Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1913-02-14

sswN1rs
ed his eyes to the imperiOus little
daughter Of the Marquise d'Andeline
as he vigorously cleaned the way for
her dainty boots, and his life began
anew.
Anne Marie, walking grandly ahead
of her governess, did not see Jacques,
which was we'll, because he was very
grubby and dirty, and his clothes were
ragged.
But there was an expression In the
boys face, already old, which Anne
Marie was to see in later years, and
had she looked at him then she might
afterWard have remembered the mud
dy crossing broom in his grimy hands,
his dirty face and his indecently rag
Ced clothes. to the hurt of her pride,
for Anne Marie, whose family was one
of the four oldest and one of the four
prOudest and one of the four most use
less families in France, was one day
to marry Jacques Brachard, the cross
ing sweeper of Marseilles.
There fell a vision upon Jacques
Brachard that day, and it never left
his slowly expanding soul until he
made it real. He took it with him
when he went to sleep on pile of
straw in a rat infested garnet in the
Thieves Corner. 1t stirred his dreams
and was with him when he awoke.
When he was at school, because he
was dirtier and more ragged than any
of the other boys, they bullied and
reviled him until he turned upon them
with the fear and rage Of an animal at
bay in his heart and, with his harder
muscles, whipped them into respect
This was primitive battle which
had presented no problem to his mind.
In his career in the streets he had
brought the cunning of his class into
play to wrest pennies from fortune.
AS long as Anne-Marie remained in
MarsciIes, Jacques Brachard saw her
every day, and she never saw him.
When she went away he gave up
sweeping the streets and went to work
on the docks, where he could earn
more money. He worked hard and
saved and grew to be master of the
men he worked with.
lie had learned that all things may
he bought for gold-rank, title, social
position, even beautiful woman. 1t
was in that way only that he might
win Anne Marie and he resolved to
gather gold until he could make gilt
tering pile Of it beside her, even to
her own height, if that should be the
price
When he reached the stature Of man
hood Jacques Brachard was tall and
broad and lean as winter wolf, with
the strength of a dock laborer In his
Ions. awkward, loosely swinging arms
and his wide. muscle hidden Shout
Lers He was restless, nervous, I'M
couth. but the embodiment of relentless
purpose and power.
He was such man when he appear
ed i'll Paris, after more than ten years
of silent worship of Anne Marie; a
decade of cOurtShip that was a battle
with fists and brain. And Paris hailed
him as the man who brought with him
the age Of gold.
He began the development of Won
derfUl Egyptian copper mines, made
himself master of the world of finance
and the richest man in France, while
all who knew him climbed to wealth
along the easy slopes he pointed out.
Then he married Anne-Marie d'Ande-
line, who took him because her haugh
ty, impoverished mother begged on
her knees for q wealthy son-in-law.
Ill L. x-A
because he was rich and uncouth, and
she knew that he had bought her, just
as he had bought the magnificent man
sion, once owned by a dead and hap
PLY forgotten nobleman, to which he
transported her, his bride.
There Jacques Brachard learned that
his wife hated him, because she told
him so and told him why; and he loved
her so much that he pitied her, he who
had never pitied any one, not even
those whose fortunes he took to their
utter RUM and he left her to her own
ways.
To her own ways and to the insid
ious temptings of a man Of her class,
Jerome lie Govain, whom she had
known always.
This Jerome lie Govain was the pre-
vailing type of a Partisan nobleman
He was disSOlute, constituencies, in
humanity Skillful with sword and piS-
toll and courageous with either. and he
had been a pauper, depending upon the
bounty of Il woman whom. he lyingly
deceived until he engrafted himself
upon Jacques Brachard and made mon
ey in Egyptian copper.
Now, to add interesting complexion
to his relations with Brachard, he be-
gan to make secret love to his wife.
Jacques Brachard was waiting gloom
lily in his drawing room for Anne Ma
re to finish dressing for her mothers
reception and join him. He was rest
less. as always, and paced up and down
the softly carpeted floor. He was
thinking, as always, and his brows
were drawn together. His evening
clothes hung anonymously upon him.