The Opelousas courier., 1896-10-17

E4NSHGS<X-z~ Ao abu4O w
the very last days OF December, a fey
years ago, that I was going over t.
Paris, by the invitation OF some friend
who had a fiat in the Boulevard Hauss
mann to spend New Years week witt
them.
The weather was bitterly cold, blu
at three-and-twenty, with the pros
pect OF a week in Paris before one
nobody minds that. [ had to go b,
the night mail by way of Dover ant
Calais, and you may be sure I wa
careful to miss the train.
On the contrary, I was at Charing
Cross station thirty-five minutes too
soon, and l spent my time when I hat
selected a corner seat and disposed O.
my rugs and my bag, in watching thu
travellers as they arrived-no bad en-
t%ertainment at any time.
It was about a quarter of an hour
before the train started when a tall,
thin old gentleman with a long, silky
gray mustache and bushy gray eye
brows, came slowly along the plat.
form, leaning on the arm of a smart
servant in livery, and scrutinizing the
compartments, as he went along, with
tastidious care.
He walked up and down the whole
length of the train two or three times,
and at last chose my carriage. He
waited outside, with a cigar In his
poontb rhilo bio cor,op& o,r,,~ol ~,
corner seat for him at the other end
Of the compartment from the one I had
taken, which was on the platform
side. He watched the mans every
movement with the deliberate atten-
t1on of a man who has long been &C.
customed to make his own comfort
and enjoyment his chief, if not his
OILY care, now directing an alteration
in the position of his travelling bag in
the rack above, now complaining that
the man had unfolded the rug too
much.
He was rather a distinguished look
ing person on the whole, and I should
have judged from his appearance that
he was O man of high rank if he had
not put on SO many of the airs of the
parvenu.
When he got in he apologized for
touching my foot in passing, with a
manner which gave me better hopes
of him. As he passed, the long, fur
lined coat he wore was dragged back,
and I saw that the lining was of very
dark sable. the handsomest I had ever
seen, and that on the hand with which
he pulled it round him again there wal
one enormous diamond.
He settled in his corner, screening
himself effectually from possible
draughts by pulling his cap down oyer
his eyes and his travelling rug almost
up to his chin.
The man waited outside the car
riage.
"Do we stop anywhere on the way
to Dover, Giles2" asked his master.
"Only at Cannon street, sir. and then
at Shornclife Camp"
"Oh, we'll, be sure you get a car
riage as e as possible, and come to
me the moment the train gets to the
pier"
''Yes, SIR"
The servant touched his hat and dis
appeared.
Then at last the fastid1ous old gentle
nan seemed to be satisfied for a time,
Tor he buried himself in his furs and
subsidized into tranquility.
1 looked out again at the passen-
gers, who were now hurrying in a state
of more Or less excitement. And my
attention was arrested by a lady very
neatly got up in a very smart, fur
trimmed green ulster, a huge muff and
a travelling hat and veil, who sauntered
up the platform with a dignified and
stately step, looking into all the car
riages with as much careful attention
as my old man himself had shown. Her
appearance excited a good deal of at
tention, for che was undoubtedly a
splendid young woman, tall, broad
shouldered, erect; and as she walked
up and down in n,iteisurely manner,
apparently Indifferent to the COM
ments she excited, I got out of the
carriage to ha a better look.
As she came past the second time
she stopped before the compartment
where the old gentleman now sat alone,
and, apparently not perceiving that
there was luggage in the rack over the
place where l had sat, she got in and
seated herself in my corner There
was this excuse for her, that I had left
my rug lying in the middle of the seat,
80 that she might have thought that
it belonged to the old gentleman. So
l left her in possession, and contented
myself with the corner opposite.
She stared at me through her veil
frank curiosity when I got in.
And l fancied that she was annoyed
that there was to be q third person in
the carriage. I perceived, in spite of
her veil, that her complexion was too
brilliantly white and pink to be quite
natural, and / saw that her hair was of
that peculiar shade of magenta-brown
which is more fashionable" than COM
monty 9 en in unassisted nature.
So that I decided, after noticing
;hese things, her frowns in my direc.
ion, and her glaces at the old gentle
nan, that. she had designs upon the
,1ner of the handsome coat. and that
The wa of tleatype that We are accus-
.omed in England to call stadventur-,
cases."