Daily Kennebec journal., 1895-04-16

love them. or rather as slave who had
still the memory of his own tribe and
cabins. AS for little Pierre, nothing
ever happened to him; he kept himsel;
ont of every trouble; he was ALWAYS
brought in innocent from every seraoe.
you might suspect him, but Won eor,d
never bring the mischief home TO him.
Victorine, the half niece of Olympe.
who had been brought to the chatean
at the wish of madame, when the
child's parents died. was Pierre's able
abettor; and many a time did Jean suf-
fer IN silence reprimand for the fault
of those two impish things. But Vic
torlne was very pretty and little and
tender, and II Pierre could connect her
with his misdemeanors, he knew he
was safe from betrayal from Beaux-
lieux and from Jean. The duchess
liked to see Victorine's pretty youth
and brightness about her, thinking Of
no possible consequences, and had her
taught by Olympic to rip and sew and
dress hair; and then, in the mother
llness OF her nature, and because there
were no daughters of neighboring seig-
neurs, as in old times, to be taught the
une arts OF home, she would have her
an hour or two day with herself in
the morning, leading her into the mys-
teries of lacemalling and embroidery,
OF water-color painting, reading his
tory and poems, greatly to Olympe's
ill-conccaled joy. Sometimes Duchesse
des Sarazines Beauxlicux smiled to
herself, little bitterly, to think that
the niece OF her serving-woman, and
the children of charcoal burner and
Of fisherman should be the half of her
household.
But while her son grew and increased
in stature and strength and in all the
finer and noblcr aspects of his being,
the duchess asked nc more. Under NJ.
Etienne's care his scholarship was all
that could be wished; and in the mat
ter of physical accomplishment the
tall, 1.-THE STRIPPING fenced and boxed
and rode and shot with the best; and
his mother thought with fond pride
how well he would take his place and
part when he should be called to it.
Occasionally now the monsieur took
BeaUXlicux with him on his journeys
to Paris or elsewhere, and his mother
was satisfied that he should nr;sl see
the world, and perhaps what is called
life, with NJ. Etienne beside him. They
made no use of his title, however, then.
1T would be absurd" said Beauxlieux,
without sou, SO to say, in ones
pocket" But he was aware that that
was something not to dwell on before
the duchess. When he came home he
had much to relate to her, and much to
tell Jean and Pierre. On one occasion
NJ. Etienne had taken him, as if he
were his assistant, to grand house,
where famous surgeon had requested
the monsieur's help, and where Beaux-
lieuX had at first been dazzled by
wealth and then dazed with wonder.
They had gone afterward in haste
across Austria, on another occasion for
NJ. Etiennc's services, to- half savage
Roumanian prince, where, owing to his
incOgnito, BcauXlieux saw much of the
life beneath the barbaric splendor, the
Parisian surgeon leaving the case with
Nj. Etenne, SO that for several weeks
BeauXlieuN, among conditions of life
of which he had had no conception,
found himself, unaware, in his leisure
as NJ. Eticnne's superfuous attendant,
studying them, getting close interest
in the people of the forest, on the
mountain, in the cabins clustered in
the midst of the vast farms. SIT is
right" said NJ. Etienne, when he spoke
to him of his observations and his won
der, that your grace should know
what goes on in the world, how the
greater part of our fellow creatures
live and suffer. For it may some day
be the part of the Duke des Sarazines
Beauxlieux to bring them relief"
When the patient in his care could
be left, NJ. Eticnne took Beauxlieux
with him farther east, and he was ap-
preaching his twenty-first year when
he returned, travelled man, to the old
chateau.
The days were long to the duchess
while her son and the monsieur were
away. She busted herself and Victor
inc at their embroidery, at their books.
She walked beside the sea in the latter
part of the day, slight, swift figure
wrapped in a long cloak, looking over
the gray and melancholy waste, rest
less herself as those dreamy waters
werc-longing for her boy, distrusting
and fearing the future, yet soothcd
when she thought of the strong arm of
NJ. Etienne, on which, whether near or
far, she leaned. In the evening Pierre
tinlzcred at the barrel of the music
box. having lznack of tinlering. or
perhaps Jean read to them by the fire.
light which illuminated the dark salon,
he lying on the skin beside the hearth,
whose logs he and Pierre had helped to
S.
III w , S>sYMSs
y ~ -.