El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-03-04
A ROnl0nce Of Confetti.

Sc&sA.A. J. q J. AAcA !: = cA3ASAS1
"Confound the confetti. I've swal
lowed about half Il pound. We shall
find the things sticking in our clothes
for months"
Yes: they're small but insidious
You have no idea OF the mischief one
Of these scraps of paper can do
The speakers were two fresh cOlored
good looking Englishmen, wearing
light overcoats and dress clothes and
drinking their after dinner coffee out
side a cafe at Cannes.
Ii was $50 on an evening In the be-
ginning of February. Two days earlier
they had left their native London ankle
deep in slush and dirty snow and veil
ed in sulphurous fog. Here in favored
Cannes they sat beneath a sapphire
sky, fieckcd with diamond stars. and
watched the carnival maskers In their
gay costumes of stuff or satin dancing
upon the asphalt which surrounded the
band kiosk and even pirouetting gayly
upon the open road.
All around them were life and color,
laughter and movement. the sound of
many languages intermingled in gay
banter, the democratic jostling of Pie
capped market women. townsfolk in
cheap and gaudy dominos and tweed
clad tourists armed with guidebooks
and kodaks.
To Norton, the younger OF the two
men, the scene had the charm of en-
tire novelty. At the battle Of confetti
earlier in the day he had exhausted
himself by two hours and n half Of
confetti throwing under a blazing sun,
and now. after an excellent dinner, he
was laughingly complaining of the con-
fetti which passersby every now and
then cast in the faces of the two friends
over their coffee.
Fleming. the elder of the two and
the one who had complained of the
mischief making capabilities of the lit
tie paper missiles, was rich and indie
pendent and spent his time i'm perpetual
travel. Carnivals were nothing new
to him. and as rule he avoided them,
but this spring the fancy had taken
him to revisit Cannes in the company
of his relative. Norton, and now. as
he sat watching the dancers under the
palm trees i'm the starlight. the spirit
moved him to he confidential.
He lit a cigarette and blew slowly
up into the hight air. \ curious wist-
fulness passed into his gray eyes and
softened the lines of his mouth under
the closely trimmed golden brown mus
tache.
"It's odd" he began dreamily. but
ten years ago. almost in this identical
spot. l had the happiness of my life
ruined by one of these same mis-
chievous confetti"'
His companions round. blue eyes
grew rounder still in amazement
by love, Are you seriousT' he ex-
claimed.
1T was a night like this" went on
the other. .'only il seems to me that
the stars were brighter. the music was
tollier. the fun more spontaneous.
Mind. only say seems Probably the
falling off is in me, not in the music
and the stars and the fun. | am five
and thirty now. | was five and twenty
then There was Il girl on my arm
such girl she seemed to me, \ little
soft. round face. like a peach. lips
made for kisses and laughter and n
figure as 1.-THE and light as n willow
branch. l know my SMILES are old.
but can't find words to tell you what
she was like to me. You see. / was
In love with her. and she was my
wife
Your wife, Norton repeated i'm as
why. j never knew you
had been married, though 1 remember |
I did hear there was some romance or 4!
.-Oh. there wasn't much romance /.
about it," Fleming said bitterly. lower
Ing his voice as a laughing party of !
three maskers took possession of the |
seats at neighbOring table. THE !
whole thing only lasted six weeks"
"Your wife is dead, then? Old
man. I am so sorry
There is 10 need to be sorry, and !
she isn't dead. She simply divorced /
me Oh the ground of incompatibility of |
temper. or heaven knows what, accord |
Ing 10 the laws of the state to which ;
she belongs"
'.And where is she now?'
"Oh. she has consoled herself with
= German baron. Three years ago, be-. :
ing dead tired of knocking about the
world. I was actually fool enough to ,
decide To 90 over to America and per- |
marry me all over again. You must |
know she was an heiress, the only
child of 4 mother who spoiled and
her. l met her on short WIS., !