The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-03-04
(From the French.3

A-lilil, CTieU MADAME, tefSelyt Il am
tired! You are getting old and jealous
Eth, blen, if YOU want a divorce seek 1t as
soon as YOU please" And having fired
this parting shot. she banged the boudoir
door after her departing husband. who a
few seconds later slammed the hall one
in reply.
Feiicite Deforges listened until the
angry reverberations had died away. AMI
then catching sight of her pretty face
in mirror opposite, shock her spirited
little head wickedly at the reflection, and.
ringing for her maid, at once proceeded
To don an exquisite CONNECTION she was
to wear at the Beaupre's garden party
that same afternoon, the toilette being
the remote, the party the approximate
cause of the quarrel which had just ter
minated. for NJ Deforges did not approve
of the Beaupre connection. the eldest son
of that distinguished house having more
than once expressed emphatic admiration
for Madame
Monsieur Deforges walked straight on
through the crowded streets with BERT
head and muttering lips. his hands thrust
deep into his pockets two perpendicular
lines showing under the brim of the soft
hat pulled over his brows:, AT a street
q
color told him> that 1t went toward the
country, and NJ. Deforges was In a mood
TO commune with Nature.
The change Of locomotion did not raise
his spirits. for that dusky jade, jealousy,
who loves men better than any of her
sex. compantoned him still Mechanical
ly he lit a cigarette and let it go out; the
wind blew the ashes over the dolman of q
severe matron seated beside him, and he
never apOlogiZed.
On swept the tram through the reeking
traffic OF the worlIng-day streets and the
frightening line of dwellings, on either
hand. whose formal ugliness made him
shudder and suddenly, it seemed, he
found himself at the foot of the famous
hill. The place did rot appear so anus
ing as when he and his wife saw 1t first
one April Sunday two years ago. and had
climbed to the top pointing out 10 each
other the tender green OF the young elm
leaves beside a coHventicle pouring forth
It's wOoden-faced congregation, and
caught in the air faint suggestions of lilac
from invisible gardens and saw daffodiis
abloOm in nursery beds. How happy
they had BEEN she with her rounded arm
within his and her weight pressing upon
1t internationally in mock fatigue, her
shoulder nesting against his in the very
eyes OF that starched Sundays world. For
was she not his wife, mon Dieu, and
were they not only three weeks married
And now, that morning, she had told
him he was old!
us one old at thirty-six?" he asked
himself breathlessly. Perhaps not, but
one has been younger, one must admit;
and then when ones, eyes are sadly
strained by close appiieatien to the fine
etching work, that pays 50 well and costs
so muca, they are not quite lustrous
Furthermore, on that spring day two
years back he had thought quite natural
ly of climbing the HILL now he thought as
naturally OF permitting himself to be car
ried up. To Danish this reflection he got
Gown at the next hating place and sought
the top on foot.
1t appeared meaner, more skimped and
shrunken than when he had seen it last,
and the roof states were hemming in
everything. Il was pitiful, and he struck
off for a walk In the country" meeting
houses a every turn. Once or twice he
paused to look over black-painted fence
boards inclosing trim lawns where nur-
sery maids were playing, their fiute-llke
accents rising and falling in silvery ca
dence with gusts of laughter in between
went on again, pleased in his foolish
French way because others were happy.
But through 1t all one cruel sentence kept
ringing in his ear You are getting old"
and though his heart said No his
brain said Yes"
At a corner of one of the long, narrow
paths which radiatedT interminably on
every side he-suddenly encountered a girl
advancing rapidly from atfopposite direc-
ton. So swiftly did she come that he
almost jOsued her; lifting, his hat he
stood aside and, when he had taken a
few steps, looked back. She had done the
same. Their eyes met; he smiled. She
gazed at him slowly, without any sugges-
ton OF coquetry or Indignation; and then,
with a pendulous swing of her skirts,
which he misconstrued, passed onward.
He could not have known that just es
she turned she had caught the CLINT of
spectacles over a garden railing. where
an elderly neighbor Of gossiping habit
was observing the incident.
The episode did not improve his equa-
nimity, and oddly, the girls fresh face
reminded him, too, of the handful of
primroses Felicite had gathered on that
pleasant Sunday morning.
When he had gone a little further he
mechanically looked at his watch, and,
lighting another cigarette, began to re-
trace his steps, walking slowly and men,
tally-estmating the values of a gable
end here. window there, a beech stem
beyond. Then the gaunt scaffolding of
half finished house, whose unfortunate
owner was learning the ways of building
societies. caught his eye, and it looked so
like ruin that 1t made him think of the
Colosseum, which he had never seen, and
muse upon the mutability of Fortune, as
we'll as the flight of Time. The reflections
were hardly profound and not at all orig
inal, but they led him to think of death
and he did not find the thought repellent
At that exact moment the fingers of his
left hand, still in his pocket, encountered
a small pencil-like. object He drew 1t
forth incuriously. All, yes it was stray
cartridge-one of the fifty he had pur-
chased a week before for the revolver
Felicite had induced him to buy her
nerves having been Jared owing to the
sensational account of a commonplace
burglary in their neighborhood. He saw
the revolver itself quite distinctly now
In the upper drawer of writing table.
placed absurdly by his wife across the
window of a room opening on their cham
ber whence. she stated, she could watch
him as he worked. He would go home
and get it, and-well, she need not quail
fly for divorce court
1t Is characteristic that he did not con-
template murder as we'll as suicide. He
had not a violent sense of justice; and,
besides, he shrunk from killing a woman
One meanness at a time was enough for
him. though 1 do not think he considered
the act he so suddenly meditated mean or
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