Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-07-24

It, What a brute she must have thought
| him-or did she really think him a brute
even then. for her look was enc more of
despair and pity! Yet she would remem-
Der him only by that last word and never
xnow that he bad rtsked insult and ejec-
ton from her friends to carry her to a
place Of safety. He could not bear to 20
ecross the seas carrying the pale unsatis-
ueo race OF that gentle sfrl ever before his
~ sense OF delicacy-new to Dick
put always the accompaniment OF deep
teenng|kept him from ever htntf,,r hts
s.ory to his host though he knew pey-
r ~ s,s because he knew. that it would graft
thought struck Dick. He knew har sS hoa,An
Sno ner name. He would write her q note
S oheoooy would be sure to translate II for
He borrowed pen, ink and ,.
.ne clean solitude of his fresh chinfz had
io III ihuited the following letter. wv
me sar MISS Fontonelles: Please excuse
cali to do a tt z n skeert you I hadn't any
onns al Jest my derned luck, I only reot.
woos u ten You l was lost-in them b,amed
"snd ,hon you remember-lost' -Perdoo,
have Gomez na you you up and tainted, 1 wouldn't
"a ,,'s. he INTO your garden. only, YOU see
"a Just skeered by accident two of
soul heip, reg lar softys, and / wanted %
mar thai n Ieskon they allowed was that
.naa, mat picter in the hall was nainted
reckon they took me for him Coo .
nut ne amt my style, nohow. and 7 ns,ar
So, ,n me picter at all. until after ia toted
w idiuteO, I'D to
or Id have had my kaIkeIations ona n ao'N;
a &C. I'd have laid low in the woods
anu got away without skeerin' Won Yo,,
me Tnat mean? 1t was mighty mean of
wt,ha suppose, TO have fetched you at ali
without saying excuse me mice ond 800
you out OF the garden and up the stans
ineo your own parlor. without asking yoir
suddent Out me whole thing tumbIed SO
ths And 1t didn't seem the square
thnn lor me to lite out and leave YOU iyir~
mere On the grass. That's why I'm sorrv
,,n ene err l., that old preacher. but he came
II was mighty close call. l tell Won ~
ger on without a shindy Please fore,ve
me, MISS Fontonelles. When Won get The
hu sn Ha,, De going back home to America,
SAYING your all right. 1 liked your stvie
! Hked your grit in standing up to me In
, IRE saraen until you had your say, when
iho,,e .hoIsnt l was the Lord knows what,
~, never understood a word you got
oll, not knowing French. But it's all the
same now Say! I've got your rose.
yours very respectfully
RICHARD FOUNTAINS"
Dick folded the epistle and put # In his
pocket. He would post 1t himself on tho
morning before he left.
wnen ne came down stairs he found his
lhoe1at1sable host awaiting him. with the
report OF the veterinary blacksmith. There
was nothing seriously wrong with the
mustang, but 1t would be unfit to travel
for several days; The landlord repeated his
former oner. Dick, whose money was
pretty well exhausted. was fain to accent
rejecting that she had never seen the mis-
Tang and would not recognize it. But he
drew the line at the sombrero. to which
his host had taken a great fancy. He had
worn it before her!
Later in the evening Dick was sitting on
the low veranda Of the cafe. overlooking
the white road. A round white table was
beside him, his feet were on the railing.
put his eyes were resting beyond on the
nigh moldy iron gates of the mysterious
park What he was thinking of did not
matter but he was a little impatient at
the sudden appearance of his host-whom
ne had evaded during the afternoon-at his
slde me mans manner was full of burst
ing loquacity and mysterious levity
Truly 1t was good hour when Dick had
arrived at Fontonelles-"just in time" He
could see now what world of imbeciles
was France. What stupid Ignorance ruled
what low cunning and low tact could
achieVe-in effect, what cretans and monte
banks, hypocritical priests and ucentious
and lying noblesse made up existing So
ciety. All, there had been a fine excite
ment, a regular coup d'theater at Fon
tonelies; at the chateau yonder here at the
village, where the news was brought by
frightened grooms and silly women. He
mad been in the thick of 1t all the after
noon! He had examined it-interrogated
them like a JUICE Construction, sifted it.
And what was it all? An attempt by these
wretched priests and noblesse to revive
In the nineteenth century-the age of cleo
tricity and Pullman cars-a miserable me-
diaeval legend of an apparition-a miracle,
yes one Is asked to believe that at the
chateau yonder was seen last night three
times the apparition of Armand de Fon-
tonelles!"
DICK started. Armand de Fontonellesr'
He remembered that she had repeated that
name Who's he?" he demanded abruptly
The first Comte de Fontonelles, When
monsieur knew that the first comte had
been dead 300 years-he would see the i'm
becility of the AFFAIR."
Wot did he come back for?" growled
Dick.
"Ah. 1t was legend Consider its art
fulness! The Comte Armand had been a
hard liver, dissipated scoundrel, a reck-
less beast, but mighty hunter of the stag
1t was said that on one of these occasions
ne mad been warned by the appartion of
st. Hubert, but he had laughed, for OBJ
serve, he always jeered at the priests too,
hence this story; and had declared that the
naming cross seen between the horns of the
sacred stag was only the torch of a
poacher, and he would shoot it. Good.
The body of the comte, dead. but without
wound, was found in the wood the next
day, with his discharged arquebus in his
hand. The archbishop of Rouen refused his
body the rites of the church, until num-
Der of masses were said every year and
paid for! One understands! One sees their
little game The count now appears-he
Is in purgatory-more masses-more money!
There you are. Ball. One understands
too that the affair takes place-not in a
cafe like this-not in a public place-but at
a chateau of the noblesse, and is seen by
the proprietor checked the characters on
his fngerS-"two retainers, one young
demoiselle of the noblesse, daughter of the
chatelaine herself, and-my faith! 1t goes
without saying, by a fat priest-the cure