The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1901-06-06

quo, AAOIc1 COIOud, TdIlS.
In the corner was written "Villa Al
aussa, Algiers." He thrust it in the
folds of his sash and turned within.
do you know herr" he asked Ben
Arsli.
The old man shook his head.
''She is the most beautiful of thy
many fair Frankish women. never
saw her till today. She seemed to have
an interest in thee, my son. But listen
here. Touching these ivory toys, if thou
dOst not bring hencefOrth to me all the
work in them that thou doest thou
shalt never come here more to meet the
light of her eyes,"
Ceci! smiled and pressed the Mos
LENS hand.
Il kept them away because you would
have given me hundred piasters for
what had not been worth one. AS for
her eyes, they are stars that shine on
another world than an African troop
er's. So bestv'
Yet they were the stars of which he
thought more, as he wended his way
back to the barracks, than of the splen-
did consultations of the Algerian even
ing. Meantime the Princess Corona
drove homeward-homeward to where
temporary home had been made by
her in the most elegant of the many
snow white villas that stud the sides
of the Sahel and face the bright bow
of the sunlit bay. She passed from
her carriage to her own morning room
and sank down on couch a little
listless and weary with her search
among the treasures of the Algerian
baZaars.
"Not one of those things do want
not one shall I look at twice. The
money would have been better at the
soldiers hospital" she thought, while
her eyes dWelt on chess table near
her-a table on which the mimic hosts
of chasseurs and Arabs were ranged
in opposite squadrons. She took the
white king in her hand and gazed at
it with a certain interest.
"That man has been noble once"
she thought. what fate! What a
cruel fate! How bitter his life must
be! When Philip comes, perhaps he
will know some way to aid him. And
yet-who can serve a man who only
desires to be forgotten?'
Then, with certain impatient sense
Of some absurd discrepancy, of some
Enseemly occupation, in her thus dwell
ing on the wishes and the burdens Of q
corporal of light cavalry, she laughed a
little and put the white king back once
more in his place. Yet even as she set
the king among his mimic forces the
very carvings themselves served to re-
tain their artist in her memory.
There was about them an indescrib-
able elegance, an exceeding grace and
beauty, which spoke of a knowledge of
art and of refinement of taste far be-
yond those of mere military amateur
in the one who produced them.
"What could bring a man Of that tai
ent, with that address, into the ranks?"
she unused. persons of good family,
of once fine position, come here, they
say, and live and die unrecognized un-
der the imperial flag. 1t is usually
some dishonor that drives them out Of
their own worlds 1t may be so with
him. Yet he does not look like one
whom shame has touched. He is proud
still-prouder than he knows. More
likely it is the old, old story-a high
name and narrow fortune. the ruin of
thousands Well, it is no matter Of
mine. Very possibly he is a mere ad-
venturer with a good manner This
army here is a mixture, they say, of
all the varied scoundrelisms of En-
rope"
The Moslem had said Alright Of her
beauty. Many besides the old Moslem.
had thought it ''the fairest that e'er
the sun shone on and held one grave,
lustrous glance of the blue imperial
eyes above aught else on earth. Many
had loved her, all without return. Yet,
although only 20 years had passed over
her proud head, the Princess Corona
d'Amague had been welded and been
widowed.
Welded, with no other sentiment
than that Of a certain pity and a GER
tain honor for the man whose noble
Spanish name she took; widowed by
death that was the seal of her mar
rage sacrament and left her his wife
only in name and law.
The marriage had left no chain upon
her; it had only made her mistress of
wide wealth, Of that villa on the Sicil-
ian sea, of that light, spacious palace
dwelling in Paris that bore her name,
Of that majestic old castle throned on
brown Estremaduran crags. The death
had left no regret upon her; it only gave
her for awhile a graver shadow over
the brilliancy of her youth and of her
beauty and gave her plea for that in
difference to mems worship of her
which their sex called heartlessness.
which her own sex thought an ultra
refined coquetry and which was in real
truth neither the one nor the other.
but simply the negligence of a woman
very difficult to touch and, as it had
seemed, impossible to charm. 1t was
not ambition that had allied her on his
(pafhhp6 with Ro1tro m Corono <7,A -.