Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1894-01-18

source of comfort and of hope to MANY
| Il dying captive, till the deadly eli
mate did its work, and the pestilence
| struck her down as it had stricken
otherS-a woman young in years. but
old in strange and sad experience; a
sinner, but not without hope of pardon.
The dark days of November and
December were bliSSfuI DAYS for Kath-
leen. Health and strength returned to
her as If by magic: and in a week
after her restoration TO happiness she
was able to help in waiting upon her
husband. Another week and she would
hardly allow Madame Schubert to do
anything for him. In the third week
she was walking to and from the print
ing office of GaSton's old journal, which
had been reSuScitated under new
name. as The Friend of Freedom. and
the proprietor of which was enraptured
to receive copy" from the brilliant
pen of his old contributor. given up
as lost to literature forever.
Yes. those were happy days. That
poor shattered leg of Gaston's had
SHRINK and shortened. and he would
go limping along the road of life to
the end of his days; but his mind
was clear and vigorous as ever, and
his heart was content. During the en-
forced quiet of those December DAYS
he made vigorous beginning upon
that scheme of a novel which he had
mentioned to Kathleen on their we'd
ding day. But he did not keep his
work a secret from his wife, as he had
threatened. He garnered up no sur
prises, being in too much need of her
sympathy to sustain his belief in him.
self.
He read the days portion aloud to
Kathleen at night. the last thing, when
that good old Schubert. who insisted
upon coming every day with her
market-basket, smelling of les HaIles
CenualeS, to cook and attend upon
them-when Maman Schubert had
taken her modest little nip of eau de
vie. put her arm through the handle
of her empty basket, and wished them
goodnight for the sixth or seventh
time. Then Kathleen perched herself
upon the arm of her husbands chair
and nestled her head upon his shoulder
while he read his manuscript. 1t was
q love-story, full of passion and fire.
and Kathleen felt that It must make
mad, furious success. Nor was she
Ear out in her reckoning, when a man,
whose pen has grown bold and bril-
liant in the work of a literary Journey
man, whose memory has garnered the
experience of Il youth and manhood
spent in the very whirlpool of metro
politan life, and who has read and
dreamed and thought superabundantly
in hiS leisure hours and his wanderings
to and frO-When such man girds up
his loinS and says, Enough of the
hard facts of life-now | will give
myself full play in the garden of fan
cy," the chances are that he will write
a grand novel.
Serizier was condemned to death on
the 18th of February, 1872, by the
sixth council of war. He appealed
against this sentence, setting forth the
service which he had done to General
Chanzy, on the 10Th of March ii, in
defending him against the revolution
airy mob 1t was rumOred in the neigh
bOrhood of the Place d'Italie that Seri-
zier would not be executed; whereupon
an unprecedented agitation arose
among the people. The inhabitants Of
the neighbOrhOOd, remembering the
agony of terror under which they had
lived on account of this man, signed
a petition demanding that no commu-
tatiOn of the extreme sentence should
be accorded to the late chief of the
18th Legion, and entreating that, as
an example and a just eXpiatiOn, he
should be executed in front of the priS-
on over which he had ruled, and on
the very spot where he had presided
over the massacre of the Dominicans.
This strange request could not be
granted; but Serizier's crimes were of
too black a dye to admit of mercy.
He and his lieutenant Bobeche were
shot on the plain of Satory.
Castor MOrtemar'S novel was pub
lished in the following autumn, and
obtained a more brilliant success than
any book that had appeared since
Madame Bovary. There was fire and
freshness in the style which made the
appearance of the story u sensation,
an event; and CASTOR saw himself
released forever from the tread-mill
routine of a third-rate newspaper. a
man with place and name in the ranks
of literature, free to write what he
liked, aud secure of publisher and pub
lie. And as the years wore on-years
of peace and prosperity-those two
households of the Durands and the
MortemarS were undarkened by so
much as a passing cloud. Industry,
honor, and domestic love ruled in each
menage, and there was no break in the
union between the sisters; albeit, Dur
and and Rose remained constant to
their town quarters in the Rue Git lie
Occur, while CASTOR and his wife trans
ferred their household goods to a
dainty little villa at Passy, where the
husband could write in his garden
among the birds and flowers, while his
young wife guided the footsteps of her
yearling baby up and down the little
grassplot. - &.-
The carved-oak sideboard was bought
by Sir Richard Wallace, and Durand's
fame as craftsman and artist was
safely established from that hour; and
so, where there had been cloud there
was sunshine, where there had been
storm there was perfect and holy calm.
The End.
II