The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1897-05-22
ADVENTURE INACAB.

q legIJlmate heroine, a ~24-year-Oh her
oine, as beautiful as you might wish and
as unmusical as you can imagine. From
the rising of the sun till the last flicker
of the nightlamp, she was constantly at
the piano. She strummed with such
untiring zeal that it was impossible to.
keep servants in the house. There
were times when the marquis, surfeited
with Schumann, tortured by Mendels-
sohn, and dead weary of S~aint-Saens,
even envied the good fortune of his
servants, who could escape the instru-
ment of torture.
Twill the marquis please settle my
account?"
"Are you going to leave us?"
"Yes, sir, on account Of"
"The piano? I know-you have had
enough of it."
IF it were only enough, 1 could stand
it, but it's too much; it is driving me
frazy."
81 understand"
You are not angry, then? ;"
THE deuce, no! but how can l re-
place your"
81 know a man who would suit the
place-he is quite deaf"
Lucky dog!"
Even the neighbors were driven to re-
belli0n. Petitions and threatening let
ters poured in daily, until at last the
poor marquis determined to move to
some isolated quarter near the bar
racks, where the c%ornetists and drum
mers were sent to practice scales.
1t is scarcely to be credited, but the
marquis deeply deplored the absence of
a better rival to his wife's affection than
the piano. He hated it with a deadly
hatred, and it is not surprising that he
seized the opportunity to escape when
the misguided virtuosa said to him:
"Can l count upon your escort Mon
day evening, dear? have promised to
play a fantastic from Henry VIII at
Nine. la Marechale's. Are you fond of
Henry WHIP"
"Yes-since I've learned to feel for
him"
The intended sarcasm passed unno-
ticed his wife thought he alluded to
the bold harmonies of the modern
school.
The marchioness, however, was
obliged to go unattended to Mime. la
M~arechale's. Monday evening at ten
o'clock, she dropped her husband at his
club, and, extending the soft little hand
that was so Don to torture poor Henry
WILL" she said to him:
"Will you call for me? I play at half
past II. No applause would give me so
much pleasure as yours"
The marquis bent his head ovef the
extended hand, and disappeared with
out a word.
He played at the club and lost, so
heavily, in fact, that he soon found him
self wishing he had gone to the recep-
ton, thinking that even Henry VIII"
would be preferable to this. From
Henry VIII" to thinking of his wife
but q short step, and he deter
mined to go after hea. For you will re-
member that Elizabeth Aida Marcel
line de Longuerne, away from a piano,
was q very charming little m
Hardly conscious of what he was do
ing, the marquis allowed himself to be
driven to the house of Nine. Ia Mare
chale. Not caring to enter at once, he
remained outside, liFtening to the hid
eous fantasia being performed by his
wife. "It is half past eleven, he thought
to himself. ut is she playing-those
discords are unmistakable. Anne
Boleyn and Catherine Howard are at last
avenged. Henry the Eighth, go thou
IN thine ~executioni"
The noise Of a passing cab momen-
tarily drowned the sound of the piano,
and the marquis forgot his wife's mu-
steal shortcomings in mental contem-
plation of her shoulder. her arms. her
ewes, her luxuriant, hair, and her other
projections. This vision appealed to his
aesthetic side. He felt that he had been
too exacting in the face of so many al
Turing charms.
.By Apollo! if a piece of ill-luck
should come my way, I'd get no more
than / richly deserve. What if her heart
is wrapped up in those little black
hiercglyphics with the long necks! She
loves me with a consistency that is really
touching. 1 can put up with a little
music; at any rate, l shall not care the
less for her on account of it. Poor
woman, how abominably she plays!
But they applaud her. And II have
played the coward. 1 win wait outside
here for her, if it takes an hour, to make
up for it."
But his ardor was doomed to be damp
ened by a fine, cold rain that now began
to fall. Suetone Amentor grew impa-
tient and was conscious that he was get
ting tired. He had waited a full half
hour. Just then he noticed a coupe
come out of the courtyard and draw up
near the kerh behind a line of carriages.
''This rain sill not last long," he said
to himself; sin all probability, the last
guest TO arrive will be the last one to go.
l shall wait in her coupe and rest"