The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-08-08
TWO AMERICANS
BY BRET HARTE.
PART I.

COPYRIGHT. 1897. BY Bret Harte.
perbaps IL there was anything important In
the migration Of the Maynard family to Europe
Il rested solely upon the singular fact that Mr..
MAYNARD did not go there in the expectation of
marrying his daughter to q nobleman. A
Charleston merchant. whose house represented
two honorable generations. had. forty years ago,
A certain self-respect which did not require ex-
,raneous AID and foreig= support, and 1t Is ex-
ceedingly probable that his intention of
amending a few years abroad had no
Interior motive other than pleasure seek
ing and the observation Of many things
principally OF the ~past-which his own coun-
try did not possess. His future and that Of his
family lay in his own land, yet, with practical
common sense. he adjusted himself temporarily
10 his new surroundings. In doing so. he had
much to learn of others, and others had some
thing to learn Of him He found that the
best people had a high simplicity equal to his
own. He corrected their impressions that a
Southerner had more or less negro blood in his
veins, and that, although q slave owner, he
did not necessarily represent an aristocracy.
With a distinguishing dialect of which he
was not ashamed, a frank familiarity Of APP
proach. Joined to an invincible courtesy of man
nsr, which made even his republican Sir
equal to the ordinary address to royalty, he was
always respected and seldom misunderstood
When he was it was unfortunate for those who
misunderstood him. His type was as distinctive
and original as his cousins. the Englishman.
whom It was not the fashion then to initiate. So
that, whether in the hotel Of q capital, the kur-
snol Of q spa, or the humber pension of a Swiss
village, he was always characteristic. Less so
was his wife, who. with the chameleon quality
Of her transplanted countrywomen. was already
Partisan in dress. Still less SO his daughter,
who had by this time absorbed the peculiarities
of her French. German and Italian governesses.
Yet neither had yet learned to evade their ma
tionality-or apologize for it.
Mr.. Maynard and his family remained for
three years In Europe, his stay having been pro-
longed by political excitement in his own State
of South Carolina. Commerce Is apt to knock
the insularity out of people; distance from ones
own distinctive locality gives q wider range to
the vision, and the retired merchant foresaw ruin
in his States politics, and, from the viewpoint Of
all Europe, beheld, instead Of the usual collec-
ton of individual States, his whole country.
But, the excitement increasing. he was finally
impelled to return, in the faint hope Of doing
something to allay it, taking his wife with him.
but leaving his daughter at q school in Paris. At
about this time, however, q single cannon shot
fred at the national flag on Fort Sumter shook
the whole country. reverberated even in Europe,
sending some earnest hearts back tod battle for
State or country sending others less earnest into
inglorious exile. but, saddest Of all, knocking
over the school bench Of the girl at the Paris
pensionnat. For that shot had sunk Maynard's
ships at the Charleston wharves, scattered his
piled cotton bales awaiting shipment at the
quays, and drove him, q ruined man, into the
Home Guard" against his better Judgment.
Helen Maynard, like q good girl. had implored
her father to let her return and share his risks.
But the answer was to wait" until this nine
days madness Of an uprising was over. That
madness lasted four years, outlived Maynard,
whose gray misdoubtfng head bit the dust at
Balls Blur. outIived his colorless widow. and
left Nelly a p~enniless orphan
Yet enough of her country was left In her to
make her courageous and independent Of heI
past. They say that when she got the news she
cried a little and then laid the letter and what
was left of her last monthly allowance in Mime
Ablns's lap. Madame was devastated. Blu,
you-impoverished and desolated angel-whai
OF you r II shall get some OF it back, !" said the
desolated angel with ingenious candor. for
speak better French and English than the Other
girls. and I shall teach them until I get into
the Conservative. for I have q voice. You your
self have told papa So" From such angelic di
rectness there was no appeal. Nine. Ablal
had q heart-more, she had q French man
ageress's discriminating instinct. The Amer
lean schoolgirl was installed In a teacher
esk-hor bosom friends and fellow STUDENT
became her pupils. To some of the richest
and they were mainly of her own country. sh'
sold her smartest, latest dresses, Jewels, anc
trinkets at q very good hgure-snd put tn,
money away against the Conservatoire in tn,
future. She worked hard, she endured ~uatientl,
everything but commiseration- I'D have yol
know" she said to Miss De Lame, daughter O
the famous house of MUSLIN, De Lame & Co
of New York, that whatever my position ma,
be, it is not one to be patroniZed by q tapeseller'
daughter. Ny case is not such a sad one,
thank you, and I prefer not to be spoken of a
having seen better days by people who haven't
There, don't rap your desk with your penci
when you speak to me. or I shall call out Cash
before the whole class" So regrettable an exhI
bition of temper naturally alienated certain of he
compatriots who were unduly sensitive OF thei
origin, and as they formed a considerable colon
who were then revealing in the dregs Of tn
empire and the last orgies Of a lettering court
they eventually cost her her place.
republican so aristocraticw was not to be to-
Grated by the true-born Americans who PAL
court to De Morny for the phosphorescent spler
doris of st. Cloud and the Tuileries. and Mis-
Helen lost their favor. But she had alread
saved enough for the Conservatoire and a littI
attic in a very tall house in a very narrow stree
that trickled into the ceaseless flow Of the Ru
Lafayette: Here for four years she trotted back
ward and forward regularly to her work. wit
II TGbhncb u Soutu dLu III ln1eAlDle sc
purpose of maturity. Here, rain or shine, sun
mer or winter, in the mellow season when tn
large cafes expanded under the white sunshin
into an overflow Of little tables on thu pavement
or when the red glow of the hrasserie shon
through frosty panes on the turned-up collars q
pinched Parisians who hurried by, she was a
ways TO be seen.
Half Paris had looked into her clear gray eye
and passed on; a smaller and not very youthtr
portion ot Paris had turned and followed he
with small advantage TO itself and happily n
fear to her. For even in her young womanhoo
she kept her chlld's love and knowledge OF tina
great city; she even had an innocent camarai
erie with street sweepers, kiosk keepers, an
lemonade vendors, and the sternness Of COZ
ciergedom melted before her. In this who'll
some, practical child's experience she NATURAL
avoided or overlooked what, would not have i
terested a child, and so kept her freshness and
certain national shrewd simplicity invincibl
There is a story told OF her girlhoOd that, OF
day playing in the Tuileries garden, she wa
approached by a gentleman with "A waxed mu
tache. and a still more waxen cheek beneat
heavily lidded eyes. There was an exchange
polite amenities.
And your name, ma petite p Helen" r.