Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1908-01-16


erty, the Marquis de Pierrepont was
The legal heir to all her possessions.
which henceforth brought him an in
come Of more than four nuu,lred
thousand frahcs. He passed the first
few days Of mourning by hunting
alone in his country place Of Genets
epd returned to Paris toward the last
or October. He took his quarters III
the great mansion Of the ue de Var
enne, which mad belonged to his aunt
but at the same tire he kept his
entresol on the Boulevard Males
herDes, which made the ladies smile
He had always been, even in the
times Of his relative poverty, a per
fcnage very much seen n Partisan
society, where his chiyaIrous grace,
his personal dignity, his discreet
gaIIantry, seemed to give him the aD-
Teararce of the most perfect distinct
ion 1t was not then without sur
Prise hat they saw him reapDear upon
the scene where he was so well
known and 50 much appreciated, with
mdcn less irreproachable attractions.
Already, during the preceding winter,
after his return from London they had
remarked odd changes in his habits
VGy frcnently he had been seen at
the theater, behind the flies Of
font scene, in company with young
women, no doubt very pleasant, but
with whom it is not the custom 10
show ones self in public when one
has pa sscd the period Of adolescence
This detail, it may be remembered
did not escape the clear sight of
Marianne de La Freiilade. He HAD
been CavalCading equally caTeles5ly
through tie ways Of the Bots, by the
side Of some fast young lady riders,
Of this which would not have been
less astonishing on the part IF a
young man just free from his tutor
he made a propriety They said even
that he had brought back from Eng.
land a vice which seems to be less
rare there than among US. At Least the
ViCOmte d'AymGret, who knew Of it,
assured his wife that that devil Pier
rcront has acquired a very agreeable
taste for port and brandy.
The two persons who, in all Paris,
interested themselves the most in the
career of the Marquis PierrepOnt, that
is to say Beatrice and Nine. d'AymaT-
ct, were very much disturbed over
those miserable reports. But they
liked to persuade themselves that the
words were pure calumnies.
However, the rich heir to the for
tune of Nine de MontauTOn had hard
ly entered Paris, in the full possession
of his fortune when he gave to his
cars of temee and conduct an eclat
such that ii was impossible for the
most kindly intcntiOned to be deceived
with regard to the strange metamor-
phosis that had taken place in his
character, He never had been a Puri-
tan, but it had always been seen that
in his ayentures de galenterie he bore
all the moral delicacy, that they
should have, and that seemed consist
ent TO him in an honest man, and that
he did not make a confidant of the
public in the matter of his amours,
and much less in the matter of his
vices. And now they said that he
affected to brave opinion 1t was thus
that he had very indiscreetly placard-
ed his liaisoR with an Operette star,
who, thanks to his liberalites, showed
every day in Bots the most gorgeous
eQUipage in France. But there, they
said, was the host of erring, and they
began to ascribe to him habits and
manner which had a Yillainous enough
character of debauchery. They spoke
high and low, in clubs and IN parlors,
of certain daily suppers where he and
some of his friends of like character
met women who had no prejudices,
whom Paris saw floating like stars es-
capped from their orbits, upon the Dor
der line of society and the demi-
monde. Some of them were taken there
by Their husbands, which is eulogy
enough.
They told that Pierrepont, by eccen-
tricities of the same order, which is
useless to particularize, and which
without formidably staining his honor.
raised little by little, around his name,
until then so respected, a rumor of
dis-esteem.
Beatrice and Nine. d'Aymaret were
too much mixed in the social life, and
went too much about Paris, to not |
have, here and there, sometimes at !
the theater, sometimes in the Bots
to not themselves witness with their /
own eyes the extremely, slightly dis |
guised disOrderly conduct of the Mar
Quis. Moreover, the Vicomtesse had al J
ready been informed upon the subject
by her husband, who was enough of !
an habiue at those famous suppers, /
and Beatrice, upon her side. was in, .
formed by Gustave Ca,vat. whose .Bo- /
hemian industry. despisable but very
anus ng-introduced him into the
alters, cafes of Journalists, where he
gathered with aviGity the current
scandals of T0utP Paris. There never
had been much sympathy between
him and Pierrepont. whom he had
formerly often met at the house of
his brother-inlaw, and thus it was
very easy for him to place these scan
dals in relief, and above all. before !
Beatrice, whose secret solidarity with !
a man of her class, he half felt. But
that which convicted Pierrepont more /
surely in her eyes was the fact that
he had completely abandoned both of
them, as though thus admitting their