Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1896-09-03
II.
A Woman Without a Heart.

\ w oman WlLnOuL a heart.
When I left school," Raphael went
on, with a gesture that claimed the
right Of speaking, my father submitted
me to a strict discipline; he installed
me in room near his own study, and
l had to rise at in the morning and
be in bed by at night He meant me
to take my law studies seriously.
I'm time past my father, the head
of an historic family, remembered even
now in Auvergne, had come to Paris to
fight against his evil star, dissatisfied
at the prospect of tilling the soil with
his useless sword by his side.
THE revolution brought a reverse of
fortune, but he had managed to marry
an heiress of good family, and, in the
time of the Empire, appeared to be on
the point of restoring to our house its
ancient splendor.
''The Restoration, while it brought
back considerable property to my
mother, was my fathers ruin. He had
formerly purchased several estates
abroad, conferred by the emperor on
his generals; and now for ten years he
struggled with liquidators, diplomat
lists and Prussian and Bavarian courts
of law over the disputed possession of
these unfortunate endOwments
$50 when Nine. Vil1eIe exhumed, for
our especial benefit, an imperial decree
concerning forfeitures and had ruined
us, I authorized the sale of my prop
erty, only retaining an island in the
middle of the Loire where my mother
was buried. Ten months after he had
paid his creditors, my father died of
grief; was his idol, and he had ruined
me! The thought killed him.
Three months later an agent made
over to me ZIP francs, the net pro-
ceeds of the winding up of my fathers
affairs. I imperilled my life in order
to live. By reducing my requirements
to real needs and the barest necessa-
ries, found that 365 francs sufficed for
year of perjury, and, in fact, I man
aged to exist on that slender sum so
long as I submitted to my own claus
trail discipline"
"Impossibler' cried Emile
81 liver for nearly three years that
way" Raphael answered, with kind
of pride. "Let us reckon it out. Three
sous for bread, two for milk and three
for cold meat kept me from dying of
hunger and my mind in a state of
peculiar lucidity. I have observed, as
you know, the wonderful effects pro-
dused by diet upon the imagination.
My lodgings cost me three sous daily;
l burned three sous more in oil at
night; l did my own Homework, and
wore flannel shirts so as to reduce the
laundress' bill to two sous per day.
During the first ten months of Sc
clusion l led the life of poverty and
solitude that l have described to you
l used to steal out unobserved every
morning to buy my own provisions for
the day; l tidied my room; l was at
once master and servant, and played
the Diogenes with incredible spirit
But afterwards, while my hostess and
her daughter watched my ways and be
havior, scrutinized my appearance and
OWNED by poverty, there could not
but be some bonds between US; perhaps
because they were themselves so very
| poor. Pauline, the charming child
2 whose latent and unconscious grace
had, in manner, brought me there
= did me many services that l could nor
: we'll refuse
'One evening Pauline told me he
/ story with touching simplicity. He
r father had been a major in the hors,
e grenadiers of the Imperial guard. H,
e lad been taken prisoner by the Cos
t sacks at the passage of the Berseina
4 and when Napoleon later on proposes
y an exchange the Russian authorize
p made search for him in Siberia in val
he had escaped with view of reach
e ing India, and that since then Mn
g Gaudin, my landlady, could hear n
e news Of her husband. Then came tn
d disasters of 1914 and 1915; and Ief
e alone, and without resources. she ha