The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1905-12-15
D'ri and I
BY IRVING BACHELLER
Author of "Eben Holden" Darrell OF the Blessed Isles Etc.
Copyright. 1901. by LOthrOp Publishing Company

dressing me in her native tongue, as
the other tiptoed to the door. ION
your life. do not let her know. She
will never permit us to see you. She
will keep us under lock and key. She
knows we cannot speak English, so
she thinks we cannot talk with you.
Ii is a great lark Are you better?'
What was | to do undsr orders from
such authority? AS they bade me,
hope you will say, for that is what
did. l had no easy conscience about it,
must own. Day after day l took my
part in the little comedy. They came
in Quaker-faced if the baroness were
at hand, never speaking, except to her,
until she had gone. Then-well, such
animation, such wit, such bright eyes,
such brilliancy, l have never seen or
heard.
My wound was healing. War and
stern duty were as things of the far
past. The grand passion had hold of
me. l tried to fight it down, to shake
it off, but somehow it had the claws of
tiger. There was an odd thing about
it all: l could not for the life of me
tell which of the two charming girls
} loved the better. 1t may seem in
credible | could not understand it my
self. They looked alike, and yet they
were quite different LOuison was a
year older and of stouter build She
had more animation also, and always
a quicker and perhaps a brighter an
swer. The other had a face more Sc
Tious, albeit no less beautiful, and
slower tongue. She had little TO say,
but her silence had much in it to adj
mire, and, indeed, TO remember. They
appealed to different men in me with
equal force, | did not then know why.
. perpleXing problem it was, and had
to think and suffer much before | saw
the end of it, and really came to know
what love is and what it is not.
Shortly | was near the end of this
delightful season of illness. had been
out of bed a week. The baroness had
read TO me every day, and had been SO
kind that | felt great shame for
my part in our deception. Every al
teTnOOn she was off in a boat or in
her caleche, and had promised to take
me with her as soon as | was able to
so.
you know" said she, Il am going
to make you stay her full month.
have the consent of the general"
/ had begun to move about a little
and enjoy the splendor of that forest
home. There We're, indeed, many rare
and priceless things in it that came
out OF her chateau in France. She had
some curious old clocks, tokens of
ancestral taste and friendship. There
was one her grandfather had got from
the land Of Louis KYLE Grand Mon
argue of whom my mother had begun
to tell me as soon as l could hear with
understanding. Another came from the
bedchamber Of Philip II. of Spain-a
grand hiss clock that toled the hours
in that great hall beyond my door
A little thing, in a case of carved
ivory, hat licked on a table near my
bed, MOlierc had given TO zoe of her
ancestors, and there were many others
Of equal interest.
Her walls were adorned with art
treasures of the value of which | had
little appreciation those days. But
remember there were canvasses of
CorTeggio and Rembrandt and Sir
Joshua Reynolds. She was, indeed.
woman OF fine taste, who had brought
her best to America; for no one had
doubt in the time of which | am writ
ing, that the settlement of the Com
pagnie de New York would grow into
a great colony, with towns and cities
and fine roadways, and the full COM
plement of high living. She had built
the Hermitage-that was the name OF
the mansion-tine and splendid as it
was, for a mere temporary shelter
pending the arrival of those better
days.
She had a curious fad, this hermit
baroness of the big woods. She loved
nature and was a naturalist of no
poor attainments. Wasps and hornets
were the special study of this remark
able woman. There were at least q
score of their nests on her front por-
tico-big and little and some of them
oddly shaped. She hunted them in
NOOu anu utlu. w uGu she lOunu a
nest she had it moved carefully after
nightfall, under a bit of netting, and
fastened somewhere about the gables.
Around the Hermitage were many
withered boughs and briers holding
cones Of wrought fiber, each citadel
Of these uniformed soldiers of the air
and the poisoned arrow. They were
assembled in colonies of yellow, white,
blue and black wasps, and white
faced hornets She had no fear of
them, and, indeed, no one of the house.
hold was ever stung TO my knowledge.
/ have seen her stand in front of her
door and feed them out of saucer.
There were special favorites that
would light upon her palm, overrun-
ming its pink hollow and gorging at
the honey-drop.
They will never sting" she would
say, 'if one does not declare war. To
strike, TO make any quick notion it
gives them anger. Then, mon cher
ami! it is terrible. They cause you