The Virginia enterprise., 1900-06-08
| ROMANCE OF CONFETTI,

IL NUlIlllllUL vi UUluLlI.
'Confound the confetti! I've swal-
lowed about half Il pound We shall find
the things sticking to our clothes for
months"
Yes; they're small but insdious You
have no idea of the mischief one of these
scraps of paper can do
| The speakers were two frcsh-colored,
good-looking Englishmen, wearing light
| overcoats and dress clothes, and drinking
their after-dinner coffee outside cafe at
Cannes.
1t was 9:3O on an evening in the be-
ginning of February Two days earlier
| they had left their native London, an.
klt;,1decp ln;,op in Slush and dirty snow, and
velled III sulphurous fog; here, Ill favored
cannes, they sat beneath a sapphire sky,
hccked with diamond stars, and watched
tne carnival maskers in their gay cos
tunes of stuff or satin, dancing upon the
asphalt which surrounded the band XII
osque, ana even plrouetting gayly upon
the open road.
AL around them was life and color.
laughter and movement, the sound of
many languages intermingled in gay ban
ter, the democratic jostIing of i'ierots
and Plerettcs in satin with white-capped
market women. townsfolk in cheap and
gaudy dominos, and tweed-clad tourists
armed with guide books and kodaks.
10 Norton, the younger Of the two
men,, the scene had the charm of entire
novelty. At the battle of confetti, earlier
III the day, he had exhausted himself
ny TWO hours and IL half of confetti
tnIoWlns under blazing sun, and now,
lngly complaining of the confetti which
passersDy every now and then cast in
the faces of the two friends over their
coffee '~''
Fleming, the elder of the two, and the
one one NV. VINO complained of the mischief
,i;uai1g nl;akihg capabilities of the little paper
MISSILES was rich and independent. and
spent his time in perpetual travel. Car
nlvais were nothing new to him, and as
a, rule he avoided them, but this sDr;nr
tne fancy had taken him to revisit
Salines III the company of his relative
t1toltoli, ana now, as he sat watching the
cancers under the palm trees in the star
! night, the spirit moved him to be conf
dential ~ W conn-
re ut cigarette and blew slowly mn
INTO the night air. \ curious wiStfni,
ness passed into his gray eyes, and soft
eheu the lines Of his mouth under tho
c'c::SIt!y-trlmmed ::It RIM golden-brown musta che.
ten years ago, almost in this identical
snot, had the happiness of NV life
ruiz ruined fe1t', BY one of these same mischievous
Ill, hlS companions round blue eyes grew
iounuer still! in amazement.
claimed ~" "eious! ne eX-
,+ha. dt was as. night like this" went on the
other' only it seems to mo that the
1tats Par were brighter, the music was ioI-
llei, , the tun more spontaneous. Mini
oais oM say seems Probably the falling
MT
stars and the fun. | am fivn1ond' "nH th;..ss ,.e
now NOW, l was was fve-and-twenty then. Thers
was girl on my arm-snch ~ nelc ,
seemed to me-! 4 little, SOFT t ro,gd giri fa she
In IKE peach; lips made for kisses AaI. aui
."'shter,, 10. .;f, and a figure as 1.-the and lipht
o "ro W M''l9W branch: l know NV similes
are, are o!d, but | can't find words ,en to tel1
you what she was like to me- Yov ~ saa .ea'
| wife" anu sne was my
1our wife, Norton reneatod :,
,lon1shment. LON why, | never Know ~ rn, as,
i1'u 7 a., peen married. Though / remcmhar ur
',+ha nau near there was some romance or
"Oh, there wasn't much ro,n,,oo o,
IT.: Fleming said bitterly. lower;nt, a''GGs but
aolce as laughing party of three m,sh, nts
ei: t0oA uossess on of the seats at .
nMe;ghboring ne table. The Whole tb;na a. on a
~ lasted six weeks.'' 'ns on-
an, ~ ". vie IS dead, then? Old man
.Ihere is no need to be sorry and sho
isn't ISL dead: She simply diyorce,d anu ,ma sue ne
tne ground of incompatibility of temner on
w., T., iieaveh Knows what, according to the
laws OF the state to which she helouus ~ .ne );
Ana where is she now?''
Oh, sne has consoled herself with =
herman baron: Three years avo. bein.
Ieuu ! u,as !'lea a1n OF knocking about the world
go over to America and persuade Mam;o 10
-that was her name-to marry ma oli
over again. You must know she wns % -,
helress, the only child Of a mother =, wh.l hn
sPo;led and idolized her. l met her On
snort visit to the states, and fen in
l' iove with her, and married and brought
don don Uver Uas 10 TO- non1symoon none in Europe. Lon
eoh ~. vas TOO cold and we came to Cannes
TOY the carnival. One night we left her
the fun.'' -'e out ~ STE
\ lady in blue domino who formed
one OF the group of three at the neigh
norlns table turned in her seat and fixed
me gaze OF two bright eyes. shining
through a black velvet mask upon .IacS
Fleming's face
your was VIII
That was the beginning of the mis-
chle1. She insisted upon following us to
Europe in week. As 1 told YOU. we
left her at the hotel and here, under the
palms, l felt my shoulder touched and
Jack! Jack Fleming! Don't you n~e, recoe,
n!ze me? 1t was Ethel Marlborough. an
OLD sweetheart of mine. We were en-
gagged once, but she was such flirt she
drove me half mad, and | broke it off.
She was in a mask and domino, but I
knew her voice in a moment.
Il felt Mamie's grasp tighten on my
arm, and saw her face change. don't
know whether Ethel knew I was mar
ricd. The whole thing had been yery
sudden, and l hope, for her sake, she
didn't. But, just to plague me, she hung
on to my arm, and kept on whispering
about old times, and finally, after I had
broken away, declaring | did not know
her, she slipped scrap of paper into my
pocket and ran away laughing. Mamie
seized it, and never spoke a word until
we got to the hotel. Then, in the pres
was nothing in the world but pink con-
fettl-disc, with the name "Ethel'' written
across it, but it cut short my happiness
most effectively. =
1.-The two women worked themselves
up into a scene; my explanations were
hardly listened to. Mamie was an i'm
pulsive, jealous child of Is, and her
AIotAel lihu always Deeu against the mar
rage. The end Of it waJ that they left
Cannes the next morninSs, and returned
to the states without mt3 l had put it
to Mamie that she must choose between
her mother and me, and she chose her
mother.
'You know the rest. Three years ago
hearing that her mother was dead, I was
starting in search of Mamie, when I
read by chance in an American paper
that the daughter of Commodore Grier-
son (that was the name Of Mamie's faith
er? had just married Baron Ludwig Won
Rlegeithurm. Somehow l had always
been fool enough to hope we might come
together again-which shows, I suppose.
that man doesn't get wiser as he gets
Older" IL ~..~.1@- :. e@s :,
1T must be awfully painful for you. .
Norton said, sympathetically "Were YOU
very fond of her r. s - :
"She is the only woman l ever really
cared straw about, or ever shall care :,
str0lled AWAY. The .litfla In a., IN. 4h1 Il,.a