The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1899-02-03
THE LIONS CLAW.

Lieutenant Julien de Rho had returned
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 bracing climate"
So in mid November Julien sat ut his
sunny window in Hotel Garderes gazing
at the Pyrenees and smoking a cigarette
in honor of his recovery.
My faith! Pau is full of pretty wom
en-, he said to himself the first time he
went to listen to the military band at the
Place Royale. Neither lihertine nor fop,
tho young follow 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 tho buttonhole-the
rosette his mother had laid on his bed
WIN he was SO Ill, and that he thought
lC Y. ouid only wear in his ccflin.
How jolly Pau was anyhow, with its
vast horizon, its snowy peaks, its brilliant
sun, the cosmopolitan crowd, where pretty
foreigners chatted all the languages of Eu
rope like tropic birds in an aviury! A few
sad sights to be sure-the consumptiTC
young Englishman in bath chair, wrap
ped in plaids, with the eyes of boiled
fish. black taffeta muller over his mouth
1t gave one shiver, yot-man is so selfish
it made Julien remember what skele.
ton no 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
American girls in fyaway frocks and
black gloves and stockings, dancing u
"ring around rosy" to the bands quick
step.
Just the frame of mind for falling in
love, wasn't it? This tho happy conva-
lescent proceeded to do the first time he set
eyes on Mile. Olga Babrinc, the belle Of
the Russian colony, as she dismountcd in
front Of Hotel Gasson-the coup dc foudre,
in fact. Back from fox hunting one even
ing at 8, sho had Slipped from her horse
into the arms of tho nimblest Of the pink
colored adorers who rushed for her stirrup.
Striking tho veranda table with her crop,
she had called for a cup of milk and drank
it off at draft. Looking like II Primat-
ticcio goddess, her slim figure and copper
colored hair illuminated by tho flaring
sunset, sho paused, laughing mcrrily, q
creamy mustacho on her upper lip. Sud
denly grave, with Il curt, imperious nod,
she left the redcoats and entered the hotel
tapping her riding habit with her whip.
Three days later, after many "Who is
she? 1 must know hertz to his acquaipt-
ances, Julien got himself introduced-not
a difficult process - and joined the fair
Russian court.
Was she Russian, after all, this intoxi
eating creature, who rodo all day and
waltzed all night? Yes, by her putative
father, her mothers first husband, Count
Babarine
But every ono remembered that at the
timo of Olga's birth her mother-the
daughter, by tho way, of n New York
banker named .Jacobson-was getting q
divorce, probably on account of her notori-
Gus liaison with u northern prince royal,
some Christian, CT Oscar, or other. What
was the nationality Of n child brought up
successfully in Scottish nursery, IL Nea-
politan convent, Il Gencvan pen3ionnat,
who had slept half her nights on the cush-
ions of tho express, whose memory was q
stereoscope in which revolved IA series Of
watering places and winter resorts, with
or her mother, handsome still in spite of
erysipclas, had carried the ennui of fad.
ing coquettc along with her samovar and
her pet monkeys? The odd girl used to
say, laughing at herself: Il am neither of
London nor of Paris nor of Vienna nor Of
Petersburg. I'm Of the table 'hote."
Had she any family? Hardly moro So
Her real father the Oscar or Christian SO
often referred to by Mime. Babarine, had
been dead some years, and the Russian
count, her legal father, never bothered his
head about her. Utterly bankrupt, civil
liZed Leather Stocking, who won all the
pigeon matches, his unerring gun gave
him living. The countess, in spite of
periodical attacks of maternal devotion
painfully hollow-was gifted with ono of
tho perfect, absolute, spherical cgotisms
that never show flaw. When Olga at
had almost died of typhoid, Nine. Babarine
of tho white hands-for tho sake of de-
cency sitting up with her child-did not
once forget to put on her giants gras.
All this Do Rhe learned after enlisting
in the flying squadron that Unanswered
about fair Olga. He began to love the
strange girl, who let him look straight into
her eyes, and who said to him as she lit a
pheresli cigarette the day friend present.
ed him: "Ahl You arc the man who is so
much in love with mel How do you dor"
giving him hearty handshakc, like a
man. The sailor, true hearted follow that
he was, loved her tho more as he grew to
understand and pity her. For he was
right-Olga was fantastic, ill brought up,
but neither flirt nor snob. Feeling per-
haps the vanity of her life of pleasure, she
Judged and that severely, her fox hunting
adorers and her cotillon partners. All de-
sired her; none esteemed her; not one had
10 how p