Waterbury Democrat., 1901-05-09


 She half liked it. half resented it. It l made her wish, with an impatient scorn | for tho wish. that she knew how to read and had not her hair cut short, l like hoy's--a weakness the little vi vandiere had never been visited with before.
 You are too fine for us, my brave ones" she said pettishly In what l country, I should wonder, does one learn such dainty ceremony as that|
 s'Where should one learn courtesies if l not in, France?' he answered wearily. He had danced with this girl soldier the night before, but his thoughts were far from her In this moment.
 "Ouf! You have learned to fence well with your tonguer' cried Cigarette, provoked to receive no more compli- l mont than that. From generals and staff officers, as from drummers and trumpeters, she was accustomed to flat tery and wooing, luscious as sugnred l chocolate and ardent as irritation with Il barrack flavor about 1t commonly is. She would, as often as not, to- be sure, finish 1t with the butt end of her pis- tol or the butt end of some bit of sting | l liked it and resented it's omission. ."They say you are English, but don't believe it. You speak too soft, and you sound the double Is too well. Say I what you are at once"
 "A soldier of France. Can you wish me moreY
 For the first time her eyes flashed and softened. Her one love was the tricolor.
 True" she said simply. "But you were not always a soldier of France? You joined, they say, 12 years ago. | What were you before ,thenY'
 She here cast herself down in front of him and, with her elbows on the sand l and her chin on her hands, watched him with all the frank curiosity and unmoved nonchalance imaginable as she launched the question point blank '3efore!'' he said, slowly. Well fool.'
 "You belonged to the majority thenl" said Cigarette, with plquance made thousand times more piquant by the camp slang she spoke in. You should not have come into the ranks. Majorl- ies-specially atmajority--have very smooth sailing generally!'
 He looked at her more closely, though she wearied him.
 Where did you get your ironies, l Cigarette2 You are so young"
 She shrugged her shoulders.
 Bah! One is never young and always young in camps. Young? Ah, when I was 4 1 could swear like "a grenadier, plunder like Il highwayman, lie like thief and drink like fish"
 Yet with all that-and it was the truth--the brow was so open under the close rings of the curls, the skin so clear under the sun tan, the mouth so rich and so arch in it's youth!
 "Why did you come into the serv- ieey' she went on, before he had q chance to answer her. "Rah! Iknow an aristocrat at glancei Now many of those aristocrats come-shoals of them-but 1t is always for something, l They have gambled, or bet, or got into hot water, or fought too many duels, or caused aNcourt scandal, or some thing. All the aristocrats that come from Africa are ruined. What ruined you. Mir. Aristocrat?v
 "Aristocrat? am none. am a corporal of the chasseurs."
 ''Diable!T have known duke q corporal! What ruined you?'
 What ruins most men, imagine folly"
 Folly, sure enoughv' retorted Ciga- 1 rette with scornful acquiescence. She had no patience with him. He danced .so deliciously, he looked so superb and he would give her nothing but these absent answers .'Wisdom doesn't bring men who look as you look into the I ranks of the volunteers for Africa. Resides, you are too handsome to be a sage"
 He laughed little.
 q never was one; that's certain. And you are too pretty to be a cynic." | "A what?" She did not know the word. ''Is that good cigar you have? | Give me one. Do women smoke in your old country?"
 'Oh yes--many of them"
 Where Is it. then?' l q Ishave no country--now."
 "But the one you had?"
 q have forgotten ever had one"
 "Had you anything you cared for in i litT
 "Well--yes"
 "Vhat was it--a womanw
 "No horse!'
 He stopped his head little as he said 1t and traced more figures slowly in the sand.
 s'Ahw
 l She drew short, quick breath. She understood that. She would only have laughed at him had 1t been u woman. Cigarette was more veracious than complimentary in her estimate of her own sex.
 Your cigars arc good" she said i'm l patiently as she sprang up. her 1.-the, elastic figure in the brights vivandiere uniform standing out in full relief against the pearly gray of the ruined pillars, the vivid green of the rank veg citation and the intense light of the noon. Your cigars are good, but 1t is more than your company is! If you had been as dull as this last night, would not have danced . single turn with you iii thcicancan!"
 And, with n bound to which indlgna- tion lent wings like swallows, the | Erinnd If tha lTlnsrA inSu1fpl and ama1cd