The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1914-01-23
CHAPTER II.
he Government lnterferes.

The Government lnterferes.
There is short cut across that
meadow said the young girl, raising
a rounded, sun-tinted arm, bare to the
shoulder. And, after that, you viii
come to thicket of white birches."
Thank you, mademoiselle.
And after that, she said, idly fol-
lowing with her blue eyes the contour
of her own lovely arm, you must turn
to the left, and there you will cross a
hill You can see it from where We
stand
A deadened report shook the sum-
mer air-the sound of a cannon fired
very far away, perhaps on the cita-
del OF Strasbourg. Without turning
my head I said: 1T is difficult to be-
lieve that there is war anywhere in
the worlds it not, mademoiselle? ."
Not if one knows the world" she
said, indifferently
do you know it, my child?'
Sufficiently" she said.
She had opened again the book
which she had been reading when I
first noticed her. From my saddle
saw that it was Moliere.
"Why do you tend turkeys?" /
asked
Because it pieases ME" she re-
piled, raising her eyebrows in faint
displeasure.
For that same reason you read
Monsieur Moliere?" | suggested.
Doubtless, monsieur
Are you what you pretend to be,
an Alsatian turkey tender?''
'Parbleu There are my turkeys,
monsieur"
Perhaps said I, but | have asked
you q question which remains par
ried Who are you?" l demanded
''Oh, mere nobody III such learned
company" she said shaking her head
with mock humility that annoyed
me intensely.
Very well" said |, conscious every
moment of her pleasure in my dis
comfiture; under the circumstances
I am going TO ask you to accept my
escort to La Trappe; for | think you
are Mademoiselle Elven, recently Of
the Odeon theater'
Monsieur" she said, do. you ride
through the world pressing every
peasant girl you meet with such ar
| dent entreaties? Truly, your fashion
of wooing is not slow, but everybody
knows that hussars are headlong gen
tlemen-'Nothing is sacred from a
hussar,'" she hummed, deliberately.
in a parody which made me writhe in
my saddle
tMademoiselle," said /, taking off
| my forage cap. your ridicule is not
the most disagreeable incident that [
expect to meet with today. l am at
tempting to do my duty, and / must
ask you to do yours.
And if | refuse?"
Then" said |, ,amiably, 81 shall be
obliged to set you OH my horse" And
| dismounted and went toward her.
After a silence she said, very seri-
ously. Monsieur, would you dare use
violence toward me-"
| ooh, I shall not be very violent"
replied, laughing. / held the opened
see the dial If she chose
1T is one o'clock" | said, closing
| the hunting-case with a snap.
| She looked me steadily in the eyes.
| will you come with me to La
| Trappe?"
| She did not stir.
! l stepped toward her; she gave me
breathless, defiant stare; then in an
| instant I caught her up and swung
her high into my saddle, before either
| she or L knew exactly what had hap
pened.
| She was clever enough not to try
/ to dismount, woman enough not to
make an awkward struggle or do any
| thing ungraceful. In silence, I led the
horse forward through the open gate
| out into the wet meadow
AS for my turkey-girl, she sat stiff1y
in the saddle, with frmness and de
| termination that proved her to be a
| stranger to horses. I scarcely dared
| look at her so fearful was | of laugh
| ing.
So We went on The spectacle of a
| cavalryman in full uniform leading a
cavalry horse on which was seated an
Alsatian girl in bright peasant cos
tune appeared to astonish the few
| people we passed
We met a dozen people in all, I
think. some of them peasants, one
| or two of the better class-a country
/ doctor and 81 notary among them.