The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1910-05-13
CHAPTnR XXVI lContlnnedl.

Oiit NthkNltI was porn 10 lltlNt llHlAiNN
Narcisse. Capt. Dc LGnclos died the
following year. When Cerlsse was
only eighteen she was married to Har-
old Harcourt, whom she had met while
on a visit TO Calcutta He was per g.
sonable fellow, OF good family and my
aunt thought her only child was max
ing a goAd match. The resemblance
between these four womcn-my Aunt
Marie and her daughter Narcisse'
whom you know ms 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 70 the
fraction Of an inch, and the same re-
markably exquisite coloring Yet /
am sure that not until to-day has Mrs
Harcourt known that Cerisse Wayne
and she were full l-blooded cousins, as
Aunt Marie brought her daughter up
I'm ignorance Of the relatives in Africa,
Aunt Maries idea in this was to pro-
tect my mother from my fathers
wrath, as he had forbidden mother 70
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 1 took a doctors degree In
Heidelberg at a remarkably early age
thanks to the previous instruction l
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.
Il was at Heidelburg when Aunt
Marie came to visit me. II 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 unwittingIy 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 LEnclos, by an Arabian servitor |
of his. Aunt Marie's fortune had felt |
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 l
was at Heidelberg, she proceeded there,
and stopped with Benoni and me for
over a year. giving me the only bappi-
ness l 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 it, and showed me her min
iature, so like that of my sister Ce-
risse that l could but gasp
II 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 perished
in a horrible conhagration at a charity
bazaar. This was a severe blow to me,
for l had loved my aunt, and my heart
went out to my unknown cousin.
"Cerisse 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
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 7
they resembled, not particularly come
ly. To satisfy herself Cerisse made a d
flying trip to India In disguise and !
there began the tragic end {
Father at this time became cogniz- !
ant that / knew how to reach she t
mines. Aunt Marie had be-
sought me with her farewell breath 70 |
keep this intelligence from him. kept /
my faith with her. And as a penalty +
'or that faith my father subjected me t
10 the most cruel tortures that forty t
lends might have devised He began +
n the castle and ended with them In g
he Jungle. And when 1 was nearly {
lead from pain and distortion, he real t
zed that / was dying and the secret o
With me. Then he put forth all his un- Il
,anny and exceptional surgical skill d
md dragged me back to life-but such
life-such a living death-for no be- lC
ng 50 deformed and taunted out of hu- Il
nan shape as / ever before walked the n
arth. r.
"Cerisse went to India. She saw d
Jarcisse and hated her on sight. Mar h
sse had child, too, by then, and "
er one baby was as lovely as Cerisss's h
wo had been plain. What is more, E
'erisse became violently infatuated n,
With Hareourt, Narcisse's husband. She g
lade herself known to him one day II
s he walked beneath the trees in the o.
arden, while Narcisse sat in the house al
nd rocked her baby to sleep. After d.
he first start Harcourt became inter- n
sted. | know not what wies Cersse in
sed, but this Cerisse soon had EIar- as
ourt bound hand and foot Narcisse Ri
as ousted from her husbands heart
erisse had forgotten her home aAd fiji
lildren M
Both Cerisse and Harcourt stopped sa
actual murder They began to play M
royal game The resemblance be- tn
yeen Cerisse and Narcisso made this no
Dsy They kept Narcisse under the wi
huence of the loco blossoms--drugged mi
5r poor mind almost to imbecillty fo
hen Narcisse lay stupeded from the co