The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1914-02-13

coldly All the enthusiasm had beel
on the part of Hippolyte and his wife
They had never dreamed Of plaeinI
, TO such an advantage a daughter n
longer young and never pretty-had
indeed, almost foregone the idea o
placing her at all.
Certainly she wished to marry
Called upon to answer the middle
aged asprant, she did not deny tina
il would please her much better Il
espouse Tanguy than TO remain single
and she even opined that no woman
could prefer to be an old maid In hel
fathers house, a person without stand
ing-to marrying and gaining thereby
a position in the world Still, she ap
peared anything but eager, said she
must have time to reflect Ga sentence
afterward repeated by Hippolyte. as
we have seen with an optimistic shade
of meaning which she, be sure, had
never meant to give III, and attached
conditions TO her marriage which were
calculated to surprise her future hus'
band more than they hattered him,
She must have this-she must have
that Did Tanguy mean to take up
farming? Because in that case, she
would require a servant. On the con-
trary, she was informed, he thought
of buying a small business at which
they both could work-say a little
cafe. She let him see that that would
please her better. If she married
him-and patat and patata! Hippo
/ lyte was at his wits ends, his good
wife scarlet with apprehension, and
| Tanguy said to himself that he had
not known Berthe was so proud.
In fact Berthe was not proud. She
herself was not the least bewildered
of those who were asking why she
was holding back from lot which,
two years before, she would have re-
garded as the greatest, the most 'un-
looked-for good luck.
1t was somewhat over a year ago
that Chauteroi, the great house of
the neighborhood, being in need of
repairs, the owner had got a company
of workmen over from Brest. Among
them came a certain Georges Lirienc,
a young house painter, whose hand
some face speedily made him the OBJ
ject of no ordinary interest to the
girls of Sainte-Agathe. The impress
sion he made upon Berthe was
due far more to the charm of
personality, instinct with beauty and
youth on one who had never pos
sessed the first, and no longer pos
sessed the second than to anything
which had passed between them, and
the vague feeling which undoubtedly
existed at the bottom of her heart and
was kept sacred to his memory would
soon have faded away had it not been
for one episode.
Plonarel, Sainte-Agathe's nearest |
neighbor, had been visited by one of
variety show, which are so often to
be met with in France, and all the |
young people of one village had gone.
1t was almost midnight when they |
turned their faces homeward and !
stepped on to the white, moonlit road !
which stretched between Plonarel and
Berthe and Georges
were walking together. He had
pulled two or three hedge-row
lowers and was combining them,
rs he spoke, with a few grasses
and leaves, laying them this way and
that and finally binding them together
with one of their own stems. The
disheveled result Of this
amateur florists work he suddenly
leld out toward Berthe.
I'm my village" he said, when
nan offers a girl flowers, he means
o ask her to wait until he can put
,ogether enough money to come and
get her"
The girl looked at him amazed,
hen, thinking that she was but listen
ng to one more Of the pleasantries
which he had been carrying on with
much spirit during the evening, she
,itched her answer in the same key.
I'm my village" she retorted, smart
y, "if man had nothing better than
hat to say to girl, she would ask
i'm to pass that way again when he
ould tell her something worth listen ,
ng to-" ,
And then-too late-she seemed to
ee that he had not been joking. I
"Ah," he said, with long breath,
hat was almost sigh, perhaps your 1
ray is safer. All the same-take my I
overs, Berthe" {
She took the poor little bunch in l
Hence, and almost in silence they
nished their walk. Later, in the 7
rivacy of her tiny attic, she put one I
( the flowers in her prayer-book and t
'ied to put it out Of her thoughts to- '
ether with the whole occurrence, h
'hich had somehow left her both
exed and sad.
The leavetaking came a few days
fter, and the sdieux were, perforce, :,
lade In the presence of both Hippo
rte and his wife. Georges showed q
o rancor, but also no empressement,
1owed nothing, indeed but the kind y
est spirit of friendliness, and Berthe
herself heartily that she
I'D not been duped into taking more
sriously what was evidently, after
i, only an awkward joke, thrown n
1T, perhaps, to see what she would
". 1t was not likely, it was most II
1probable that he had meant what
) said. And yet what her reason ad- p
tilted, her heart denied. Underneath
/ the likelihoods and probabilities in
10 world. a feeling persisted and
'ew that he had been In earnest so
-ied down, ridiculed, 1t still pro- r,