The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1913-04-17
CHAPTER III. Continued.

y dsbbling In state plots
CHAPTER III. Continued.
Sophie Linden Sophie Anastase
Therese. Baronne Linden, to give her
her full name-formed In the doorway
OF the silk room Of Monsieur Behrens
q picture not unworthy OF the brush OF
Fragonard; one might almost say she
had his touch: light, flowing, graceful,
she seemed to have stepped from the
mist and muslin n trees and patterns
Of Fragonard-land, to have dropped
from one or those swings that sweep
the drapery OF May through April-col-
ored air, to have risen from n OF
those tombs where Grace in distraction
has cast herself beneath the autumn
trees to mourn for a lover. Lh .
Her face beneath h broad mauve
hat with Its plume OF feathers was dis
tracing, perplexing, less beautiful than
piQuant. capable of somber moods n
charming smiles; wit lay on her lips
t~raordinary mobility of expression
adapted her countenance to the
highest word upon her lips.
deadly property or a delightful, ac-
cording as to whether h used the ra-
pier OF a woman's wit or the laughter
which, despite her rs years, was as
genuine and clear as the laughter OF a
young girl. " t41f
Withal she had a bonhomie natural
a naive, the real gold OF womanhood
showing through all the fretwork that
her experience OF the world had cut
upon Ii.
10 be perfectly frank, this lady, who
had come to Paris some six weeks ago
accredited to the French court on a
microscopic mission to the dauphiness
from the court OF Vienna, was in VII
emma q person OF considerable ~obscurity
with more natural wit than money, and
q fine talent for adventure. Her hus-
band, Baron Linden, was dead. He had
been a small partner in a large bank
that had come to grief, and had died,
leaving his wife nothing but his debts
and her jewelry. Either as a bold
stroke or urged by a natural honesty,
she paid the small creditors by the sale
of her jewelry. established a name for
honesty, made friends with several
hnanciers, disclosed a faculty for
knowing bad speculations from good
ones and blossomed. She possessed
that rarest OF hurnRn gifts, an instinct
for things that were genuine, and the
1inancters OF Jenna who were her
friends. being men of genius, discov-
cred this instinct and being men Of af-
fairs, made use of it,, 4 .ssr 4.,l.LA "
Just then Europe was in a condition
Of ferment and unrest almost analog-
GUS to it's condition today. The deep
discomfort OF the masses, crushed be-
meath the ambitions of a few men,; that
discomfort which today is expressed in
socialism and anarchism. was then
alive under a different name-or per-
haps nameless. Ers ua ~ "'-
Voitaire was breaking to pieces the
ahackles of religion; Rousseau at the
Cafe de Regence was preaching the
right to think; a thousand men, some
IN the gutter, some near the throne,
were preparing the great explosion OF
the revolution. MR.. X
Runors Of this heaving amid the
people filled the world, but were not
understood; scarcely appreciated, ex-
cept by the Jew financiers of Vienna.
Wishing to find out the truth Of things,
they sought an agent, hence the jour-
ney to Paris of Madame la Baronne
Linden; hence a backstairs intrigue by
which our charming friend was en-
trusted with a present from h emp:
ress to the ~dauphiness, made n of
those informal couriers common be-
tween the European courts at that pc
Rod when q present of lace called for
q special commissioner to carry It.
n a Perigord pie stamped on its COW
er with the royal arms went in state
like an ambassador. .
1t was the humor Of love that the
agent Of the Viennese Gundermanns
should have discovered, in her re-
searches into the state of a a
conspirator against the monarchy al
charming as herself-though of the
male sex--the Comte Armand de LUIS
sac. .t%H i ur. ."&
Received at the court, living in a
well furnished house rented in the Rue
Cog Heron, she had made during her
short sojourn In the capital a consid-
cradle impression on the world or
Paris and Versailles. and many enc
mics, whose enmity gave her that
deep satisfaction which the enmity of
the unsuccessful and plain creates in
the successful and beautiful. ~.
The love she had inspired In De Lus-
rae had created for her q willing as
Gassin In the person of Madame lie
Comtesse d'Harlancourt, whose hus-
band we have seen buttonholing De
Bartines at Versailles; Madame de
Joyeuse and Madame de Steulis- hated
her just for herself, and De Sartines,
from her suspected intimacy with De
LusEac, whose steps he was following
with the persistence OF q hound and
whose political intrigues he more than
suspected, had for her a deep mistrust.
This lady, having bowed to Mesdames
&c Joyeuse and de Senlis, advanced,
and. with addressing them. turned her
attention and tongue to Monsieur Beh-
rcns, who was approaching with the
silk which Madame de Stenlis had
wished to see. "f
MY dear Behrens,'' said the new
conner, addressing him tout court with
the manner Of a person addressing a
fsvorfte dog, when you have recov-
ered from h disability under which