Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1899-01-04


she drank English ''portaires, dark
cost of a franc.
The professor drained his glass and
lit the cieair-end which he had allow.
ed TO die out.
"phis place is very warm" he said;
'the gas is indeed sitting. If | could
indu"e monsieur, whose conversation
fills me with in terest, to allow me tc
offer him such hospitality as my
mean lodging will afford?"
Monsieur is too amia'ble." The
commercial traveller threw away his
cigarette and followed the pro-
fessor, who shuffled out into the
street.
1t began to rain; the leaden cutters
began to drip, and the great drops
from the sky rebounded from the
lodges into the abysmal depths OF the
old Flemish street below. The COM
merciai traveller buttoned over his
chest the feeble defense of the thread
bare frock-coat and strobe after hi1
retreating guide.
A corner, turning into a stin mar
rover by-way, hid the professor from
sight, and his guest found him cow.
ering under the drip-stone of the
doorway of a majestic old house in
its decay. The professor pulled again
and again at the creaking bell-wire.
A lesser door opened in the side OF the
greater one, and, with a grave bow
to his guest, the professor led the
way up the great staircase, instinc-
lively avoiding a broken step. AT the
foot of the great carved rail of the
| balustrade squatted a little wooden
lion. NJ. Lefevre laid kindly hand
upon the head as he mounted the
stairs, patting it as if it were a stray
dog. Poor beast" he murmured,
"lost in strange century"
They were mounting by a dark and
narrow back staircase, past floor
after floor of closed doorways.
MANY of these rooms have no
lodgers," said the professor, because
the dry-rot has been there so long,
and one would not desire to disap-
pear suddenly through the floor of
ones room like Arlequin through the
trap-door."
The professor chuckled grimly as
he inserted a large key and pushed
open the door of room. They were
in the tallest gable of the house, and
after stumbling up the dark stairs
the room seemed very light.
The guest sat down in the chair by
the window, and the host pulled aside
the white curtain of the alcove and
seated himself on the edge of the bed;
the walls were bare, but for the place
where the professor had nailed up
penciled scheme of the hours of his
classes and pupils. The floor was
bare of carpet, in one corner was a
pile of newspapers-theI Independence
Beige, the Petit Journal-and in this
strange company a heap of the Eng
lish Times, its stout, respectable pa.
per and clear type protesting against
the association. Besides these was a
tattered assemblage of novels, many
of them having been rebound by the
simple expedient of a piece of string
tied round their bodies. A squad Of
empty jars ranged themselves in
double file in the shadow of the oppo-
site corner; a blackened nk-bottle
lurked by the fireplace in ambush
behind a number of old boots, now
in the last stages of sha bbiness.
An old walnut table, with a tea.
cup and a toba cco-jar, completed the
furniture of the chamber. Absolute.
ly nothing more, save what might lie
in the recesses of a large cupboard.
And a man had lived here thirty
years.
Zone obtains quiet here" said the
professor, "a silence which encour.
ages meditation. No one else on this
floor, which you will have noticed to
your cost, is the seventh. No one but
the wind"
THE view from the window il in
deed charming" said the guest, po-
litely, turning in his chair.
IF monsieur will stand. at this
side" said the professor, coming for.
ward to the light. she will see the
patch of sands uncovered beyond the
harbor."
! NJ. Lefevre stood up and gazed at
the distant sea, and the black speck.
with long trail of smoke, which was
a steamer that would lie tomorrow
morning in the London docks. When
: he saw that he sighed little.
Old NJ. Durand was hobbling back
from the cupboard, with a yellow
and well-thumbed number Of the
Times.
There is something here" he said
indicat ting, with a trembling fore
finger, a paragraph surrounded by
ink-lines.
The other took it; his curiosity wa.
excited by the evident agitation of VI
Durand. "Why, this is a Times Of
seventy" he said, with the news OF
Sedan!" and his eye fell on the mark
ed paragraph. 1t related the detail.
of society wedding-the wedding Of
a certain Sir Edmund Frockmor:on
with Christine Mountjoy.
He threw the paper suddenly to the
floor and turned to the professor
with white lips: THAT was the wo
man but who are you TO give me
again this cursed newspaper, that ]
read and wept over twenty years
ago?"
He was speaking English now. and
when the professor spoke. he. too
used that tongue, speaking slowly
with a foreign accent
II thought it might be news &c
you" he said; cit is not every one
abroad who has his English paper.
regularly. Aud you don't know me2'
And he struck a match suddenly. and
lighted two candles ne had placed ON
the table.
The other looked long at him, and
said: 81 do not know you, but before
| go l shall know who has used q
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