The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-17

thought they recognized in her -cer- , tain young woman who had kept , glove and perfumery shop In their city;
 but they were convinced freezingiy
 by her that they were mistaken and
 had to apologize humbly for being mis- led by one of those confounded and
 awkward resemblances that occur now and then. 7F '
 At any rate. there was no doubt that
 she was rich, or. rather. as the eager
 geniuses discovered promptly, that she was we'll supplied with money. The
 source of that money was a kindly. sood-natpred. staid man of the world
 whom Jack had been taught to call
 Bon Amt" and whom he loved very much.
 The Countess de Barancy was seized
 upon by the faculty of the Gymnase
 as the little King of Dahomey had
 been. They decided to celebrate her
 opportune arrival by a literary even ing which should show her what a Il dazzling world of talent her son was
 to enter. Even DArgenton. the ele-
 gant D'Argenton, who looked haught-
 fly on the stupid and unappreciative
 world, unbent and bought gloves out
 of the paltry. remnants of the miser- able allowance that his stupid old aunt d sent him once a month.
 Il From all the eccentric quarters of Paris came the failures in art. litera- ture and architecture, freezing and shivering, threadbare and solemn, all
 unknown and ignored and all eager to show themselves, pose themselves, re- cite something, sing something. to Il prove to themselves that they existed.
 There were poets and philosophers I whose worn-out, faded wives showed what was the cost of maintaining a man
 of genius. There were others who had become famous by a phrase, a ges- |. tad l. ever afterward, unweariedly through the hungry years. There was a gentle
 man who glowered savagely. never
 speaking, except to mention that he had read Proudhon. There was another who was introduced proudly as Ber-
 zellus's nephew.
 II Labassindre, in gala costume made
 the room tremble from time to time
 with "Beuh! Beuhw trumpeting 1t
 forth to make sure that his wonderful
 note his famous note was all right They all surrounded Ida de Barancy. They all needed money and worship. Moronval wanted to found a Review for which all the rest were to write. They had famous ideas Ida de Ba-
 rancy was blissfuliy conscious that this wonderful monarchy of wit and art had
 made her its queen.
 Suddenly there was a silence Amaury
 d'Argenton had consented to recite his uOple poem 1ne CreuO or Love. Wltn
 immensely long, waxed mustaches,
 with hair thrown back to expose an
 interminable forehead. gazing at the holdings on the ceiling, he acclaimed. pausing between each line to allow the
 exclamations of delight to be heard. Hugo, but more modern, more : perfect" "Stupendous" "Sublime'" : Goethe. but with more feeling and art"
 That poor little linnet the imaginary Countess de Barancy listened, looked . and was lost. From that instant he 2 was a fatal and superhuman being to her. She belonged to him. She had no eyes any more for her little Jack who . was sending her frantic kisses where Inc sat among the dusky pupils. She be- ! held her poet, and him alone. He received her adoFing praises with calm disdain that made her stin more . his helpless slave Majestically he ac. cepted her invitation to dine in the mansion on the Boulevard Haussmann. . He even condescended to tell her his l famous anecdote of how he had crushed
 editors publishers managers who had refused to print or produce his works. This anecdote always ended: And when I said to him these terrible words: Sir we shall meet again And ! he was so vexed!"
 Meantime poor little Jack cried him. self to sleep nightly, longing for his
 dear, pretty mama and his kind Boni Ami. He was the admired pupil now; . but he was very lonely very desolate and sad. The sacred. stolid little sav- ages who were his fellow pupils had It,
 tie to say, and did not know how to D play. Worse than all. Madou had told
 him how he was being treated and he ! said with gleaming eyes: "Ah, if ever . be King of Dahomey, I write kind letter to M. Moronval, make him come Da- honey, cut on his head In big copper - basin, and make war-drum out of his
 skin!"
 Thereafter he dreamed wildly Of { bloody heads in basins, naked savages in weather head-dresses, and In the
 midst of 1t awoke in fright for fear that
 he, too. would become prisoner in the gloomy, shabby. dirty house to be beat. en and kicked by the crazy faculty. One day the blow fell. A curt letter
 from d'Argenton apprised Monroval
 of the fact that the death of his aunt
 had changed hIs circumstances and that
 he would act no longer as professor of
 literature. Then came the news that the house in the Boulevard Haussmann
 had been given up.
 She has gone off with that beggarly fellow, that swaggerer. devoid of talent
 and wit" said Moronval, furiously. He was right. The poet, captivated by the admiration of Ida de Barancy, had fallen in love with her through being so much in love with himself He had |, taken her away from Bon Ami" and } they had retired to the simple and
 innocent country, where the poet pro- posed to live on the little fortune left
 by his stupid old aunt, while he wrote
 his great epic work, The Daughter of
 Faust
 The great Review, all the patheti-
 cally happy dreams of the futile ones, Ot,a hu that selfish
 Fiercely they assailed him at the din-
 ner table that day. When they had
 worn him out as a theme for their
 wrath Hirsch and Labassindre began to
 make remarks about the Countess.
 They said witty things about Lord
 Peambock, about the Count de Ba-
 rancy, about Bon Ami. Jack, too inno-
 cent to understand. still realized that
 they were taunting his mother, scoff-
 ing at her. The obscure words re-
 mained in his mind like a doubt. a
 stain.
 While he was in his grief about his
 mothers departure without sending
 him even a letter. a tragedy shook
 his young heart. The little black
 King, weary of thrashings, fled from
 school. intending to make his way to
 Africa After days of search he was
 found. half starved. half frozen. in the
 streets. Dragged back to the lnstt-
 tute he was beaten saVegely by Mo- ronval and then thrown into the dormi-
 tory That night Jack crept to the
 bedside where the pltiful little figure