Daily Kennebec journal., 1895-04-16

NJ 81 w
SIZE SEIZED HIS HAND AND COVERED II
WITH KISSES.
that scene and it's expressions of her
gratitude, she knew it never would
have happened so but for that Basque
woman, her peasant grandmother.
And SO it came about that no chal-
lenge arrived at the Hotel Beauxlieux
the next day, nor any day thereafter.
And when his wonderment had sub
sided, the contempt that the duke al
ready felt for the new people was a
thousand times enhanced by the cir
cumstance. "A court of shoplleepers!'
he cried An imperial guard who kept
silence under slap on the face-they
were all part and parcel togcther-he
dcspiscd them, and was at no pains to
keep his dcspising quiet. And thus
this very action of the duchess was
the cause of his making himself moro
offensive to the imperialists than h.
had been, SO offensive that st last i.
was open war with Duke des Sarac
lines Bcauxlieuy. and he found the old
chateau in the Landes, place better
suited to his health than the house in
Paris where kings had been his guests.
But after all it was not love, certain
ly not wifcly love, that had made the
duchessc interfere on her husbands ac-
count in that matter Of the challenge.
1t was Il lie to save-and she her
self the cause of the trouble-it would
l, e., l,
to try to avert the evil had the person
concerned been St. Malo, or Montague
vert, or q stranger. She had warm
and quiet affection for her husband, ar
immense belief in him and admiration
for him, but that was all.
When the duke died and left her with
his son, she wcpt; she was bereft. But
here was the duke, and now all the
more the dClic, all the more proudly
and fondly insisted on since shorn of
imperial favor
Fer before the duke died, after he
had refused the friendship OF the en-
peror and had confronted his hostility,
and had returned with his wife and
child and the people of his court to the
old residence on tho Atlantic Shores it
was with fortunes sadly impoverished
| by the reckless expenditure with which
| he had promoted the lcgitimist issues,
while relying on success and ultimate
repayment. During the dukes subse-
| quent Illness innumerablc wrongs were
| done his estates, winlicd at by au-
thority, and never reported to the CEN
trail powers. Undertakings into which
| the duke he'd allowed himself to be
| drawn, in the fever of adventure be-
longing TO the era. came to nothing
| perhaps at an imperial frown. Bank
ing houses failed, factors retained
| funds, government seized here, land
| slides destroyed vineyards there; and
| in the time Of the first seclusion of the
| duchess, after her widowhood, rob
berries right and left, public and pri-
vate, disposscssed her OF vast resources.
| When she attempted to look into mat-
tcrs for herself, she was little wiser
| than before; but she discovered that
| she must dismiss her ladies and the
| gentlemen of her household and live
| as she understood lesser mobiles, or even
| quite plain people, lived. Her one
! faithful friend remained with her, her
adviser ana the boys tutor. That he
was physician of note she thought
| fortunate for the boys sake; she did
| not know of how much note, sent for and
| consulted with by the greatest. She
never knew the sacrifice of station and
| income he made by remaining with
her But it was necessary, even had it
been contrary to his inclination, for NJ.
| Etienne was also to some extent a man
| Of affairs, and even the little that was
| left had been rescued by him. The
| greater part of the chateau was closed,
| to go slowly to decay. What did she
and her boy want more than few
rooms and simple fare? With only the
servants that were Indispensable and
| in ways she knew as girl at home
with her father she took up life again,
at once too proud and too humiliated
to expose her condition to old friends
one by one those old friends, them
selves in grief or seclusion, or eziied
with one or the other OF the unac-
lsnowledged kings to whom they gave
allegiance, disappearing from the face
of the earth.
But none the less was she duchess
of the Sarazines Beauxlieux. None the
less was her son the duke. And apart
from her absorbing love as his mother
she had an adoring veneration ior MN
as the last of the Sarazines BeauSiienA
"You will remember" she saio 70 .he