.
/ was in the background, n l admit
that Twas looking at her with all my
eyes. / don't know whether she noticed
this, but she raised her voice:
HWhat, you won't let me passe Do you
know that you are extremely impertinent,
sir? Are you going to be as rude as the
communist commanding La Porte d'1talie
"a person whom I would lot let into my
stable for fear of soiling it, and who forced
me to parloy with him for half an hour? l
was obliged to be polite and make the
gentleman's conquest, and / finally tanned
him so thoroughly that he insisted on
treating me to a glass Of horrible currant
brandy"
"How disgustingF'
t'Comel am sure you are going to let
me off ~cheaperl"
And she gave him a glance which would
have softened a tiger.
The captain never finched. but replied:
Madame, when orders are that no one Is
to pass, no one passes. If Nine. Theirs
herself was to appear, I should turn her
back"
I am convinced that he was thinking of
the advertising woodcut in the shops Of La
Redingote Grise, which represents a con
script stopping Napoleon and telling him
he couldn't pass if he were the little cor
poral himself.
She looked at me again. This time !
made a heroic resolve and burned my
bridges behind me. Time was precious,
and ! had to force the situation. I came
forward and pretended to suddenly recog-
nize her.
"What, is that you? You heres" And
climbing intot the truck / fell into her arms
and kissed her vigorously. How willingly
1 acted my comedy, and how natural /
must have been III the part! She scream,
ed, but / whispered, 'Silence, and you'll
get through"
You may imagine that a brave little
woman who was not afraid of bursting
shells was not going to faint because an
officer Of dragons, whom she had never
laid eyes on before, kissed her without
warning. So she threw herself bravely
into the part, and I felt two soft arms
about my neck, while her lips touched my
forehead,
/ turned to the captain, slightly upset.
~ have known this lady for years, and
I can answer for her as for myself. ]
trust, captain, that you will now allow
her to pass and will even give her an es-
cort of ten dragons. This will allow hel
to reach Longjuineau without further
trouble and will afford you, in addition, a
means of verifying her identity"
The captain, after much persuasion,
agreed, and / feared for a moment that
for greater security he intended to accom-
pany the ten dragons himself. Luckily
l reminded him in time that his trousers
had been with the army of the Loire. The
lieutenant would have been unwilling tt
compromise himself by appearing in com
pany with such a good looking person; the
second lieutenant would have been obliged
to stop smoking, which would have vexed
him grcatly-in short, the command OF
the escort was left to me.
I placed five dragons in front of the
truck and FIVE behind, and l set forth in
triumph with my prisoner.
She Is snatching away my pen and de
claring that the rest of the story does rot
concern the public. And, after all, she is
perhaps right, for tits already ancient his
tory.-Translated From the French Fol-
Short Stories.
What Teniers Is Worth.