Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1897-09-23

then his reputation, Though we knew
little of the worlds wickedaess. all we
did know had come TO US linked vita
his name. we sad heard Of him rs
duellist, as a bully. an employer o.
braves. At Jarnac he had been the
last to turn from the shambles. Men
called him cruel and vengeful even for
those days-gone by now, thank God!
land whispered his name when they
spoke of assassinations; saying com
monty of him that he would NOT bIench
before a Guise, nor blush before the
virgin.
Such was our visitor and neighbor.
Raoul de Mar, Vidame de Beers. As
he sat on the terrace, now cycling US
askance, and now paying Catherine
compliment. I likened him TO a great
cat before which butterfly has all
unwittingly hirted her prettiness.
Poor Catherine! No doubt she had
her own reasons for uneasiness; more
reasons, 1 fancy, than l then guessed.
For she seemed TO have lost her voice.
She stammered and made but poor re-
plies; and Nine. Claude being deaf and
stupid, and we boys too timid after the
rebuff we had experienced to fill the
gap, TIE conversation languished.
The Vidame was not for his part the
man to put himself out on hot day.
1t was after one of these pauses-not
the first but the longest-that started
on finding his eyes fixed on mine.
More, shivered. 1t is hard to describe,
but there was a look in the vidame's
eyes at that moment which had never
seen before. A look of pain almost; of
dumb savage alarm at any rate. From
me they passed slowly to Marie and
mutely Intercepted him. Then the
vidame's glance travelled back TO Cath
crime, and settled on her.
Only a moment before she had been
hut too conscious of his presence. Now,
as it CHANGED by bad luck, or in the.
course of Providence, something had
drawn her attention elsewhere. She
was unconscious of his regard. Her
own eyes were fixed in PARKWAY gaze.
Her color was high, her lips were
parted her bosom heaved gently.
The shadow deepened on the vidame's
face. Slowly he took his eyes from
hers, and looked northwards also.
Caylus Castle stands on rock in the
middle of the narrow valley of that
name. The town clusters about the
lodges of the rock so closely that when
was boy could fling a stone clear of
the houses. The hills are scarcely 500
yards distant on either side, rising in
tanner colors from the green fields
about the brook. It is possible from
the terrace TO see the whole valley, and
the road which passes through 1t
lengthwise. GATHERINGS eyes were on
the northern extremity of the defle,
where the highway from Cahors de-
sends from the uplands. She had been
sitting with her face turned that way
all the afternoon.
looked that way too. A solitary
horseman was descending the steep
track from the hills.
"Mademoisellel" cried the vidame,
suddenly. We all looked up. His tone
was such that the color fed from Kits
face. There was something in his voice
she had never heard in any voice be-
fore-something that to a woman was
like blow. "Mademoiselle," he
snarled, sis expecting news from Ca
hors, from her lover. I have the honor
to congratulate M. de Payannes on his
conquest"
All! he had guessed it! AS the words
fell on the sleepy silence, an insult in
themselves, sprang to my feet, amazed
and angry, yet astounded by his quick
ness of sight and wit. He must have