Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1907-03-02

English "Huguenote" no less warmly
than her Norman school fellows-that
had brought very forlorn and unhappy
girl to the convent parlor that morning,
TO seek for the refuge and protection she
had so often found there before But
the present mother superior although
quite as devout as her predecessor and
more intellectual, had, humanity speak
ing, no conception of love whatever,
while sympathy in her ears meant little
beyond a sentimental phrase.
Therefore she sat very upright in her
tall, throne-like armchair beside the
round table, and the girl seated opposite
to her, with flushed cheeks and parted
bps and eyes dewy with lately shed
tears. felt her confidence dying away and
the flush of hope and excitement fading
into chill pallor, born of dismay and
disappointment, under the hard and con-
demnatory scrutiny of those stern eyes,
which had never softened or wayered for
moment in their expression of cold
disapproval as Bebe faltered out her
story
Il have listened to you without inter
ruption," the mother superior went on,
because l make it rule always to hear
persons stsry fron their own lips be-
fore forming my opinion on it, or taking
that of another. What version your fos-
ter parents, the respectable verger of
| St Etienne and his wife, might give of
the truly shocking affair, | do not know,
but according to your own statement
| you seem to have involved yourself,
from sheer willfulness and love of pleas
ure, iii an adventure about as unseemly
and discreditable as any girl could well
| have the shame of confessing"
| Alas, ma mere, yes; | have said sol"
/ whispered the culprit in great elf-abase-
ment while two tears trickled sorrow
fully down her cheeks
You have deceived and paid no at
| tention to the wishes of those respon-
sible for your welfare. and almost forced
yourself upon the society and attention
of man who was n total stranger to
you, and of whom you knew nothing,
with freedom and indelicacy of which
no girl of education, lie girl capable of
the slightest modesty, could be capable"
| Bebe's face was hidden in her hands,
! and the tears trickled through down to
the lap of her blue serge frock, but she
offered no protest. Was it not all too
| true?
And, although owing to no prudence
or foresight on your part, this stranger,
to whom you so imprudently committed
| yourself, seems. according to your story,
to have behaved to you as a gentleman
and man of honor
ut is true, reverend mother-indeed,
it is true!" sobbed the culprit. who. for
some occult reason, whilst confessing her
own misdeeds, had abstained from re-
| peating one word of those attributed by
Mere Margot to her companion in guilt.
| What could have saved you, or who
would even have pitied you," the mother
superior went on, paying no attention to
the penitent, ''if it had been otherwise;
and your sinful carelessness-"
ooh, reverend mother, you forget
knew he would take care of me if he
said so! He was English" Bebe cried,
quite innocently.
1t was her first appeal for herself, and
most unfortunate one. The late moth
er superior had been lady of old Nor
mandy, of a family closely connected
with our Harcourts in England; the
| present one was a Partisan, belonging to
worthy bourgeois family in Paris; and
the middle class tradesfolk in that city
have as little real liking for English
people as their prototypes in London
have for the French
$50 much the worse!" she retorted
sharply. Merely to think of a girl
any girl in whom one has taken the
smallest interest-in the hands of one of
| the goddess, mannerless natives of that
island makes one shudder. Your conduct
is equally culpable either way; but if
this had been a French gentleman Of
honor, and
Il would never have gone with a
French gentleman | would not have
dreamed of it," Bebe interrupted, with
unnecessary heat.
TO BE CONTINUED.