The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-03-20
MADAM KARL'S ROMANCE.
Search for Her Husband, Lost in the
Franco-Prussian War.

Twenty-Five years ago or more there
lived in Paris young and pretty girl
named Babettc D'Arcon. Her parents
were not rich people; they were not even
well to- do; but they were of good blood,
and Babette was as good as she YVES
dainty. She worked in store near the
Tuileries, where cruciflxes, strings OF coral,
and pretty arrangements in shells and
beads were sold, and her modest earn
ings, ten francs a week, were regularly
and willingly turned into the family ac-
count, so that Monsieur and Madame
D'Aroon We're able tn hold their heads up
and live in a nelghbor hood tenaDted for
the most part by people in much better
circumstances than themselves. Now,
even at that carly time. the rumblings OF
the dispute. which has been put down in
history as the Franco-Prussian war, could
be heard, and there was very bitter
feeling against the Germans all through
France, and in Paris particularly. Babette
heard of il at home and she heard of IL at
business, and she made up her mind
that the Germans as whole were very
bad lot of people, and that the particular
class of Germans known as Bavarians
were an unusually savage and uncivilized
lot. She had heard how they had just
subdued the Austrians, and she heard on
every side of her how, flushed with VIC
tory, they had dared to dictate to her
own people. And she secretly wished
she were a man, SO that she might go out
and fight for her country when German
impudence became intolerable. ss she had
been told 1t would become before very
long.
Now it was when this patriotic feeling
was strongest in the breast of Mile.
D'Arcon that there came down the Rue
de Rivoli one day young gallant who
displayed an amazing amount of interest
In. Ill "a hAaA l.,,.
he saw the pretty face of the young
woman who was there to display them.
Babette had never seen German before,
and though she knew this man for a
foreigner by his accent, the cut of his
clothes, and his general behaviour, she
never gave the matter second thought,
for many fCreie ners came daily to the
Rue de Rivoli, and most OF them paid her
shop visit before going away 1t did
strike her as funny that a man should buy
so many necklaces and purses, but he was
such handsome young fellow that she
concluded he had sweetheart somewhere,
for whom he was buying all these things.
Anyway, he was most agreeable youth,
ana when he calmly sat down in corner
of the shop and proceeded to ask her ques-
tions about herself, she did not resent IL
in the least. She didn't even feel offend
ed when he told her she was a very pretty
girl, but when he ventured the remark
lnHt IL WIS loo idu lnhi nls COlnlTN WOuiu
have 10 come into France and discipline
her army and her people, suspicion OF
the truth entered Mile D'Acron's simple
mind. She asked him II he was Ger
man, and when he said that he was sort
of a e,and that that sort was n Bavar-
ian, she looked aghast at him. and then
buried her face in her hands to shut out
the terrible sight. As for iho young Teu-
Ton, he threw out his chest, and, doffing
his hat, walked proudly out OF the shop.
The next day he passed again but he
never looked at Babette, and that young
woman told herself that she was glad OF
It. But she wasn't In the least, and two
days later, when he came along again, she
smiled swectly, and he turned into the
shop and proceeded to load up with beads
ana coral again. After that he came
every day, and pretty soon he called her
Babette, ana she called him Louis, for hi,
name was Louis Karl.
The D'Arcon family and their friends
were not highly pleased " hen Il alt came
out, but the Wedding took place lust the
Same End the couple lived along happily
in Paris. Then came the cali TO arms in
Germany and France. and Louis told his
young wife that he must 60 aud fght