Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1898-09-22
THE LIONS CLAW
An End-of-the-Century Love Story.
BY FRANCOIS c0PpEE.
1EUT. JULIEN DE RHE had re

7 IEUT. JULIEN DE RHE had re-
turned from his station in Cochin
China. Convalescent, after three
months illness at his mothers home
In Touraine, he shivered at the first
wintry breath in the autumn air, and
was ordered by the doctor to Pau:
"Just what you want-mild but brac-
ing climate"
So in mid-November Julien sat at
his sunny window in Hotel Garderes,
gazing at the Pyrenees and smoking
cigarette in honor of his recovery.
''My faith! Pau is full of pretty
women" he said to himself, the first
time he went to listen to the military
band at the Place Royale. Neither
libertine nor fop, the young fellow
thrilled with a fresh joy in living as
he put on his coat with its shining
three straps, the rosette of the Legion
OF Honor In the button-hole-the ros-
cite his mother had laid on his bed
when he was so i'll, and that he thought
he would only wear in his coffin.
How jolly Pau was, anyhow, with
its vast horizon, its snowy peaks, its
brilliant sun, the cosmopolitan crowd,
where pretty foreigners chartered all
the languages of Europe, like tropic
birds in an aviary. A few sad sights,
to be sure-the consumptive young
Englishman in a bath chair, wrapped
in plaids, with the eyes of boiled
fish, q black taffeta muffler over his
mouth. 1t gave one a SILVER, yet
man is so selfish-it made Julien re-
member what a skeleton he had been
three months ago, with chocolate rings
under his eyes and here he was cured,
tossing silver coins to the beggars
and watching the hearty little Amer
lean girls in fy-away white frocks
and black gloves and stockings, dane
ing "ring-around-a-rosy to the
bands quickstep.
just the frame of mind for falling in
love, wasn't it? Which the happy con-
valescent proceeded to do the first time
he set eyes on Mile Olga Babarine.
the belle of the Russian colony, as
she dismounted in front of Hotel Gas
son--the coup de foudre, in fact. Back
from fox-hunting one evening at five,
she had slipped from her horse into the
arms of the nimblest of the pink-coat-
ed aGorers who rushed for her stirrup.
Striking the veranda table with her
crop, she had called for a cup of milk.
and drank it off at draught. Look
ing like Primaticcio goddess, her
slim figure and copper-colored hair
Illuminated by the flaring sunset, she
paused, laughing merrily, a creamy
mustache ON her short upper lip. Sud-
denly grave. with a curt, imperious
nod, she left the red-coats and entered
hpr oh "a
with her whip.
Three days later, after man, Who
Is she? I must know her!" to his &C
quaintances, Julien got himself intro
.duced-not a difficult process-and
Joined the fair Russians court.
Was she Russian, after all, this in
toxicating creature, who rode all day
and waltzed all night? Yes, by her
putative father, her mothers first hus-
band, Count Babarine.
But everyone remembered that at
the time of Olga's birth. her mother
the daughter, by the way, of New
York banker named Jacobson-was
getting divorce, probably on &C
count of her notorious haison with a
northern prince-royal, some Christian,
or Oscar, or other. What was the
nationality of child brought up sue
cessivsIy in a Scottish nursery, Nea-
politan convent, a Genevan pensionnat 4
who had slept half her nights on the
cushions Of the express, whose mem
ory was a stereoscope in which re-
yoived a series of wateringplacesa and
winter resorts, whittier her mother,
handsome still in spite of erysipelas,
had carried the ennui of fading CO.
uuette along with, her samovar and her
net MONKEYS? The odd girl used to
saw, laughing at herself: II am neither
of London, nor of Paris, nor of Vienna.
nor of Petersburg-Tm of the table
,d'hotei"
Had she any family? Hardly more
no. Her real father, the Oscar or
Christian, so often referred to by Nine.
Rabarine. had been dead some years,
and the Russian count, her legal IA
+her. never bothered his head about
her. Utterly bankrupt, a civilized
Understanding, who won at all
pipeon-matches, his unerring gun gave
him living. The countess, in spite of
periodical attacks of maternal devo-
tion-painfully hollow-was gifted
with one of the perfect, absolute,
spherical egotisms that never show a
flow; when Olga at eight had almost
,Gied of typhoid, Nine. Barbarine, of
the white hands-for the sake of de-
-cency sitting up with her child-did
not once forget to put on her giants
.gras.
All this De Rhe learned after en-
listing in the flying squadron that ma
neuvered shout fair Olga. He began to
love the strange girl who let him look
.atrairhf into her eyes. and who said