The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1898-03-08
TON DEvINE. the cobbler, pushed

Il up MS Spectacles and gave me O
whimsical glance.
"It's GURUS" he remarked, cts GU
rus what a difference it makes to a
mans family how he is put out of the
worldi Hang him, and his folks feel
disgraced forever; cut off his head with
guillotine, and"
The old man made a flourish with
his head, as though the matter were
one for serious congratulation.
'Leastways," he added, returning to
his mending again. that's the way
some folks think. Lord. how set up
N. Lafitte was about it, to be sure, and
al on account of an ancestor of his who
happened TO lose his head on the scat
fold with Louis XVII
who was NJ. LATTE? Well. he was
a Frenchnan who once took lodoin's
on the upper floor of this house, an old
ramsbackle affair now, but once a man
sion, as you can see, and rs fashionable
a street as there was in London
$50 / have heard" asserted.
The Frenchman," he continued.
was man somewhere about GO years
OF age, tall and stiff in his bearing: and
though his clothes were worn and shah
by-lookin', his linen, / noticed, was neat
ard tidy, and as white as snow"
bloomsbury said he, when had
showed him the room-Tm the care
taker of the building, you see, sir-'ees
IA respectable quataire of the city.
ees it not SO, MeeSter Concierge?'
More than respectable, mossoo,'
said I, a trifie tartly. 1T was once a
fashionable part of London
He sighed as he looked about the
room.
"'Eet win do. Meester Concierge
he would always call me that, sir,
though 1 told him time and again it
wasn't my name-'eet will do for the
praisant,' with flourish of his white
hand. as though the next month would
find him in Park Lane; and so he en-
gagged the room, and paid for it in adj
vance
I'm few hours they moved in-him.
his sick wife. his daughter, Mile. JUS
tine. and Polly, as cunning parrot as
i ever see
Purity? Well, 1 don't know. For
a foreigner ma'm'selle might hev been
called purity. She was a slight little
thing, with great hig eyes, and long
eyelashes throwing deep shadders into
'em like grasses into brook"
He cleared his throat and spread his
hands. as though the matter of looks
vas of no consequence
''But, Lopi." he exclaimed with sud-
den animation, chow she could sing!
Cay songs, too, in French and Eve
Italian, with sometimes an English bal
lad or SO. Why, sir" giving the boot a
tremendous whack, there was fortin'
IN her voice, fortin' as big as PATHS;
and only for the fact of that precious
ancestor of hers a-losin' of his head on
the scaffold with Louis XVI. she'd a
made it, too. as easy as-that,r giving
the boot another wback.
but the mossool How stiff he did
draw himself up, to be sure, at the
very mention of it.
Understand me-" the cobbIer ex-
planned, lit wasn't out of any ofiicious
medtllecomeness that 1 first suggested
the thing to him. No; it wasn't till he
was behindhand in his rent, and his
poor eyes-he was a diamond cutter.
you see. sir, and sat all day with his eye
glued to a glass-was giving out, that
| thought of some way in which ma M
Selle could help him better than by en-
broidering.
The day the diamond got lost, my,
how they did go on thought the
II
see. there was the old lady moaning,
and ma'm'selle and mossoo n-turnin'
everything topsy-turvy in the room.
What diamond?' says /. wonderin
if they all had gone crazy, and then
between the old lady and her husband
found that she had been more ailing
than usual that day, and in one OF his
journeys from his bench to the bed,
a-waitin' on her, he had lost the dia-
nsond he was cuttin', en- extry large and
fine one.
High and low We searched for il. in
every crack and corner. The bedding
the old rug, everything was shook out
"'Twas no use, though, and finally
we give it up; and what was worse. OF
course the poor gentleman had to make
il up. 1t was tough, can tell YOU, for
at the best of times they only about
made ends meet.
Il thought of ma'm'selle's voice, rare
enough to bring a guinea for every
note, but thanks to that aristocrai
whose head had tumbled on the same
plank with Louis XVI.'s, daren't men
ton it.