Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-05-25
OH A pTER w


Comte de Lacaze, was seated i'll small
room at the left of the main Office OF
that world renowned and excellentlv
conducted sheet, the Figaro Outside
the walls were hung with photographs
of celebrities newly arrived in the gay
capital. A bronze bust of Nillcmessant
the Fignro's illustrious founder, stood
in conspicuous corner Two livcricd
servants passed to and fro, carrying
missives from patient crowd of adver-
Users persons DESTROYS of registering
complaints, seekers for place and divers
small boys in buttons, who awaited in
the vcstibulo their turn to see the man
aging editor.
Inside, the Count de Lacaze cursed
the weather, nibbled his highly polish
ed nails, and yawncd undisguiscdly.
For the fftioth time that morning he
realized how much more than usual he
was down on his luck.
Tho Count de Lacaze was fond Of
saving that, We're the republic an en-
pire, he would be, at the present day,
instead of languiShing i'll durance vile
as reporter on the Figaro at 400 francs
a month, enjoying the hunt with his
satellites at Rambouillet, giving cha
teau parties in Touraine or gambling
furtively with few kindred souls at
his private baccarat table in his own
magnificent hotel in the Faubourg st.
German. He found means to circulate
pretty generally that he was u great
parsonage wronged. His friends appar-
emily accepted his statement, good hui
moredly batting him on the back fra
ternally when they met him, and bid
ding him have courage, only to smile
wickedly afterward at what they denom-
mated do Lacaze's little delusion, 4"
for, whereas the count related wildly
the history of his great-grandfather $
once superb possessions which their
present heir recounted mournfully TO
have melted away i'll the time of the
revolution like snowfialles before the
sun, his listeners We're masters of the
fact that his ancestors gold had played
q hide and seek game with so called
honor on the green baize tables of Monte
Carlo and Baden Baden both before and
long after the date he mentioned
The door opened, and young man
entered dressed in the height of fash
ion. An eyeglass was gripped spasmod-
ically within the recalcitrant muscles
which surrounded the faded blue of his
congested orb. a fancy walking stick
with a heavily carved knob, pair Of
immaculate spats, which pronounced
their wearer blood of the first water
and a general air of the Paris gommeux
Of the present generatiOn--cOmplcted
the picture. This scion Of a noble house
seated himself on the arm of a chair,
removed his immaculate tile from his
overhcated brow, and for several in
stants silently sucked the inoffensive
knob of his cane His eyes We're fixed
inquiringly and a trihe humorously
upon the frowning countenanco of tho
little rooms unhappy occupant.
Then he proceeded to light a ciga-
rette, and having glided from the arm
of his chair down into its luXuriously
cushioned leather seat he remarked
with perhaps superfiuous cheerfulncss:
well, old man, what are you going
to do about it?''
1t may not be inconsiderate to explain
that the aforesaid nobleman had in Il
moment of unguarded sympathy three
months before loaned to his detected
friend the reporter count" as he was
known among his sporting contempora-
ries, Il large sum of that filthy lucre
man or woman is considered so insig-
nitiCant without in the worlds eyes,
and so disproportionately significant arc
they so lucky as to be born with its
flashing promise il their minis.
The night before at world renOwn-
ed club-a club which contained a pri-
waite room in which fortunes werp made
and lost and with greater rapidity
than on the New York Stock Exchange
the little duke, he of the spats and
the knobbed cane and the eyeglass, had
looked his last upon his louis and had
realized in the night hours which in
French parlance are said TO "carry good
counsel, " his reporter count friend 5 alb
solute inability to make good to him q
very serious loss, The duke had there
fore concluded to beard tho lion in his
den. That the lion had tho appearance
of a shorn lamb that had spent a hid.
oous night on the bald hillside of de-
spair was to tho little duke matter Of
the most profound Indifference He pro-
posed to have his money by fair means
or foul. Debts of n like nature were
"dcbts of honor" no had only few
moments ago remarked piously to a
friend to whom he had confided the en-
tire lamentablo occurrence. If De LacaZe
had not "the decency to realize his OBJ
legations the duke proposed to remind
him that in aristOCratic circles such
debts were won't to be considered dis
grace did their aSsumcrs not appreciate
the responsibility their appropriation
involved.
Patience, began the Comto Georges
Adolphe Baradat do Lacazo feebly. II
will pay you when can look about mo
and realize where | stand
The duke laughed cynically.
mo need to look around, mon
vieuX, " said he, with fine smile "You
will find nothing, / can offer but ono
suggestion, That is either to blow out
your brains or wed an American neir-
ess. "
1.-THE first suggestion is concise and
not devoid Of your usual bad tasto Tho
second is impossible. "
How impossih!e?"
De Lacaze shrugged his shoulders.
They were narrow and trife bent.
4.