Waterbury Democrat., 1901-05-21
UNDER TWO FLAGS
By aoUIDA."

| " LeNAAlOh HI slboChNNs -
 Cigarette shrugged her shoulders.
 .@rhere was no goodness, and there need be no thanks. Ask Pere Matou i how often 1 have sat with him hours through
 But on a fete dayl And you who love pleasure and grace it so well''--
 "OufI I have had so much of it." said the little one contemptuousI5. 'It is so tame to me. Clouds of dust, scurry of horses, fanfare of trumpets, thunder of drums and all for nothing! Bahl have been in dozen battles land I am not likely to care much for sham fight"
 May, she is unjust to herself" mur- mured Leon Ramon. "She gave up the fete to do this mercy-it has been a great one. She is moren generous than she will ever allow. Here, Cigarette, look at these scarlet rosebuds; they are like your bright cheeks. Will you have them? I have nothing else to give"
 "Rosebudsr' echoed Cigarette, with supreme scorn. "Rosebuds for me? I know no rose but the red of the tri- color, and I could not tell a weed from flower. Besides, told Miou-Matou just now, if my children do as I tell them, they will not take leaf or peachstone from this grande dame how does she call herself ?-Mme. Co., roma d'Amaguer'
 Cecil looked up quickly. ''Why notw
 Cigarette flashed on him her brilliant brown eyes with q fire that amazed him.
 Because we are soldiers, not paul pers. And it is not for the silver pheasants, who have done nothing to deserve their life but lain in nests of cotton wool, and eaten grain that others sow and shell for them, and spread their shining plumage in a sun that never clouds above their heads, pity and their charity the heroes of France who perish as they have lived, for their country and their hagw
 Cecil laughed slightly, but he an- swered with certain annoyance:
 'There is no insolence' here; no ques- ton of it. The princess desired to of fer some gift to the soldiers of Algiers. I suggested to her that to increase the scant comforts of the hospital and gladden. the weary eyes of sick men with beauties that the executive never dreams of bestowing would be the most merciful. and acceptable mode of exercising her kindness. If blame there be in the matter, it is mine."
 In defending the generosity of what he knew to be a genuine and sincere 1xs x1<,c, No trayed what he did not intend to have reyealed-namely, the conversation that had passed between himself and the Spanish princess. Cigarette caught at the inference with the quickness of her lightninglike thought.
 "Oh-keI So it is she!"
 There was a whole world of empha- sis, scorn, meaning, wrath, eomprehen- sion and irony in the four monosylla- bles. The dying man looked at her with languid wonder.
 .She? Who? What story goes with these roses"
 ..None," said Cecil, with the same in hection of annoyance in his voice. 'tNone whatever. A generous thought fulness for our common necessities as soldiers
 "Oufp' interrupted Cigarette before : his phrase was one-third finished. "The stalled mare will not go with the wild coursers. An aristocrat may live with us, but he will always cling to his old order. This is the story that runs with the roses. Miladi was languidly inso- lent over some ivory chessmen, and Corporal Victor thought it divine be- cause languor and insolence are the twin gods of the noblesse. Miladi, knowing no gods but those two, wor- ships them and sends to the soldiers of France, as the sort of sacrifice her gods love, fruits and wines that day after day are set on her table to be touched, if tasted at all with butterfiy's sip, and Corporal Victor finds this char ity sublime-to give what costs noth- ing and scatter a few crumbs out from the profusion of a life of waste and in- dulgence! And I say that if my chill dren are of my fashion of thinking they will choke like dogs dying of thirst rather than slake their throats with aims cast to them as if they were beggarsr'
 With which Cigarette lit her pipe and hurried away. Her wrath was hot and her heart heavy within her. She had given up her Whole fete day to wait on the anguish and to soothe the solitude of his friend lying dying there, and her reward had been to hear him. speak of this aristocrat's donations, that cost her nothing but the trouble of few words of command to her household, as though they were the saintly charities of some angel from heaven. In that moment she could have shot him dead herself without seconds thought.
 "You have vexed her, Victor" said Leon Ramon as she was lost to sight through the doors of the great desolate chamber.
 "I hope not. do not know how" an- swered Cecil. Tt is impossible to fol- low the windings of her wayward ca prices-a child, a soldier, a dancer. a brigand. a spoiled beauty, a mischiev- ous gamin. How is one to treat such little fagot of opposites:"
 The other smiled.
 "Ah, you do not know the little one yet. She is worth a study. I painted her years ago. There was not a pie