Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-05-28
CHAPTER X

have been altered If our beloved Joseph
inc had been gifted with a will like that
CHAPTER X.
In the Rue de Rivoli there was n little
stone fruit shop. The street was short,
narrow. crooked and i'll paved cleft in
Saint pierre's terrace work. Just across
from the vault-like entrance to the shop,
the white. Scared cliff arose to another
flight Of the city. Between the shop and
the living rooms behind there was little
court, shaded by mango-trees. Dwarfed
banana shrubs hourished in the shade OF
the mangoes, and singing birds were Gag
ed in the lower foliage. Since the sun
could find no entrance, the shop was dark
as a cave, and as cool. One window.
if an aperture like the clean wound of
a thirteen-inch gun could be called win
dow. opened to the north; and from it,
by the grace of a crook in the Rue de
Rivoli. might be seen the mighty caliber-
ed cone of Pelee
Pere Rabeaut's fruit was very good.
and some of it was very cheap. The ser
vice was much as you made it, for if you
were known you were permitted to help
Yourself In this world there was no
one of station too lofty to go to Pierre
Rabeaut's; you would meet no one there
to whom it was not a privilege to say
Bon jour"
Come and see my birds" the crafty
Rabeaut would say, if be approved of
you.
Where do you live?" you might ask,
being stranger.
I'm the coolest howell OF Saint Pierre, ~
was the invariable answer
And presently, if you were truly alive,
you would find yourself in the little stone
shop, listening to the birds In due
course Soronia would appear in the shad-
owy doorway and it would seem that the
bird songs were hushed as she crossed the
court.
If the little stone shop were transplant
ed in New York, artists would find it
and have difficulty in getting in and out,
for the crowd O nights. Thither Con-
stable and Breen made their way on this
burning morning which Mrs. Stansbury
darkened with her decision. The pair sat
down in the cherished GOODNESS. Constable
at the little window. so that he could
look at the mountain.
"Breen. dare not leave them here for
forty-eight hours. until the Panther
comes" Constable said.
DO you really think Pelee can't hold
out that long,"
Constale shook his head impatiently.
I'm not n monomaniac-at lunst, not yet.
Breen." he said. and his voice suggested
the world of pent savagery in his brain.
The ways of volcanoes are past the pre-
visions of men. l do not say that Pelee
will blow his head off this week, or this
millennium. I say I'm afraid for this
girl | say there are vaults of explo-
sives in that monster, the smallest of
which could make this city look like a
leper's corpse upon the beach. | say
that the internal fires are burning high {;
that they are already lingering the vital
cap; that Pelee sprung leak last night,
and that the same force which lifted this
cheerful archipelago from the depths of
the sea is pressing against the leak at
this instant. | say that Vesuvius warned
before he broke; that Krakatoa warned
and then struck that down the ages these
safety valves scattered over the face of
earth have trembled before giving way
pelee is trembling now, and there is a
woman here whose safety is-important
to me. She is two miles away this mo-
ment. and l am as powerless as a man in
a street fight, with his lady's arms about
him. What shall do?"
Peter, there is a short cut" Breen
said
Tell me- Constable urged
Are you Jealous and strong soued?"
Try me-"
At this juncture Soronia entered the
shop from the little court of the song
birds, filling the eyes of the Americans.
4 dark. ardent. alluring face: flesh like
dull gold, made wonderful by the faintest
tints of ripe fruit; eyes that could melt
and burn and laugh; fragile figure. but
radiantly aboom. and rs worthily draped
as a young palm in a vine richly blossom
ing. Such, vaguely, was Soronia. She
made one think of a strange, regal flower,
an experiment of Nature. wrought in the
most sumptuous shadow of tropic gar
den. She was gone Breen's face bore q
drained look
IAN orchid?" he whispered. "Will the
visitation be repeated! Do | wake or
sleep?"
''Old Pere Rabeaut married d French
woman" Constable observed
"Some Daphne of the islands. she must
have beeu. since Pere Rabeaut does not
seem designed to father SUNRISE" Breen
added. his eyes lost in the shadows of the
court, from whence the bird songs came.
Pere Rabeaut was a worthy soldier of
France, | have heard" said Constable. II
have never seen the mother, but every
year | have seen Soronia-for a moment
like this. She was but child when l
came first-fve years ago-but radiant
child even then
Five years ago." Breen mused Five
years ago | had not ceased to paint.
should have put her on canvas
There was moment of silence. then
Constable said in a low voice.,'I must go
back. Tell me the shorter way"
Peter, you are man, and she a wom-
an. Forgive me, but l know what has
sprung into your heart in the past twenty
four hours from the seeds that have been
there FIVE years. Tell her-tell her all
about those five years and the one day
what they have meant to you, and your
dream of the future. If you tell her
nightly enough, she will follow you TO
the Madame and cast no longing look be-
hind | shall stay here for an hour or
two"
Constable left the shop. He was very
miserable, full of undirected wrath. New
er In his life before had there been e
time when stiff shoulder, dollars, an ath-
letic mind, or all three, had failed entirely
to move an obstacle in his way. Here he
was ground by impotence absolute. The
suggestion of Breen entailed such a deep
and vital thing that he dared not think of
it, here In the glaring day, with the pant
ing crowd about him. 1t was against the
very structure of his mind to act precipi-
lately in this. of all matters. most deli
cate. 1t is true that he meant now to
win Lara Stansbury, if such a stately
citadel lay within range of man of his
caliber: but he had vouchsafed to strike
| only after a flawless investment were
| laid.