Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1910-12-09
CHAPTER XVI Continued.

following year. W1en CerlSSe WaS
only eighteen she was married to Har-
old Harcourt, whom she had met while
on visit to Calcutta. He was per-
sonable fellow, of good family and my
aunt thought her only child was MAX
ing a good match. The resemblance
between these four women-my Aunt
Marie, and her daughter Narclsse'
whom you know as Mrs. Harold Har-
court, and my mother and her daugh-
ter, Cerisse Wayne, my sister, was ap-
palling. They all had the same color
ing, the same features almost to the
fraction of an inch, and the same re-
markably exquisite coloring. Yet l
am sure that not until to-day has Mrs.
Harcourt known that Cerisse Wayne
and she were full -blooded cousins, as
Aunt Marie brought her daughter up
in ignorance of the relatives in Africa.
Aunt Marie's idea in this was to pro-
tect my mother from my fathers
wrath, as he had forbidden mother TO
tell us of our aunt, and indeed we
were so young when Aunt Marie de-
parted that we soon forgot her. Moth
er and Aunt Marie never had any COM
munication after Anut Marie left for
India. My mother died when / was
about nine, and Cerisse not quite eight
years old. Cerisse had always been
fathers favorite and after my mothers
death home would have been unbear-
able to me except for Tyoga. We had
excellent tutors in the house, and later
father sent Benoni and me to Europe
to study. / took a doctors degree In
Heidelberg at a remarkably early age,
thanks to the previous instruction I
had received from my father, who was
an exceptionally brilliant man. Benoni
studied with me, for while father had
subordinated Tyoga and her child, my
mother had dealt fairly with them in
the matter of wealth.
II was at Heidelburg when Aunt
Marie came to visit me. 1t was the
year that Narcisse was married, and
three years after Cerisse, a madcap
girl of seventeen, had been sent home
in disgrace from a French convent
after a Irritation with Hackleye, who
had followed her to Africa and mar
ried her there.
Aunt Marie had gone to Africa in
search of her sister. With her daugh-
ter my aunt felt she could safely seek
out her twin sister after the lapse of
all these years. She was grief-strick-
en- over the news of her sisters death,
and unwittingly let fall before my
father that in the Tiougaley region
were some extremely valuable diamond
fields, the secret of whose location had
been made known to her husband, Capt.
De L'Enclos, by an Arabian servitor
80 10 rfa1 hoA Pal
the touch of years, and she had made
joint reason for her African journey
an attempt to locate and work these
mines. Father his avarice all stirred
again. strove to force her to tell him
where they were. Aunt Marie knew
him of old and refused. Learning
was at Heidelberg, she proceeded there,
and stopped with Benoni and me for
over year, giving me the only happi-
ness had known since my mothers
death. She spoke freely to me of my
young cousin Narcisse Harcourt in In
dia. asked me to befriend her If ever
she needed 1t, and showed me her min
iature, so like that of my sister Ce-
risse that could but gasp.
'T went home that summer and left
Aunt Marie in Paris planning to re-
turn to India in the early fall. Later
the news came that she had persisted
in a horrible conflag grafton at a charity
bazaar. This was severe blow to me
for had loved my aunt, and my heart
went out to my unknown cousin.
"Cerlsse had the heart of a fiend
Hackleye had taught her that she was
the most beautiful human existent. A
whim of hers was to fancy herself the
reincarnation of Venus herself. Ce-
risse did not take kindly to the news OF
her equally exquisite cousin across
seas. especially since her children, OF
whom by now she had two, were, with
all due respect to their father whom
they resembled, not particularly come
ly. To satisfy herself Cerisse made a
flying trip to India in disguise, and
there began the tragic end.
Father at this time became cogniz-
ant that 1 knew how to reach the
Tiougaley mines. Aunt Marie had be-
sought me with her farewell breath to
keep this intelligence from him. kept
my faith with her. And as a penalty
for that faith my father subjected me
to the most cruel tortures that forty
fends might have devised. He began
in the castle and ended with them in
the jungle. And when I was nearly
dead from pain and distortion, he real
lied that 1 was dying and the secret
with me. Then he put forth all his un-
canny and exceptional surgical skill
and dragged me back to life-but such
a life-such living death-for no be-
ing so deformed and tainted out of hu-
man shape as ever before walked the
earth.
"Cerisse went to India. She saw
Narcisse and hated her on sight. Mar
cisse had a child. too. by then, and
her one baby was as lovely as Cerisss's
two had been plain, What is more
Cerisse became violently infatuated
with Harcourt. Narcisse's husband. She
made herself known to him one day
as he walked beneath the trees in the
garden, while Narcisse sat in the house
and rocked her baby to sleep, After
the first start Harcourt became inter
ested I know not what wiles Cerisse
used. but this Cerisse soon had Har-