The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1901-07-04

ture with which she dealt. Venetia
Corona never moved. never gave sign
OF the Amusement that awoke in her,
but she put her hand out and clasped
the barrel of the weapon, while her
eyes looked down into the flashing,
looming, ferOcious ones that menaced
ner with calm, contemptuous rebuke,
IN Which something Of infinite pity was
mingled. -,
Child, are you mad?" she said grave
~. brave natures do not stoop to as
sassination, which you seem to defy.
II you have any reason to feel evil
against me, tell me what it is. I al
ways repay wrong if can. But as
Tor those threats, they are most absurd
II you DO not mean them; they are most
wicked if you do.''
The tranquil, unmoved, serious words
stllled the vehement passion she re-
buked with a strange and Irresistible
power. Under her gaze the savage lust
IN Cigarettes eyes died out, and their
lids dropped over them. The d,1skv
| scarlet color faded from her cheeks
For the first time in her life she felt
Inundated, vanquished, awed. If this
''arlstocrat" had shown one sign of
rear, one trace Of apprehension, all her
violent and reckless hatred would have
re1gned on and, it might have been,
have rushed from threat to execution.
She let the pistol pass into Venetia's
grasp and stood irresolute and asham-
cd, her fluent tongue stricken dumb.
her intent to wound and sting and out
rage with every vile coarse Jest she
knew rendered impossible to execute.
The purity and dignity Of her oppo-
nent's presence had their irresistible
influence, an influence too strong for
even her debonair and dangerous inso-
lence. She hated herself in that mo-
| ment more than she hated her rival
Venetia laid the loaded pistol down,
away from both, and seated herself in
the cushions from which she had risen.
Then she looked once more long and
quietly at her unknown antagonist
''Well?" she said at length. "Why
| do you venture to come here? And
why do you feel this malign1ty toward
a stranger who never saw you until
this morning?'
Under the challenge the fiery spirit
Of Cigarette rallied, though a rare and
calling sense of intense inferiority, of
intense modification, was upon her,
though she would almost have given
the cross which was on her breast that
she had never come into this woman's
sight.
"Oh-he!' she answered recklessly,
with the red blood flushing her face
again at the only evasion Of truth of
which the little desperate, with all her
sins, had ever been guilty. II hate
you, miladi, because of your order, be-
cause Of your fine, dainty ways, be-
cause Of your aristocrat's insolence, be-
cause you treat my soldiers like pau
pers, because you are one of those who
do no more to have the right to live
than the purple butterfly that flies in
the sun and who GUST the people out of
their dues as the cuckoo kicks the poor
birds that have reared it out of the
nest Of down to which it never has
carried a twig or a mossr'
Her listener" uearl with a slight
smile of amusement and of surprise
that bitterly discounted the speaker.
Il do not wish to discuss democracy
with you," she answered, with a tone
that sounded strangely tranquil to Gig
arctic after the scathing acrimony Of
her own. II should probably convince
you as little as you would convince me-
and never waste words. But l heard
you today claim a certain virtue-jus-
tice. How do you reconcile with that
your very hasty condemnation of q
stranger Of whose motives, actions and
modes of life it is impossible you can
have any accurate knowledge? I am
sure that the heroine of Zaraila has
something nobler in her than mere ma
lightly against person who can never
have injured her, and I would endure
her insolence for the sake of awaken
ing her justice. A virtue that was so
great in her at noon cannot be utterly
dead at nightfall"
Cigarettes fearless eyes dropped IN
der the gaze of those bent so search
ingly, yet SO gently, upon her, but only
for moment. She raised them afresh,
with their old, dauntless frankness.
"Ah, you shall never say you wanted
justice and truth from a French SOL
der and failed to get them! I hate