Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1901-10-24
+: The +:
Drowned Man
BY GUY DE MAUPASSANT.

not been happy with her man, had
Mother Patin, for her man used to
beat her when he was alive as they
thrash the wheat on the thrashing
floors.
He was master of a fishing smack
and had married her long ago because
she was pleasant, although she was
poor.
Patin, good sailor, but brutal, fire.
Quented the drinking shop Of old Au-
ban, where he drank regularly every
day his four or five little nips and on
days Of luck at sea eight or ten or even
more, just according to how good he
felt, as he said
The drink was served to patrons by
old Auban's daughter, brown girl,
good to look at and who drew custom
by her pleasant manners solely, for
no one had ever limited a word against
her.
Patin when he came into the shop
was content with looking at her and
his conversation was polite, the civil
remarks of decent fellow. After he
had drunk his first glass of brandy
he began to find her very attractive,
and at the second he winked his eye at
her: at the third he would say, IF
only you liked, Mamzelle Desiree,"
without ever finishing his sentence;
with the fourth he tried to catch her
by her skirts to kiss her, and when he
went as high as ten her father brought
him the other ones
The old wine seller. who was up to
all the tricks, sent Desiree round
among the tables to stimulate the or
ders, and Desiree, who was not her
| fathers daughter for nothing, fitted
| in and out among the customers, joking
| with them with a laughing mouth and
swapping eye.
What with drinking his little nips,
| Patin became so used to the face or
| Dcsiree that he kept thinking of her
| even out at sea when he was casting
| his nets far out, windy nights and
| calm, nights of moonlight and nights or
cloud. He thought of her, gripping
while his four comrades were sleeping,
their heads on their arms. He saw
| her, always smiling, pouring him the
yellow brandy with swing of the
shoulder, then saying as she went
There, Does that suit youF
And at last, keeping her thus in eye
and mind, he was seized with such
| longing to marry her that, unable to
| fight any longer against it, he asked
| for her hand.
He was well off, owner of his boat,
| of his nets and of house at the foot
| of the hill ON the Reserve, while old
| Auban had nothing. So he was re-
| ceived with enthusiasm, and the we'd
ding came off at the earliest possible
| day, both parties wishing to hurry mat
| tiers for different reasons.
| But three days after marriage Patin
| was utterly unable to conceive how he
could have thought Desiree different
| from any other woman. Well, he must
| have been a fool TO tie himself up WIN
| girl without a cent who had De-
witched him with her rum, for sure
liquor that she'd put some filthy charm
into for him.
And he swore up and down the tide
breaking his pipe between his teeth,
abusing his outfit, and having cursed
copiously in all the customary terms
at everything he could think of he spl'
forth the rest of his choler on the hsh
and the Holsters taken one by one from
his nets, never throwing them into tue
baskets without an accompaniment Oh
scolding and bad names.
Then, home again, having WITHIN
reach of tongue and hand his wife, old
Auban's girl, il was not long before hv
was treating her Ike the lowest OF ID.
low in his speech. Then, as she heard
him resignetly. used to that sort or
thing already from her father he gre"
exasperated at her silence and one
evening struck her After that her NE
was fgightful
Fer ten years they talked OF nothing
else on the Reserve but the thrashlhs9
Patin gave his wife and his way OF
swearing at her whenever be addressed
her. He swore, in fact, in an may iu-
ual style, with q richness of yocahu'
larry and a sorority of organ equaleu Ivy
no other man in Fecamp. From 'A'
moment his boat appeared at the 'h'
trance of the harbor, coming back ffo''
the fishing, they awaited tie tirst Fo'-
ley he would launch from his decS -
the istty as soon as he saw the Wa'l'
cpn Of his helpmeet
He stood up ia the stern, steefli.-
his eye ahead or on the sail when lAs
sea was high, and, spite Of the pfeoe'
equations of the narrow and dlfheu''
channel spite OF the waves from tNs