Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-05-25
CIIAPTER V.

to their complete satisfaction"
CHAPTER V.
The Pension Picaud, with its stale,
bouillOn scented corridors, narrow and
dark, its musty salon, its slippery par
quet floors and ornaments under glass,
its tiny piano rented by the month at
10 francs aud its bedrooms whose win
dows overlooked dingy courts black as
ErebuS, rooted, among its other board
ers, three maiden ladies who were
known to their long suffering if merci-
less fellow boarders as 1.-THE World the
Flesh and the Devil.
Six wears before the Misses Bigbee
had come to Paris from Bangor, Me-
and had elected to throw in their preiu-
dice with the hard lines of their COM
patriots who frequent foreign shores for
culture and learning and neglect per-
sonal adornment, home ordinances aud
individual dignity in the process, for
between lights they lend their tongues
to the discussion of unworthy littleness
concerning their neighbors affairs, thus
exemplifying unconsciously that strange
y
pensions, Of the weary physical &.gen-
GRAFTON rather than amolioration under
an unwisoly administered treatment of
art too strcnuously absorbed, plus econ
omy of congenial company too sternly
ignored.
Sophrunia Bigbee was called the
World. She was busy porpetually oc-
cupied little spinster, who knew to
dot every omnibus line in Paris, con-
corning which she never hcsitated ox-
haustively to enlighton newcomers,
willing or unwilling She had also mas
tered the difficult if insignificant oucs-
tons Of when and how to administer fees,
what TO see and how TO see it. She
spent her evenings. after having poured
out record Of the days doings at table,
recounting them to the boardcrS, who
frequcnGd the dingy salon in order to
economic in light and fire in their own
bedrooms, securing the newspapers for
the free exhibitions to be opened to the
public the following day, and usually
retired early, so az to rise with the lark
for the forthcoming campaign.
Miss Catherine Bigbee, whose pseu-
donym was the Flesh, was superla-
lively corpulent parsonage, carrying a
gentle dignity in the wag Of her good
natured head, which head was sur
mounted by n frontispiece which. its
owner fondly believed, so closely re-
sembled natures hirsute adornment
that nobody suspected its counterfeit
presentmcnt's undeniable infidelitv to
any hair III color or texture ever fash
Toned before or since, happily, on land
or sea. Her pale eyes We're placid and
furtive. Her plump hands were invari-
ably folded over that portion of her
anatomy which was presumed to con-
tain her digestive organs Her tongue
was mild echo Of her moro active sis
ter's pcregrinations-a course Of things
which never failed to annoy Miss So
phronia to very pcrceptible extent.
Miss Sophronia and Miss Catherine,
however, were tolerahly good friends,
whereas the third sister, well named
the Devil, was their proclaimed back
bitter and enemy, to the intense amuse-
ment of every member of the pension
and the DEVILS own unmtigated salts
faction.
Miss Penelope Bigbce, in Bangor,
Ne, some 30 years before had been
known as "the beautiful Miss Bigbce."
Then tall and slender, she was now
skinny and spare Then fine featured
and delicate, she was now tho epitome
of knife blade ancestry as to physi-
ognomy. Hor countenancc, too, was i'm.
prognatod with Il contemptuous sheer.
which, in her palmy days, had been
designated as carrying the indelible i'm
press Of the Bigbee pride.
Today all that remained of that afore-
said pride was IL pitiful record of incar.
nate spitefulness which never lost an
opportunity to flash forth from Miss
Penelopo's lips at the smallest provoca-
ton, cutting like a two edged sword
both ways as 1t marched on its trium-
, plant way She had large following Of
persons who had not the courage Of
their convictions, but who took every
suspicious occasion to rejoice openly in
IA person who had the courage of theirs
and her own. They regarded Miss Pc
nclOpo's uttorances as proof of rare
strength of character in telling tho
truth, Of undeniable perspicacity in
roofing out and exposing fraud, and
they laughed shrilly over her so called
witticisms which, had her followers
been wise enough to discern it, were
very inadequate attempts at that sort of
accomplishment indeed.
! Mime. Picaud was the widow Of
diplomat, At least so she advertised
herself in the newspapers in the col
umns which were most likely to fall
under the eyes Of gullible foreigners in
search Of French family which COM