Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1904-08-09
CHAPTER XIV

CHAPTER XIV.
Three days later NJ. de Bonfons was
back in Saumur again, and announced
his marriage with Eugene. After about
six months lie received his appointment
as councillor to the court at Anglers, and
they went thither. But before Eugene
left Saumur she melted down the trim
kets that had long been 50 sacred and
so dear a trust, and gave them, together
with the eight thousand francs which her
cousin had returned to her, to the parish
church, whittier she had gone so often
to pray for him. Henceforward her life
was spent partly at Anglers, parity CT
Saumur der husbands devotion to thu
government at a political crisis was re-
warded; he was made First President.
Then he awaited a general election with
impotence; he had visions of place in
the government; be had dreams of a
peerage; and then. and then
Then he would call cousins with the
king, l supposed" said Nanon.
Yet, after all, none of these ambi-
tious dreams was TO be realized, and
the name of NJ de Bonfons was to I'M
dergo no further transformation. He
died only eight days after his appoint
ment as deputy Of Saumur. Nine. de
Bonfons was left a widow three years
after her marriage, with an income of
eight hundred thousand livres.
She was beautiful still, with the beau
ty of woman nearly forty years of
age. Her face was very pale and quiet,
with tinge of sadness in the low tones
of her voice. She had simple mamie RS,
all the dignity of. one who had passed
through great sorrows, and the saintli-
ness OF soul unspotted by the world;
and, no less, the rigidness Of an old maid,
the little penurious ways and narrow
ideas of a dull country town.
Although she had eight hundred liyres
year, she lived just as she used to do
in the days of stinted allowances of fuel
and food while she was still Eugene
Grandet, the fire never lighted in the
parlor before or after the dates Fixed
by her father. all the regulations in force
in the days of her. girlhopd still adhered
to. She dressed as her mother did. That
Geld. sunless, dreary house, always over
Swallowed by the dark ramparts. was like
her own life.
She looked carefully after her affairs;
her wealth accumulated from year to
year; perhaps she might have been called
parsimonious, if it were not for the noble
use she made of her fortune. Various
pious and charitable institutions, aims
houses and orphan asylums, a richly
endowed public library, and donations
to various churches in Saumur, are a
sufficient answer to the charge of ava
rice which some few people have brought
against her.
They sometimes spoke of her in joke
al mademoisele but, in fact, people
stood somewhat i'll awe of Nine. de Bon
fons. 1t was as if She. whose heart
went out so readily to others, was al
ways to be the victim of their interested
calculations; as if for all warmth and
brightness in her life she was to find
only the pale glitter Of metal.
mo one loves me but you," she would
sometimes say to Nanon.
Yet her hands were always ready 20
bind the wounds that other eyes did not
see, in any house; and her way to heay-
en- was one long succession of kindness
and good deeds. The real greatness Of
her soul had risen above the cramping in
fuences of her early life And this is
the life history of woman who dweit in
the world, yet not of it, woman so
grandly fitted to be wife and mother,
but who had neither husband nor chill
dren nor kindred.
THE end.)