The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1900-03-17
The Yellow Salon



TT WAS q very elegant apartment,
large, solemn and stately. To be
sure, the yellow satin hangings were
family faded in streaks, like the golden
'tresses of beauty past her prime, and
the ornate gliding had lost some of its
rich bloom and luster, like young
girl's cheek when time has touched it.
There had been time when the vel
low salon was filled every night with
the fashion and wit of Paris, and great
affairs had been settled there-the fate
of kingdoms and the rewards and pun
iishment of famous men.
But that was long ago, and dull and
uneventful enough the present seemed
by contrast, though it boosted it's oc-
casional exciting episodes, as when but
a few short summers since the young
count, just home from Africa, had
brought her pretty Cousin Alike in
there and declared his love for her in
words as fiery as the skies beneath
which he had been fighting for the
honor of France.
She was lovely girl, was Alixe-tall
and slim and graceful with dreamy
dark eyes, and hair as yellow as the
satin hangings of the salon whose fas-
fidious occupants had always liked her,
by the way, ever since she first came
from the convent a poor, penniless
little orphan girl, to live with her
sgrand-aunt, the old countess.
They approved of her thoroughly;
her grace and sweetness and her aris-
tocratic carriage all marked her nnmis-
takably as belonging to the old nobil-
ity. they told each other, and when
the little love affair whose beginnings
they had all watched and commented on
with SO much interest, finally cnl.
minated in the counts arowal in their
very presence, their delight knew nc
bounds.
With what loving care had the drap-
cries of the windowed recess drawn
close about the youthful pair lest some
less .affec!ionate eye than theirs should
see their innocent raptures- The great
gilt mirror had held their graceful
forms in shadowy embrace, the EN-
derness and pride of which they littL.
suspected, and when the lovers finally
seated themselves. locked in each 9th
er's arms, on a slender Louis Quatorze
sofa, that impressionable piece of fur
nituTe had groaned so LOUD from SYM
pathy las to brighten them away into
the garden, much to the disgust of the
other interested spectators.
Something Lad happened a day or
two after this, they never knew Just
what, though, of course, they had all
had a guess at it. But whatever il WAS,
the consequences were serious enough.
The youny'count had gone off to Amer
lea in a hurry; the old countess, his
grandmother, had had severe illness
from which she had not even we. en-
tirely recovered, and during the years
that had ensued the grea, room had
been wrapped in gloom and silence
through w'hich pretty Alike wandered
sadly like a graceful, girlish ghost.
They were talking about it for the
thousandth time one sunny spring
morning when an astonishing thing &C.
curred-something so unprecedented
they wouldn't have been more surprised
il the earth had opened and swallowed
them up.
The yellow saxon was the scene of an
invasion! Not of armed warriors-that
would not have been so astounding. for
such thing had happened more than
once in the history of the ancient apart
ment-but an invasion OF servants, at
least dozen of them. with buckets and
brooms and mops and polishers, and
they gave the yellow salon such a scrub
bing and securing as it had never known
before.
The visitation lasted all day long.
and it was quite dark when all was over
and the great room was left once more
TO its aristocratic repose.
s'syhew!" exclaimed fat sofa cush-
ion. putting out its shining satin cheek
at the recollection. IN not forget that
beating jacques gave me in hurry.
I'D like to give it back to him. the /
bcast!"
Pooh, you couldn't hurt fly, you're
so soft-hearted," said a table, whose
slender legs with difAculty supported
shining marble slab. But tell you