The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-04-09
A ROMANCE OF CONFETTI

for months"
 "Yes; they're small. but insidious. You have no idea of the mischief of one of these scraps of paper can do."
 The speakers were two fresh-colored, good-looking Englishmen, wearing light overcoats and dress clothes, and drink ing their after dinner coffee outside a cafe at Cannes.
 It was 9:30 on an evening in the be- ginning of February. Two days earlier they had left their native London, ankle-deep in slush and dirty snow, and yelled in sulphurous fog; here, in favored Cannes they sat beneath a sapphire sky, fecked with diamond stars, and watched the carnival mask CTS in their gay costumes of stuff or surrounded the band kiosque, and even pirouettlng gayly upon the open road.
 All around them was life and color,
  many languages intermingled in gay banter the democratic jostling of Picrots and Piehettes in satin with white-capped market women, townsfolk i'll cheap and gaudy dominos and tweed clad tourists armed with guide books and kodaks.
 To Norton, the younger of the two men, the scene had the charm of en- tire novelty. At the battle of confetti earlier in the day, he had exhausted himself by two hours and half of con- fetti-throwing under blazing sun, and now, after an excellent dinner, he was laughingly complaining of the confetti which passers-by every now and then cast in the faces of the two friends over their coffee.
 Fleming, the elder of the two, and the one who had complained of the many languages intermingled in gay notwithstanding, capabilities of the little paper missiles, was rich and inde- pendent and spent his time in perpet- ual travel. Carnivals were nothing new to him, and as a rule he avoided them, but this spring the fancy had taken him to revisit Cannes in the company of his relative Norton, and now as he sat watching the dancers under the palm trees in the starlight, the spirit moved him to be confidential.
 He lit a cigarette and blew slowly up into the night air. A curious wist- fitness passed into his gray eyes, and softened the lines of his mouth under the closely trimmed golden brown mus tache.
 Its odd" he began dreamily; "but ten years ago, almost in this identical spot, had the happiness of my life ruined by one of these same mischiev ous confetti!"
 His companions round blue eyes grew rounder still in amazement.
 By jove! Are you serious?" he ex- claimed.
 Tt was a night like this" went on the other, "only it seems to me that the stars were brighter, the music was jol- Her, the fun more spontaneous. Mind, I only say seems Probably the falling off is in me, not in the music and the stars and the fun I am five-and- thirty now--I was five-and-twenty then. There was girl on my arm-such girl she seemed to me! A little, soft round face, like a peach, lips made for kisses and laughter and figure as 1.-the and light as willow branch l know my smiles are old, but I can't find words to tell you what she was like to me. You see, I was in love with her, and she was my wife"
 Your wife!" Norton repeated, in as- tonishment. "Why, I never knew you had been married. Though I remember or other"
 "Oh, there wasn't much romance about it!" Fleming said bitterly, lower- ing his voice as laughing party of three maskers took possession of the seats at neighboring table. "The whole thing only lasted six weeks"
 Your wife is dead, then? Old man, I am so sorry"
 ''There is no need to be sorry, and she isn't dead. She simply divorced me on the ground of incompatibility of tenn per, or heaven knows what, according to the laws of the state to which she be- longs." And where is she now?" 'Oh, she has consoled herself with a German baron. Three years ago, being dead tired of knocking about the world, I was actually fool enough to decide to go over to America and persuade Ma was her name--to marry me all over again. You must know she was an. heiress, the only child of mother l who spoiled and idolized her. I met | her on a short visit to the states and | fell in love with her, and married and | brought her over to honyrnoon in Flu l rope. London was too cold and we | came to Cannes for the carnival. One | night we left her mother at the hotel and came out to see the fun!'
 A lady in blue domino who formed | one of the group of three at the neigh boring table turned in her seat and fixed the gaze of two bright dark eyes, shining through a black velvet mask, upon Jack Flemings face.
 Then your wife's mother was with you?''
 "That was the beginning of the mis- chief. She insisted upon following us to Europe in a week. AS I told you, we left her at thet hotel, and here, under the palms, I felt my shoulder touched and heard my name called out of Lhe crowd, Jack Jack Fleming. Dent