The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1895-11-02

WlGH Cilo UdTOH anu GilG uOSo WClOs CA4
dured for the sake Of the mornings
when she was to be found with Olympic
watering her roses in the garden be-
hind the tower, and of the evenings
when for half hour, it might be, She
Joined them in the hall or on the stone.
benches of the courtyard round the
half-choked fountain. There was some
thing about her that the duke
had never observed before. That vir-
gin air of innocence and truth rem
dered her illimitabiy remote and sa-
. cred. When he saw M. Etienne at last
making more bold and walking beside
her in the garden, he fancied she was
hearing of the glories of the house OF
duke, as he knew M. Etienne sounded
them to the old baron.
Somehow the duke could not make
the Roadway here that M. Etienne did.
The wall was one not to be broken
down as with some other women. He
saw there was but one course for him.
And his Impotence getting the better
of caution, of any thought Of second
nuptials with princely houses and great
dots, he made proposals to the astound-
ed and weI-pleased baron for his
daughters hand and an immediate mar
riage. 55 II
It was not to be thought that the
Baron Rene Vaux, even at the prospect
of his own increased loneliness, should
hesitate before the offer of such brill
liant future for his only child and he
straightway told her to put herself in
readiness, since the matter was ar
ranged. There was no Discrimination
on his daughters part; and surely no
prettier bridal procession than hers
ever wound up the mountain to the
chapel, she seated on her gray
donkey, around whose neck Olympic
had hung wreath of roses-the
chances Of launching presently on which
he was calculating with his long ears,
NJ. Etienne lending him and walking
by her side, her father and the duke
following on foot and Ambrose and
Olympic bringing up the rear. AS
they all stood before the altar, it was
with an air of confding innocence that
she turned to M. Etienne. But her IA
ther, leaning on his staff just behind,
stretched forward his long, gaunt hand
and took hers and placed it in the
hand Of the duke. where it seemed to
that gentleman like a melting snow
flake. She had thought, until that
/ moment, that it was M. Etienne who
was the duke. An accident Of introduce
ton, the fact Of her ignorance of COR
rect phrases and her habit. of using
none, and perhaps some natural bias as
well, were responsible for the mistake.
But what did ii signify to a we'll
bred and dutiful young girl? Obedient
to tradition and discipline, she quietly
accepted the duke for her husband.
She had no other choice, indeed; and
the duke, returning to Paris, took the
duchess with him. 3,
And when she had accustomed her
self to her fate, beginning with being
charmed by the delights OF the life
her husband gave her, and by the
i prcdigality that contrasted with the
simplicity of her poor home, she ended
by sincere affection for the knightly
! gentleman, and held the house of Sara
zines Beauxlieux as some thing greater
/ than the house of France itself.
And when her son was born she
|
him herself, SO proud and glad was she
over this concentration and CONF
pletion, this capitalization in one
of all the glories Of the house
4 of Sarazines Beauxiieux. Only when
she saw how black was his hair,
I hair, how dark his splendid baby love-
illness, She had an aching self-re1nem-
brance> that half the blood in the little
princeling was her own, and that some
where in her own line was a peasant
strain to, which she owed her beauty.
For years she watched the child lest
the strain should anywhere appear,
and half the teaching that she gave
him was concerning the greatness OF
d his ancestry, the mightiness of his in
i heritance Of renow1, thu grandeur it
had given him and the duty he owed it
in turn.
4 So absorbed was she in the mag nitnde
and virtue Of her husbands house, that
even the downfall Of the king gave the
Young duchess but little concern, since
in her estimation there could be no
a downfall for the Dues des Beauxiieux;
i and even when, after the many agita-
u tions, the new empire was proclaimed
She regarded it as all disturbance
that would presently compose itself.
4 For the sake of her fathers love Of the
i Corsican, as the duke phrased it, she
might herself have looked with favor
on the imperial order OF things; but it
Il was enough that her husband, loyal to
4 his past remained a violent partisan of
the dethroned king, for her to shut her
canaille 81 the new riches and power
4 And perhaps by strengthening his
arrant contempt for the new people,
Il the duchess herself, and all UNIV itting-
4 ". was in some measure the means OF
4 assisting the duke into the obscurity to
which he presently found it best 70 re-
tire. 53s5 Il.
4 4 There had been 8 grand occasion e
the opera, to which the empress had
given the exquisite charm and radiance
4 OF her presence and the leaders among
4 the. women Of the royalist party
ihad urged the duke hat the.
duchess migh appear and show
a ss.tlat woman, y as they alwa Us called
II her. TINT queen OF farce, 81 la THE
g,sal az ! tiia1,e real And, ems
. tire1y ignofant off r9ese, the
duches had Of course assented to her
h,,sb
81 i, d So
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