Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1905-04-20

NS AAASA0S WV ~ ASS
within a few days. 1t was De Chaux.
vi1le's intention to make ecure his in
citation to Thors and then to absent
himself from the countess.
After dinner the guest asked Mile.
Catrina to play. he opened the grand
piano in the inner drawing OOH with
such gallantry and efusion that the
sanguine countess, postprandially SON.
nQ1escent in her luxurious chair. began
rising different modes Of mention
son-in-law, the baron.
{ she muttered to herself, "and
is plain-terribly plain"
upon she fell asleep.
Chauxville had a good memory
was, moreover, a good and capa-
liar. So Catrina did not find out
that he knew nothing whatever of mu-
sic. he watched the plain face as the
music rose and fell, himself impervi-
Gus to its t~ranscendent tones. With
practiced cunning he waited until Ca
fina was almost intoxicated with mu-
sc, an 1ntoMcatfon to which all great
musicians are liable.
~Ah," he said, II envy you your pow
er. With music like that one can al
most imagine that life is what one
would wish it to be"
She did not answer, but she wander
ed off into another air, a slumber song.
"The Schlummerlied," said De Chaux-
vile softly. ut almost has the power
to- send a sorrow to Sleep
This time she answered him, posi-
bly, because he had not looked at her.
"Such never Sleep" she said.
"Do you know that, too?' ne asked,
not in a tone that wanted reply.
She made no answer.
II am sorry" he went on. "For me
it is different. 1 am a man. 1 have
mans work to do. 1 can occupy my
self with ambition. AT all events, 1
have a mans privilege of nursing re-
venge."
He saw her eyes light up, her breast
heave with a sudden sigh. Something
like a smile wavered for a moment be-
meath his waxed mustache.
Catrina's fingers, supple and strong,
struck in great chords the air of a
gloomy march from the half forgotten
muse of some monastic composer.
"a mans privileged" he repeated
musingly.
"Need it be such?" she asked.
For the first time his eyes met hers.
mot necessarily" he answered. And
her eyes dropped before his narrow
gaze.
De C%hauxville did not speak again
for some minutes. He sat back in his
chair, leaning his forehead on his hand
while he peeped through his slim fin
gers. He could almost read the girls
thoughts as she put them into music.
"She does not hate him yet" he was
rejecting. But she needs only to see
him with Eta a few times, and she
will come to it."
Catrina was an easy tool in the hands
Of such as Claude de Chauxville, for he
had dealt with women and that which
Is evil in women all his life, and the
only mistakes he eve made were those
characteristic errors of omission at
taching to a persistent ignorance Of
LAC 4AAdSC SOOu III uuuldu AdluTe.
Absorbed as she was in her great
grief, Catrina was in no mood to seek
for motives, to split a moral straw.
She only knew that this man seemed
to understand her as no one had ever
understood her.
The moment had been propitious, and
CLAUDE de Chauxville, with true Gallo
Insight, had seized it. Her heart was
sore and lonely, almost breaking, and
she was without the worldly wisdom
which tells us that such hearts must
at all costs be hidden from the world.
In the solitude Of her life Catrina
kanovitch had conceived a great love,
apassion, such as a few only are capa-
Die of attaining, be it for veal or woe.
She had seen this love ignored, walked
nnderfoot, by its object with a grave
deltberation which look her breath
away when she thought of it. 1t was
all in all to her; to him it was nothing.
Her philosophy was simple. She could
got Sit still and endure. At this time
40 seemed unbearable. She must turn
and rend some one, she did not know
Whom, but some one must suffer. 1t
was in this that Claude de Chauxville
proposed to assist her.
ut is preposterous that people should
make others suffer and go unpunished,"
ne said, intent on his noble purpose.
Oafrina's eyelids fickered, but she
made no answer.
stHEhe arrogance of those who have all
&hRtstbey desire ts in~gupportabbe." the