The herald., 1897-04-24

| where she was. With his fierce black
eyes aflame, her father unbuckled his
sword-belt and put on in its place one
which bore the most deadly lethal
weapon in the world-a three-cornered
rapier nearly three feet in length, and
as sharp at the point as cambria
needle, and walked into the garden.
There he saw his child sitting with his
neighbor's son, whose arms were held
about her waist.
Perfectly innocent in thought and
deed, she sprang up and threw herself
between her lover and her fathers ra-
pier All gentlemen wore swords then.
and the young man drew his involun-
tarily But what availed the defense
of a youth against the best blade in the
light division. After two or three pass
es. in which the sword of the tall, pow
erful soldier curled viperishly around
that of his antagonist, with quick dis
engage he ran the boy through
the heart, and, shaking him off his
sword, he fell heavily-dead. The girl
had watched the duel a la mort with
face as pale as the mountain SHOWS.
She could not even scream. She looked
OIL with dilated eyes and face frozen
in horror, petrified in her agony. AS her
father turned to speak she screamed,
DO not touch me; you will kill me as
ycu did HERBERT and fell as if she, too.
were dead. She never spoke her fathers
name again, and when the summer flow
ers faded and died, she died, too.
When the father discovered that his
anger had caused two lives; that the
young man had loved with all the fire OF
his passionate race, but with senti-
ment of the highest honor. and that the
young girl, who was as innocent as
flower (and all this he learned from the
few letters of her lovers that were in
nocently hidden in the girls prayer
book, his face grew paler and his man
ner was gentler to all about him, while
his troopers respected the fathers grief.
There had been a clump of Louis
Quinze roses grown by the bench where
the lovers were sitting when the gen.
eral found them. This rose is beautifully
shaped and of a pale pink color, deep
ening to almost red al the heart. Those
rose branches were red with the youths
blood, and the girls father ordered
them to be cut completely away. The
rext spring green shoots grew from the
roots again, and one day his old garden
er said: Monsieur, will you come into
the garden? There is a miracle"
The general went. He had not been
near the spot since the day he saw the
eyes he loved, once so soft and happy
look upon him with awful horror-a
look that would haunt him for Sver-
r,ore. Truly it seemed that miracle
had been wrought One splendid stem
/, ond II hlld
half opened. 1t was not a pale pink,
as the parent had been, but of splendid
cardinal velvety red-a royal rose. full
of grace and passionate beauty.
The man who had never fiinched al
the charge of the wild Arab, when he
rode side by side with Kleber, and stood
the shock often OF the Hungarian and
Polish lancers, put his hands to his eyes
and wept like a boy, and the old gar
dener turned his face away that he
might not see the others grief, while he
softly whispered a prayer for the girls
sinless soul.
And 80 with the Marechal Mel rose, It
is linked with touch of romance in the
life of the darling of the French army
and the day when he had conferred upon
him, in the presence of three emperors,
the highest honor in France-the Grand
Cross Of the Legion Of Honor.
To the one who knows this language
spoken by the flowers these delightful
friends of man point moral just as
surely as do the gardens of the Chinese,
where some fine moral is couched under
the general design, and one is taught
wisdom as he walks, and feels the force
of some noble truth or delicate precept
resulting from the arrangement of the
groves, streams and flowers.
A BIT OF SYMBOLISM
A very pretty and suggestive little
bit of symbolism was that INDUCED in
by the Americus club at the tribunes
yesterday. Lined up in close column OH
either side of the approach to the royal
pavilion, when her majesty's carriage
drove up the word of command rang
out. and every man brought the staff
which he carried, and from which the
national colors were flying, to the salute.
The lowering of the long lines of ban
nerets resulted in an archway of Ameri-
can flags being formed and under this
her majesty and her court walked with
slow and stately steps. No more royal
covering to shield from harm could be
imagined, and when the same salute was
given to the little Floral Queen and her
tiny maids of honor the suggestiveness
was increased, with touch Of pathos
added.
The gracious manner with which her
majesty crowned her little sister queen
with a floral wreath was prettily done,
and the kiss she implanted upon the lit
tie ones lips may have not been accord
ing to program, but was very sweet and
womanly. The naive way in which little
Queen Sadie ascended the throne, bow
ing to right and left with childish grace,
was as amusing as it was delightful.