The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1900-01-05
st. gu1uestre.
l. He Made Up His Mind
7 Too Late.


On the night of the 31st of December
my friend Jacobus, after having dined
in silence at the table d'hote of the
Golden Rose, retraced with quick steps
Grangettes street, where his bachelor
lodgings were.
The street was solitary and badly
lighted by faroff gas jet. The north
wind, blowing directly between the two
rows of black facades, cut Jacobus'
visage and. Notwithstanding the close
Iy buttoned overcoat, made our friend
feel that the blood of 40 years did not
possess the warmth of prime youth.
Therefore did ne agitate with an i'm
patient hand the hammer which deco
rated the landlady's door.
1t was the daughter Of the house,
Mile. Franceline Bigeard, who opened
to him, holding in one hand the folds
of her apron, filled with chestnuts, and
in the other the lamp which lighted up
her face and her sparkling blue eyes.
Those blue eyes. the frizzly brown
hair and the bright smile of Mile.
Franceline still gave an attractive pi-
quancy to her face, although she was
commencing to fade, having attained
her twenty eighth year on st. Gather
ines day.
81 beg your pardon for having made
you wait" said she to the shivering
lodger, "but was in the act of split
ting chestnuts. We have kept two of
my friends to supper, and tonight we
will end the year by roasting the chest
nuts and washing them down with a
glass of Fignolette. At your service,
NJ. Jacobus."
'Thanks," answers he, appearing In
hurry. Thanks, mademoiselle."
If he refused, it was not that France
lines company was displeasing to him,
on the contrary. But he kept himself
in reserve, fearing to place himself un-
der obligation to this girl who wanted
to marry and not wishing that too
much familiarity should make him slip,
little by little, on dangerous ground.
He was not insensible to the blue
eyes and to the smile of the young
lady, but he was afraid of marriage.
| He resembled those children who are
| about to take cold bath, who dip one
foot in the water, then take it out
| again and cannot decide to take final
| plunge.
''Thanksv' said he again on going up
| the stairs. mo letters have come for
meY'
"No, NJ. Jacobus, the mail carrier has
brought nothing"
| "WeIl, decidedly I'm forgottenw sad
ly thought Jacobus as he put the key
| in the keyhole. 1.-THE entire world has
| forgotten the way to my house."
Jacobus felt himself become, little by
little, in fit of bad temper. This night
everything had gone wrong. The logs
on the fire smoked instead Of flaming;
his lamp fiickered without giving light;
drafty wind passed under the door
and froze him to the marrow.
"a thinker-Joubert, / believe" muir
INJURED he as he lighted his pipe-'has
| said that the evening of life brings its
lamp with It, Mine lights very badly
| and my crepuscle Is deucedly gloomy.
This weakening Of the interior light
is one of the fatal consequences of cell
bacy. Maturity and celibacy! Two un
healthy mediums which germinate and
start lot of bad seed that one thought
dead and that bring forth ugly flowers
with a bitter scent-tardy remorse
sterile regrets, hesitations and fear Of
old age.
"Fear especially, cowardly feal
which keeps one from acting, which
turns one from generous resolutions
oil Ri I
ber in the time of my youth, at a mo
ment when was about to climb an alb
rupt cliff of the Pyrenees. met a mar
ripe in years and already bent down
and as l interrogated him as to the
road to follow he cried out to me:
"'Do not climb up there. The roat
is a veritable foundry. You will ge
out Of breath all to no avail!
81 shrugged my shoulders and KEEP
on my way, laughing at the pusillanim
ity of that middle age, and this is wha
have come to! The least pebble dis
turbs me, the most childish difficulty
takes the proportions Of an Impossible
ity. I know no more how to dare or t,
will, and l retire TO my bachelor cell re
GREETING the chances that let slip a
the time my twentieth year fourishet
In all it's freshness"
At that moment the eclat of youn.
voices came from below, and in thi
gay noise Jacobus could distinguish
Franceline's clear laugh.
'"They are amusing themselves dow
stairs" thought he again, with sigh
"They are drinking to the year that 1
passing and to the one that will b.
born.
For them year that passes ava.
and one that begins do not waken mel
ancholy thoughts. They are not yet a
the age when the weeks and tn
months seem to go by with the rapidit
of a swallow on the. wing. They vii
come to it nevertheless, and to France
line as well as to the others! She
going on to her twenty-eighth year an
Il has not yet found husband Poo
: girl! Little by little her cheeks vii
: fade, those blue eyes will lose thei
d brightness, her laugh will change thos
clear notes for sharp and dry intona