The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1897-05-19
ROBERT THE DEVIL.


lhey could not call her stepmother
Tor the generals children were all Older
than she was. The general was well
along In years when she married him,
but that was her affair.
There hangs his portrait painted by
Copley. Look at il.
You do not believe he was 60 when il
was painted?
But they say he was.
lie was more handsome and faseina..
ing at 60 than his sons were at 30. The
second wife was rich-very rich. She
brought the greatest quantity of gold
and silver plate into the family. ali
marked with an Arabic cipher, to
which she added the Chevalier-crest
IA terrapin-and the motto, ''Not TO
| the swift"
No one knew certainly who her peo-
pie were. She said they were Spanish,
and her own appearance supported her
assertion.
There Is her portrait, painted at the
time OF her marriage. Look at it. The
general went to Paris, a long journey
in those days, to buy those diamonds
she wears, and the cerbeille.
Sometimes, even when there was no
one TO dine at home but the family,
Mistress Chevalier would sail into the
drawing room, that peafowl's tail of
green embroidered velvet spread be-
hind her, her beautiful black hair turn
ed back-like that-in tour, her arms
as naked as Venus her point lace fall
ing from her milk white shoulders, and
flashing from hair and ears and fingers
and flaming in a fire circle about her
delicate neck, the diamonds-magnifi-
cent stones, worth scores of negroes.
Lord. how the daughters would stare
at their plates and how the sons would
sneer at each other as the general would
meet her midway the room, lead her to
her seat at the table and kiss the dim
pie on her shoulder before lie left her
They say she loved him passionate
ly-that often, when she thought they
were alone and he would pass her chair,
she would turn her head upon her lazy
cushions and hold out beautiful hand.
And he?
Would kneel beside her and kiss her
pomegranate lips and lovely throat
until you would have sworn him %,
and maybe not married at all.
They say, too, it was pretty sight
to see her with her little son. a maid
going to help her dress one morning
heard 50 much laughter and such baby
shrieks that she first peeped in at the
door,
And, behold, the mistress ON her
hands and knees, and baby, just from
his bath, on her neck.
She was crawling over the velvet
carpet in her linen shift, looking over
her shoulder at the little shouting ras-
cal, who tugged at her hair with one
hand while he beat her with the branch
of jasmine in the other. The black
"dan sat and shook like fuscons mold
of berry jam, while the young mistress
crawled about, crushing the yellow
flowers under her soft hands and knees.
The door of the inner room sprang
open, and in walked the general, his
dressing gown with the Persian border
wrapped around him.
There was shrieking then warrant
you.
Those years were the generals holi-
day time. He had earned it, for his
first wife was Guelph, and everybody
i'm Carolina knows what that means.
She never got down on her knees ex-
cept to pray in her life, and she never
prayed for anything except money.
She put on morning the second year
of her marriage and never took 1t oil
again. They say she slept in her Grape
veil.
Her children were all born black in
the face and crying, and they cried the
greater part of their childhood.
The boys got ashamed of it after
awhile, for their English blood was
strong, but the girls never did, and
ought to have lived in a land of
droughts. Their tears would have fer
tilted desert.
a, ,.as ,bara xvas rain a-plenty
and to spare, and the general kept out
of their way, gave them umbrellas and
handkerchiefs for bishday gifts, and
reioiced greatly when they cried over
him at their weddings for the last time,
as he thought. But some of them
drowned their husbands in tears and
came home again damper than ever,
and no one but the second wife could
have stood them.
She laughed, ordered more fires
brighter lights, opened the windows,
and filled the house with flowers and
gay company.
She called the eldest Niobe to her
face and spoke of them collectively as
tie weeping willows, for they were tall
and liked to be thought willowy.
They cried so much over their little
half brother that the boy fairly detest-
ed them and ran away from the sight
of them.
He grew up strong like his father
and beautiful like his mother, verita-
BILE enfant de l'amour, but when he was
10 and the general was 40 the fine,
handsome old gentleman died sudden
ly.
The mistress was but 80, just the age
of the youngest stepdaughter, and she
sat in the drawing room when the will
w .s read with such a look on her face
that nobody but Guelph would have
dared TO cry The boy sat 10y her, the
very print and copy of his father, with
his little aquiline nose, his bright blue
ewes, and his fathers own trick OF
holding up his chin and stiffening his
sp:ne when he desired to see clearly.
Now, the general had been good to
his children. He had given generous
ly T., his sons and hal helped them in
business. He always gave marriage
portions to his daughters.
They all came TO hear.the reading oil
his wiIl-the women shrouded in Grape,
nth red ewes and noses. The mistress
H. s,ovn the general lad loved