The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-08-04
The Last Of the White Wine


IF'rom the Chicago News.1
The clock struck and the farm of
old Father Boileux seemed to wake from
out the misty sleep of an autumn night
as the sun with its first warm ray
pierced the heavy shadows. Long be-
fore daylight the men had left for the
vineyards, moving and talking with the
softness enforced by early morning
darkness. Now two women clattered
out from the house in their heavy SabotS
and began feeding the chickens in the
yard peacock, the pet of the place,
stepped about on the outskirts of the
noisy crowd of poultry.
The sudden apparitiOn of the sun
seemed to put heart in everything. The
cocks crowed, the cattle in the long
sheds lowed, the dogs barked and the
two women tossed their grain wider and
sung PEASANTS song. 1t was as though
autumn had borrowed a day out of
summer and a fete day at that, the air
was so soft and mild and the sun so
bright.
Before the door, his pipe in his mouth,
sat old Father Boileux. He was
wrinkled and gray and bent and looked
older than ever in the searching light
of the sun.
Any one who had seen Boileux the
spring before would have been shocked
at the suddenness with which old age
had come TO stay with him. To be sure,
he was 20 years old, and had borne his
age we'll until a few months ago. 1t
was the death of his wife, people said,
LHdl naQ changed MIN. she naQ Deen a
splendid manager and since he had had
to manage everything without her ad-
vice several misfortunes had come to
him. He had twice sold pieces of land
which he said he was forced to do to
make up for the extravagances which
went on within the house. OF the profit
in the sales he said nothing. In his
heart he knew it was not the death of
Mother Boileux that was harassing
him day and night, that was scanning
his face with deep lines and turning his
hair from gray to white.
Father BOileux rose from his seat and
shambled toward the barnyard, where
he inspected everything with the sharp
eyes of an owner. Returning he stood
moment in the door and gazed- over
the fertile fields of his farm, sloping
gently down to the river and dotted
with fruit trees, while away to the south
lay the small vineyard which he priced
above all his possessions. But today,
as he looked over his land from his
slightly elevated position, his eyes re-
manned unlighted over what for years
and years had brought a sparkle to
them and his heart failed to glow with
its old sense of proud possession. With
a sigh he turned and entered the house.
A woman came from an inner room
and stood looking at him a little cur
iOuSly. 1t was Martha, who had kept
house for him since his Wife's death. He
a little afraid of her eyes, it would
seem, by the way he avoided meeting
them.
We'll" he said. chow is she this
morning?''
The woman shrugged her shoulders.
AS weak as ever. The night has
been very bad. Tossing and turning and
wakeful,' she answered watching the
effect of her words
You overdo everything. You make
it worse than it is" answered the old
Come and judge for yourself" Mar
tina said
He followed her into the adjoining
room. Here the light had not yet pene-
trated and BOileux stopped, arrested by
the sound of heavy, labored breathing.
Martha parted the window curtain and
the old mans anxious eyes rested on
pale little face surrounded by soft
brown hair which lay on the pillow in
the big fOur-post bed. The eyes were
closed and the lids were tinged with a
shade of violet as though the color
beneath shone through As they stood
there the figure outlined beneath the
white spread was shaken by a cough
You see" murmured Martha, drop
ping the curtain
Send Jacque for the DOCTOR replied
the old man, returning to the kitchen.
Always the doctori" said the wo-
man. You know we'll enough there is
only one doctor who can cure Marie
L forbid you to talk of that! 1t is
your old woman's nonsense. The child
is sick. She needs medicine but the
old mans voice quaYered and his hands
shook as he spoke.
4 will have it on my conscience if I
keep silent" said the woman fiercely.
She is not my child and yet I cannot
see her life slipping away without doing
all 1 can to prevent it. You hold the
power to restore her health and you will
not use it, because you love your money
and your land and your own will more
than you love your daughter!'
Send for the doctor," cried the old
man. land get out of my sight,
Left alone he sunk in a chair and
buried his face in his hands. For the
thousandth time the situation resolved
itself before his mental gaze.
The preceding summer Bolieux had
had quarrel over the possession of a
part of his vineyard which encroached
on his neighbours territory, and when
the case was taken to law he lost it.
This was terrible blow to this old
man, who had worked all his life to
enlarge his farm and who had no am
bition beyond holding his land and
growing rich from it. To lose a piece
of it was like losing part of himself.
Immediately after this Claude Michel,
one of the richest men in the province,
proposed for the hand of his 1S-year-
old daughter, Marie. The father was
delighted, as he saw a means of regain
ing his loss, but Marie, when consulted,
refused absolutely to marry any one
but her old cOmrade and playmate OF
childhood, Robert Leroy who had left
his fathers farm and gone to work in
the bank at the village.
The old man was furious at this I'M
expected resistance. His daughters de-
sire seemed to him of no Importance
compared to his own greed of gain.
He argued and coaxed and then COM
manded, all in vain. Marie, who had
come to bless the latter part of his life,
suddenly turned in his eyes into in
strument sent to work him evil, to
thwart his plans and impoverish his old
age. All remembrance Of youth had
long ago left him, driven out by the
years of hard toll, and he had no SYM
pathy for the romance of a young girls
life AS Marie had sworn to marry no
one but her lover, so had he vowed that
she should marry no one but Michel, |
and he left no stone unturned in his
effort to Cypress her and force her into
obedience.
Then Marie. who had a nervous, i'm
questionable tenlnaramarf fell q r1,ev |