The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1897-02-15
Tcopyright. 1897. by Dufield: Osborne.I
PART /.


PART i.
Gerald Rayburn aighted from the
train at the Clermont- Ferrand station
lie had come from the south after few
months lounging through and about
Mines, Aries and Agues Mortes. and a
side-swing of to Ie Puy. Gerald Ray
lurn did not enjoy travelling on tour
lists lines. He preferred TO go TO places
that are generally passed over in the
hurry of the average three months trip
places which possess their monu-
Iients "unrestored" by the march of
progress. and where sightseeing is not
riarred by the abominations of the
Snowman. Rome, with her segrega-
tions of ruins in the midst OF modern
city, poisoned his delight by suggest
ing the "Old London Street" on Broad
way, and he had actually given up a
projected journey TO Athens when he
learned that tramways ran through the
principal avenues.
Perhaps you may gather from this
that Gerald Rayburn was something of
a romanticist. Possibly he was. He
lad cast aside fair legal practice 10
depend upon a microscopic income and
the slender returns from his pen--so,
only. that freedom and the power to
gmtify his tastes could be assured to
linn. He loved nature and he loved art,
but. above all, he loved the past with its
rhilosophic or romantic living as OPP
posed TO the money-bag philistinism OF
to-day. He loved the associations that
clustered about spots where great
events had happened. and he liked TO
wander among them until his at
mosphere became filed with the
,vraiths Of togaed senators and girls in
fiowering tunics, lovely chatelaines and
nlail-clad knights. He had pored over
q coin of Tiberius until the romance of
its history seemed 20 speak out from the
worn and battered lips of the bronze
emperor; he had sat upon the great
walls of Aigues Mortes until he had
made friends with the little green liz
&c IDS and learned from them their ira
ditions of the terrible Burgundian
mi ight; while high up. from the weird
nAonolithic fortress of Les Baux. he had,
In fancy, beheld its counts riding forth
TO fend or foray, winding down through
rocky gorges, to burst out, in all the
glitter of feudal panoply, upon the plain
below.
People who were inclined 20 be prac-
tical had long since set Gerald Rayburu
down for an altogether dreamy, self
conferred and inhuman individual: but
that these structures were not unuuali-
Hcdly just may in a measure appear
from the fact that. when he alighted at
the Clermont-Ferrand station, the one
thing he was lounging for most of all
vas TO hear few words of good. intel |
l.gible United States. His French was
enjoyable. either to himself or
theirs, nor did he feel that il was espe-
cinlly reliable outside of few stereo-
Typed situations. How far the eager |
ness TO revel in the terse vigor of his 1
native tongue was sbarpened by the |
lact that he had just heard il normally
spoken for the first time in a month,
ind how far by the fact that the speak
r. was remarkably pretty girl. can
rot presume TO measure. To nv way
Jf thinking, IL the latter circumstance
lad anything 10 do with his enthusiasm.
3 furnishes another argument in favor
IF the human side of bis character.
The words--some passing comment
attracted his attention TO the speaker
ind TO the person 10 whom they were
addressed. Both were young women
,omewhere about twenty-three or
rventy-four years of age; both were
lressed in business-like travelling
yowns, and neither was ill-favored,
though the former had by FAR the larger
'hare of good looks. Shall i describe
her? Beauty of all kinds has been de-
'cribed so often; and when you bear
u mind the carte blanche for invention
which my position gives, can hardly
'ee why my statements should be of in
crest. Still. between ourselves aud
Miss Miriam Lowell. which
happened to be the name on her valise
runk. was rather under middle height,
lenderly built, with small, aristocratic