The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1901-07-10
/ UNDER TWO
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Continued from last week

Continued from last week
Cigarette was resolute little demo
crat; she had loaded the carbines be-
hind the barricade in an emeute in
Paris before she was 10 years old, and
was not seldom in the perplexity of
conflicting ereeds when her loyalty to
the tricolor and the guidons smote With
violent clash on her love for the
populace and their liberty.
She looked moment longer through
the gilded scrollwork, then thrust her
pistols well within her sash and. push
ing herself through the prickly cactus
hedge, launched herself with mimi
table dexterity on to the other side Of
the cacti. She crossed the breadth of
the grounds under the heavy shade of
arbutus trees with a hare's feetness,
and stood a second looking at the open
windows and the terraces that lay
before them, brightly lighted by the
sparkled among the shrubs. Then
down she dropped, as quickly, as
lightly, as young setter.
abr she said, quickly and sharply,
with a deep drawn breath. The single
ejaculation was at once menace, a
tenderness, a Whir1wind Of rage, a vol
ume Of disdasin, world Of pity. 1t
was intensely French, and the whole
nature of Cigarette was in it.
Yet all she saw was a small and bril-
liant group saunterfng to and fro be-
fore the open windows after dinner,
listening to the bands and laughing low
and softly, and at some distance from
them, beneath the shade of a cedar, the
figure of a corporal Of chasseurs, calm,
erect, motionless, as though he were
the figure Of a soldier cast in bronze.
"A true soldierr' she muttered where
she lay among the hododendrons, while
her eyes grew very soft as she gave the
highest word Of praise that her whole
range Of language held. 8 a true sol
der! How he keeps his promise! But
it must be bitter
She looked awhile very wistfully at
the chasseur where he stood under the
Lebanon boughs; then her glance swept
OIiSAI q ud WA . OSOA az eAAASA
lighted with president hatred on the
central form Of ALL a Woman's. There
were two other great ladies there, but
she passed them and darted with u1l-
erring instinct on that proud, fair, pa
trician head with its naughty, staglike
carriage and the crown of its golden
hair.
Cigarette had seen grandes danes by
the thousand, but now for the first time
the sight Of one of those aristocrats
smote her with a keen. hot sting Of
heartburning jealousy with a sudden
perception, quick as thought, bitter as
gall wounding and swift and poignant,
Of what this womanhood that he had
said she herself had lost might be in
its highest and purest shape.
s.Unsexed- said / was unsexed, Z
she unused, while her teeth clinched on
the ruby fullness Of her lips, and her
heart swelled half with impotent rage,
half with unconfessed pain. For the
first time looking on this imperial for
eign beauty, sweeping so slowly and 50
idly along there in the Algerian star
light, she understood all that she had
missed, all that be. had meant when he
had used that single word for which
she had vowed on him her vengeance
and the. vengeance Of the army of At
rica.
If those are the women that he
knew before he came here, do not
wonder that he never cared to watch
even my dance" was the latent, unac-
knowiedged thought that was so cruel
to her; the consciousness which
forced itself in on her while her eyes
jealousy followed the perfect grace Of
the one in whom instinct had found
her rival that, while she had been so
proud of her recklessness and her dev-
lily and her troopers slang and her
deadly skill as a shot. she had only
been something very worthless. some
thing very lightly held by those who
liked her for a ribald jest, a dance and
a spahis' supper Of headlong riot and
drunken mirth
The mood did not last. She was too
brave, too fiery, too dauntless, too I'M
tanned bah! She would faint, dare
say, at the mere sightof these pistols
she thought, with her old disdain, and
would stand fire no more than ga
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