The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1908-08-20


| ed for her no more by
the fawning advances iheU 'GIt We
or the spitefu inslnua- w pe,'"o ,'.'''
! tions Of Pharos than by ''PP'''' "''''
| the heroics of an uneasy emperor or
the ingenious experiments in reconcil-
| ing contradictions wherein his minis
! ters were engaged. For her the days
! lived or lived not as she met or failed
to meet Casimlr de Savres. 1t was the
season of her first love. Yet, with all
It's Joy, the shadow Of doubt is over It.
II seems not perfect. The delight is in
receiving. not in giving. His letters TO
her, full Of "reminiscences of their meet
ings and talks. are shaded with doubt
and eloquent Of insecurity. She was
no more than a girl in years, but in
some ways her mind was precociously
developed-her ambition was spreading
It's still growing wings. Casimirs con
stant tone of Difference, almost of adu-
lation, marks in part the man, In part
the convention in which he had been
bred, but II marks, too, the suppliant.
To the last he Is the wooer not the
lover, and at the end of his ecstasy lies
the risk Of despair. For her part, she
often speaks of him afterward and al
ways with the tenderest affection. She
never ceased TO carry with her wher-
ever she went the bundle of his letters,
tied with scrap OF ribbon and in
scribed with date. But there is one
reference worthy of note TO her inner
most sentiments toward him, to the
true state Of her heart as she came to
realize 1t by and by. II loved him, but
hadn't grown into my feelings" she
says. Brief and almost accidental as
the utterance is, II IL full of signif-
canoe, but its light is thrown back. II
Is the statement of how she came to
know how she had been toward him,
not OF how in those happy days she
seemed to herself to be.
He knew about Crouch. He had been
told by a coplous superfiuity OF female,
friendliness, by Lady Meg, cloaking
suspicious malignity under specious
penitence; by Nine. Mantis with i'm
pertinent and intrusive archness; by
Marie Zerkovitch in the sheer impossi-
bility OF containing within herself any
secret which had the bad fortune TO he
intrusted to her. Sophy's own confes-
sion, made with incredible difficulty,
she hated the name so, fell fiat and
was greeted with laugh of mockery.
II happened at the Calvaire at FoD-
tainebleau, whittier they had made
days and nights excursion under the
escort OF Marie Zerkovitch and q stu
dent friend OF hers from the Quarter
Latin. These two they had left behind
slipping beer at restaurant facing the
chateau. On the eminence which com
mands the white little town dropped
amid the old forest, over against the
red roofs of the palace yying In rich
ness with the turning leaves, In sight
of view In it's own kind unsurpassed,
In its own charm unequaled, sophy
broke the brutal truth which was TO
end the infatuation OF the head OF
house old as st. Louis.
TITS bad to pronounce, is itf" asked
Casimir, smiling and touching her
hand. "Ah, well, good or bad,
couldn't pronounce II, SO TO me II is
nothing"
They'd all say it was terrible-a
mesailliance."
II fear only one voice on earth saying
that"
"And the fraud ! am-De Gruche"
She caught his hand tightly. Never be-
fore had II occurred to her TO defend
or TO excuse the transparent fiction.