Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1894-07-06
BACK FROM THE TOMB.
BY GUU DE MAUPAsSANT.

I
577HE guests filed slowly into
! Ehe hotei'S great dining hall
u aud took their places, the
wa t,rS began to Ser.e them leiS-
olele, to give the tardy ones time
to arrive an to save themselves
the bother of bringing back the
courses; and the Old Oathers, the
yearly habitaes, with whom the
season Was far advanced, kept a
close watch on tie door each time
it opened, hoping for the co niug
OF new faces.
New flceS! the single diStrac
tion OF all pleasure resorts. We go
70 dinner chiefly to canvass the
daily arrivals, to wonder who they
are, what they do and what they
think. \ restless desire seems to
to have taken possession Of US, d
longing for pleasant adventures,
for + iendly acqlalntauces, perhaps
for possible lovers. In this elbow
to elbow lie Our unknown neigh
bors become Of paramount impoI-
taace Curiosity is piIue !, Sympa'
thy on the alert, ana the social in
Stlnct dOubly active.
That evening, then, as on every
evening, We waited the appear
ance of unfamiliar faces.
There came only two, but very
peculiar ones, those of man wo
man-father anu daughter. They
seemed to have steppe ! from The
pages of some weird; aud yet there
was an attraction about them, albeit
an unpleasant one, that made me
set them down at once as the
victims of some fatality.
Tue father was tall, spare,
little bent, with hair blanched
white, too white for his still young
countenaace, and in his manner
and about bis person the sedate
austeri,y of carriage that beSpea ks
the puritan. The daughter was,
possibly, some twentl -four or
twenty five years Of age. Sue was
very Slight, emaclated, her eG'
ceedlngly pale countenance bear
log a langui1, spiIitleSS expression;
one of tbOse people whom we some
times encounter, apparently too
weak for the cares aud tasks of
life. too feeble to move or dOthiugs
that we must do every day. Never
theleSS the girl was pretty, with
the ethereal beauty OF an appali
tlcn. IC was she, undoubtedly,
who cane for the benefit Of the
waters.
They chanced to lie placed at
table Immediately opposite to mt;
and Twas not long IN nothing that
the father, too had a strange af-
fectiOn-sOmething wrong about
the nerves, it seemed. Whenever
he was going to leach foT anything
his hand, with a jerky twitcb,
described a sort of zig gag before
it was able to grasp what he was
after. Soon the motion disturbed
me so much | kept my head torn
ed in order not to see II. But
not before l hal also observed
that the young girl kept her glove
on her left hand while she ate.
Dinner ended, l went out as us
ual for a turn 10 the grounds be.
longing to the establishment. a
sort of park, | might say, stretch
ing clear to the little station OF
Auvergne, Cha, a,e'-GuyOn, nesting
in gorge at the foot Of the high
mountain, from which flowed the
sparkling, bub6ling springs, hot
from the furnace of an ancient
volcano. Beyond us there, the
domes, small extinct craters-oi
which Chatel GnyOn is the starting
polut-ralsed their seTrated heads
above the long chain; while be-
vond the domes came two distinct
regions, one cf them needle like
peaks, the other of bold, precipI-
tous mountains.
1t was very warm that evening
and coniented myself with pac.
ing to aud fro under the rustlIng
trees, gazing at the mountains
and listening to the strains of the
hand. nonring from the Casino