El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-03-17
THE BEAUTY PATCH F.:
BY RICHARD oMONRoY.
A RAILWAY COMEDY.

BY RICHARD OMONROY. 3
| The Saint-Lazare station is gay sta
ton in the heart of the city, stones
| throw from the Opera and the boule-
| ward, five minutes from the Champs
| Elysees, 20 minutes from the Bots de
Boulogne. In the waiting room, the
| Hall of the Lost Footsteps, lined up
| before the booking Offices or seeking
QUEEN devorent, there are always lot
of pretty girls with extravaga1tly yell
| low hair crowned by marvellous hats.
They walk down the Rue d'Amster-
dam. their noses in the air, striking the
high heels and generally carrying
small leather bags, supposed to give
them a countenance. What a counte-
nance! Hence trips to Saint German
or Versailles, starting from the above
mentioned gay station, are true pleas
ure trips.
Yesterday l was obliged to go to Yer
sailles. and. profiting by my experience
in garrison there for several years
I strolled up and down, in no haste to
choose my compartm The railway
carriages standing high above the lev
ell of the platform, the women paSsen-
gers have to practice regular gymnas-
tics to get aboard, and there are, there
fore, all sorts of picturesque sights to
be seen, not to speak of services to be
rendered For the latter purpose the
best thing to do is to stand opposite
the revolving platforms. They make
the steps at least foot higher-enough
to make one quite dizzy climbing in. /
was on the lookout for 4 pretty fellow
traveller. l might even say that 1 had
the emDarra sSment of choosing. 1t al
most looks as if the Western company
has the monopoly of COOL looking ticket
holders. But. alas! Not one of them
was alone. Naturally I avoided cavalry
officers; they all go to the terminus of
the line. The infantry add to the
chances of Il tete-a-tete, for they gen
orally get off at COurbevoie, ST Cloud
or Vile d Array. AS to the artillery
that's Il risk to run. There is a battery
1T Suresnes. but there are two rcgf-
ments 1T Versailles as we'll
| was at this stage of perDleXity
when. in one of the last of the first
class compartments, l caught sight Of
pretty brunette-to be classified
among the piQuante brunettes-veIvety
eyes. fringed with long lasheS n faint
ly Swallowed upper lip and above the
left corner of the mouth-a souvenir of
bygone century-l dainty little black
patch that our gallant ancestors would
have called killing. She wore a maize
colored bengaline bodice, trimmed with
guipure. ON her head was perched a
big hat with outspread white wings
that made her look like Il vaIkyrie-
but Il gay, not Il warlike one. Beside
her was seated Il large. elderly gentle
man, with big mustacheS, Il decoration
in his buttOnhoIe. He had a military
air and imposing eyebrows and was
reading the paper. But, from time to
time. he raised suspicious eyes on her
the eyes of proprietor defending his
husband. evidently.
| got into the carriage and sea ted my
self discreeuy opposite the pair, but
iii the far corner. Although | had
made Il slight bow on entering. | did
not have the good fortune to claim the
ladNS attention. She seemed preoccu-
pied and kept her head out of the Win
dow. as if she We're expecting some |
one. The muStached gentleman, how
ever, returned my bow most politely |
He was no doubt obliged to me for |
having left the seat opposite him unoc- |
cupied. At the moment the train was |
handsome blond young fell
low. carrying Il brief case under his
arm. spran@ inside breathlesS!y He
rapidly exchanged Il smile Of intelli-
gence with the lady and then sat down
her. knee to knee.
Look sharp" said to myself This
is going to turn ont Interesting"
Naturally the big elderly man, alb
sorbed in his paper. had noticed moth
ing. The whistle sounded the train
started. and the fair young man, no
ioubt to appear occupied. began to
urn the leaves of the volUminous doc |
lmcnt in the leather case. But every
low and then he raised his eyes, ant
hen 1t was easy to see that the lady
With the patch smiled at him imper-
'eptibly. 1t would have been impossi-
BE to be more imprudcnt. and this lit
lie maneuVeI, barely concealed. ran y
,reat risk of being discovered by the
nan with the terrible eyebrows
Ny soul is instinctively lenient to hui
nan Weaknesses, and at the bottom of
ny heart I always find n secret pleas |
ire on learning that the corporation of
husbands counts one more victim. So
IS far as was possible 1 decided to
ONE to the assistance of the sweet