Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1906-07-11
CHAPTER XIV.
ST MARTINS SKINNER

q.
Yes, at the great cardinals levee
was the only client. I stared round
the room, a long narrow gallery,
through which it was his custom to
walk every morning after receiving
his more important visitors. I stared,
I say, round this room, in a state OF
stupefaction. The seats against either
wall were empty, the recesses of the
windows empty too. The hat, sculp-
tured and painted here and there, the
staring R, the blazoned arms, looked
down on vacant floor. Only, on
little stool by the main door, sat
quiet-faced man in black, who read,
Or pretended to read, in a little book,
and never looked up. One of those
men, blind, deaf, secretive, who fatten
in the shadow of the great.
At length, while stood COMPOUNDED
and full of shamed thought-for l had
seen the ante-chamber of Richelieu's
old hotel so crowded that he could not
walk through it-this man closed his
book, rose and came noiselessly to.
wards me. IN de Berault?" he said.
Yes, L answered.
''His Eminence awaits you. Be good
enough to follow me-
I did so, in a deeper stupor than
before. For how could the cardinal
know that l was here? How could he
have known when he gave the order?
But had short time to think of these
things. We passed through two rooms,
in one of which some secretaries were
writing; we stopped at a third door.
Over all brooded silence which could
be felt. The usher knocked, opened,
and with his finger on his lip, pushed
aside curtain and signed to me to
enter. I did so, and found myself
standing behind a screen
us that M. de Berault?" asked
thin, high-pitched voice.
Eyes, Monseigneur," answered,
trembling.
"Then come, my friend, and talk
to me-"
went round the screen; and knew
not how it was, the watching crcxd
outside, the vacant antechamber in
which I had stood, the stillness-all
seemed concentrated here, and gave to
the man / saw before me a dignity
which he had never possessed for me
when the world passed through his
doors. and the proudest .fawned on
him for smile. He sat in a great
chair on the farther side of the hearth,
little red skull-cap on his head, his
fine hands lying motionless in his lap.
The collar of fawn which fell over his
red cape was quite plain, but the skirts
OF his red robe were covered with rich
lace and the order Of the Holy Ghost
shone on his breast. Among the mu!-
| titudinous papers on the great table
near him saw a. sword and pistols
lying; and some tapestry that covered
a. little. table behind him failed to
hide pair of spurred riding boots.
But HEN spite of these signs of trou-
ble--looked towards me as advanced,
with a face mild and almost benign:
a face in which strove in vain to find
traces OF: last nights passion. So that
It flashed across me that If this man
really stood-and afterward I knew he
did-on the thin razor-edge between
life, and death, between the supreme
of earthly power, lord of France, and
arbiter OF Europe, and the nothing.
ness of the clod, he justified his fame.
He gave weaker natures no room for
triumph: r =. y: !, 3D.: OFF,
[ The thought was no ooners enter.
tanned than It was gone '""And SO you
5are back at last, m. de Berault?'' he
said, gently. 81 have been expecting
to see you since nine this morning. \
$Sz.. 81 our Eminence knew then 80 Il
muttered. II 3: r. 5. z5 *z3 Il.
hat you returned Is Paris by this
Orleans gate last vening, alone? 81
Tie fitted together the. ends Of his
fingers, and looked at me over them
with incrutable eyes. Yes, knew
|all that last night. And. now Of your
missile You have been faithful anl
gdiligent an Sure Yherezi Isl ne
rlTos BeS ntinued.