The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1896-01-02
THE STROKE OF RUIN

Cildl1 OII bhO 1IOA 4oA4Od 5csAAOAy "hASh
overhung the sidewalk and smoked slow
ly, with half closed eyes. He was await
ing and expecting the arrival Of his
young friend, Francois Rapin, who had
lately interested him to a singular de-
gree.
Even at the moment, up the uncarpet-
ed stairway, came the active creole's
feet, two steps at time, along with
lively tune sung almost breathlessly
through curving black mustache.
"Well, and what is it?' demanded
the New Yorker. "What have you found
out?''
'sMaybe she went to the French opera
Go with me. have box. Come. -
"But haven't you yet seen herr"
"Seen her. How should I know? M.
Harding forgets the conditions. He
laughed in his atrociously frivolous
French way.
.'I beg pardon, - said Harding quick
ly. 81 had indeed forgotten that / did
not know her name, her place of resi-
dence, nor yet even the color of her eyes.
Yes, will go with you to the opera
Everybody goes, eh?"
lie utu COIu0 SOuGu q p06u
with letters of introduction to infuen-
tial people, but he was not seeking So
ciety. A quiet sojourn in New Orleans
with his eyes and ears open suited him
better.
What was perhaps just the thing he
would have most desired came to him
Unexpectedly one day. He suddenly met
beautiful young woman face to face at
the door of Garcia's old book store.
Harding was electrified and impulsiyely
lifted his hat. She passed him with
half smile, leaving breath Of violets
and the rustic of gown quietly elegant
in the air round about.
A lover is great fool, but he is the
only man who knows what song it was
that the stars sang, and to him you
must go if you would learn the secret of
heavenly happiness and the value Of
dreams as nutriment for the imagina-
tion. A lovers soul will treble its
stature by feeding one moment on a
smile.
In fact, Boyle Harding had felt this
sudden growth within. 1t had quicken
ed, broadened and sweetened his spirit
ual vision, while affording fine and
richly mysterious increment to his en-
joyment of his new surroundings.
This was midway in the fifties, when
New Orleans had reached the splendid
zenith of her wealth, and when the Pc
culiar color of her social life was most
dazzling and romantic.
AS they went along Rapin was pratt
Ting on the subject of fencing, always
a great vogue with the jeunesse doree
of New Orleans.
"But you must be interested in sword
p1ay-in fencing. 1t is the noblest of all
exercises for gentlemen, and your phys
ique is precisely made up for it. You
must be master, or you could be.
81 have had good masters" Harding
replied, in an evasive tone, ''but am
losing interest in it. %
"Your masters were In New York?'
"No; Paris had M. Duval for
three years.
''Ah, what fortunel He, and he only,
teaches the stroke Of ruin,' the pass
which pierces across from shoulder to
shoulder, disabling the victim for life,
yet never killing him
'sAnd you learned his strokel Oh, but
I am overjoyed, and you will teach me
to do it. All, monsieur, shall be your
lifelong debtor. I have dreamed of that
incompatible thrust. have made two
journeys to Paris to learn it; but, you
must know, M. Duyal is an ancient en-
envy of my fathers. could not go to
him. +"
A great curve Of splendor, a flash Of
faces, threats, bosoms, jewels, laces,
corsages, coiffures, necklaces. bracelets,
rings; foam of airy gowns sinking
and swelling gently, like surf froth
against beach of fairyland. Harding
gazed in half blinded stupidity, so he
felt, and could see no details, could make
out no individual face distinctly.
"We will begin the lessons tomor-
row." murmured Rapin- "Ishan be an
apt scholar, monsieur.
"Yes,"' said Harding absently. He
was gazing along the great sweep of
beauty and light.
"But excuse me moment or two"
the creole added after awhile, when the
curtain was down ST am going to call
at the box of friend" "
Harding continued his survey, which
now that his eyes had somewhat accus-
toned themselves to the glamour, became
more real and absorbingly interesting.
Presently he saw Rapin in box, a
magnificent one, near the center, talk
ing with a tall young woman, and it
was she. There could be no doubt for a
moment
Harding's eyes were fixed The trance
of that old time love which men used
to acknowledge was upon him. And at
the very central moment she turned
from Rapin and looked straight at him.
The prosy fact was that Rapin in his
enthusiastic way had been telling Mile.
Marie de Montmartin - that was her
name-about his good fortune in finding
q master to teach him the "stroke of
ruin," and he had directed her attention
to the young man in his box
But for Mile Marie de Montmartin,
we may as well say that she glanced
mechanically, then looked again
! Rapin presently returned to the box,