Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1907-02-16
CHAPTER V.


away down the stone staircase, Bebe,
with her door safely locked on the inside
and nothing to keep her company but
the various reflections of her white and
frightened face in the numerous mirrors,
did exactly what GARNER had feared she
would do-broke into violent fit of
weeping and soobed and cried hysterical-
ly until she was absolutely too exhaust
ed to do so any longer.
She had been very naughty girl, she
realized that now, though as a matter
of fact her unusual upbringing and ex-
IRENE innocence prevented her from real
izing the full extent of the dangers into
which that naughtiness had led her, OF of
the compromising situation in which she
had been placed But even as it was,
her punishment--the punishment of be-
ing shut out from her own home and
obliged to trust to n strangers kindness,
and to pass the night in the dreary I'M
congenial surroundings of a strange
hotel-seemed even more severe than the
naughtiness warranted
She was 10, this little Anglo French
girl who mad never even seen the Eng
land of which she was so proud, and had
never known mothers care or love
since her mother. young French teach
er, had died while she was still a mere
infant. IF her father she retained only
a childish recollection. as of some one
with a big. brown beard, who always
talked to her in English, and would not
let her use French words in speaking to
him; who took her about in railway
carriages and would let her sit on his
knee in the twilight and sing her to
sleep with ballads about Nelson and the
Nile" Wen all go a-hunting today"
and The good old Scottish cavalier"
The railway journey had ended at last
in Caen, and the old-fashioned house be-
hind the high wall in the Rue Caumont.
Pere Antoine's existence seemed to com
mence there. She could remember him in
those days, assisting her father with his
coat, brushing his masters hat, or re-
monstrating with herself
DO not touch this. Mademoiselle Behe.
Do not disarrange that Ii done, wicked
little one! Must / complain to monsieur
votre perez" to all of which Alademoiselie
Bebe had paid very little attention.
1t was about that time, TOO, that her
guardian appeared on the scene. He used
to come over from England to see her
father, who had ceased to go out much,
and sat in a big chair with a shawl over
h.3 knees and coughed when he took her
upon them coughed so much that he
could not sing her any more songs, and
told her stories instead.
She retained only confused recoliee-
ton of his death The big chair seemed
to have been empty for ever so long, and
she had been left to play about in the
garden by herself ard had only been
taken into his room to kiss him as he
lay in bed before going off to her own
cot at night. Then one day they told
her she must not go in; that her father
was gone away to heaven. After that
came very dismal time. indeed, when
she had no one to pet her or tell her
stories. Il period which was happily
ended by her guardian sending her to
the convent schoo! at Blainville, where
the nuns were very kind to her and
called her pauvre petite orpheline, and
taught her easy lessons and spoiled and
"mothered" her, as those childless
daughters of the church delight in do
ing with the little ones committed to
their care.
In that quiet convent school Bebe re-
manned nearly ten years. spending her
holidays in the old home in Caen, where
Pere Antoine. who had in the meantime
obtained the post of head verger at st,
Etienne, and annexed to himself an emf
nently respectable, middle aged wife, was
installed as concierge and custodian.
Thither, too, came the child's guardian,
at irregular intervals, on business which
seemed equally connected with the care
of herself and of certain house properties
with the letting of which he had been
entrusted.
He was a hard, bony little man. with
very red hair and whiskers, and very
light eyes, which, as they twinkled be-
hind gold trimmed spectacles, gave him
something of the look of an irate bird.
The nuns at the convent, indeed, regard.
ed him for the most part with mingled
fear and repulsion, and spoke of him as
chat terrible red man." whose fault it
was that their poor, innocent Bebe was
forced to grow up a hereto; but the
mother superior, a broad minded and
energetic lady, who was not only wom-
an of intellect but of strong business
capacity, said he was simply a man of
business carrying out the instructions of
those who employed him, to the best of
his capacity.
TO BE CONTINUED.