Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-11-13
The Notified Butterfly

The opera had opened. The music
began to fill the corridors. But NJ.
Jonquelle did not go in.
He remained idling in the foyer,
a cigaret in his fingers, his manner
and air, a well-bred, bored indif-
Ference. The whole house was
crowded. There was not a vacant
sea
1t was the last performance in
Paris Of Nine. Zirtenzoff's Salome,
A few belated persons passed NJ
Jonquele and entered the doors to
the boxes. Some of these persons
addressed him; all regarded him.
He was a well-known figure in Paris.
His friendship was worth some
thing. and whether m knew him,
or cared to know him. all were
curious about the man.
The vast music assembled and ex-
tended itself.
The foyer became empty, and still
NJ. Jonduelle did not go in. Per-
haps 1t was because Nine. Zirtenzotf
had not gone on. She was q famous
beauty; her Salome had the aban-
don which stimulated wen the jad-
ed nerves of France. 1t had been on
at the Opera for fifty days. and
ans was sui httil " 9CC -
The woman was a Russian exotic,
one of those alluring creatures that
always assemble a fabulous legend.
There was a wild passion in her
Salome, and her conquests were the
gossip of Paris.
The opera had continued for per-
haps thirty minutes. Nine Zirten-
zoff had come on: her voice, like a
silver bell, reached NJ. Jonquelle
clearly where he sauntered in the
foyer.
Presently the door to a box open
ed and n of the pages of the
theatre appeared with an immense
bouquet of orchids. The flowers
were worth a thousand francs. They
could have been grown in Paris
only with extreme care and under
every perfection of light and tenn
p~erature. 1t was a mass of flowers
that would have drawn the attention
of anybody. exquisite orchids of the
genus Oncidium Kramerii, called
the Notified Butterfly.
1t seemed to have drawn the at
tention of NJ. Jonquelle. He stopped
the page as he passed him.
.Garcon," he said. handing him a
piece of gold, find me a box OF
cigarets before you &C on with those
flowers. Quickly-run; l will hold
them until you return"
The boy knew the great chief of
the Service de la Surete.
He gave NJ. Jonquelle the bouquet
of orchids and disappeared down
the stairway. He was gone hardly a
moment; when he returned. Nj. JON
quelle had not moved from his posi-
ton by a pillar of the foyer. He
- Iz1r. F1@ @.zhf1e 10 Tho ~ or
and received the box of cigarets.
He paused a moment, fingered the
box but did not open it; instead, he
walked a few steps down the foyer I
and entered the box from which the
page had come out with the or
chids.
One looking on would have Won
dered why the Prefect of Police re-
quired a pack of cigarets, at the
cost of a ten-franc gold-piece-
especially as, after having turned 1t
in his hand, he had put it carelessly
into his pocket and entered a box.
1t would appear that he waited
for these cigarets before entering
the box. But to what end? One
could not smoke in a box at the
Opera, at its most expensive point
in the ultra-fashionable audience of
Paris. Although the great opera
house was packed with people-not
a vacant seat visible to the eye
there was but one person in the box
which NJ. Jonquelle had entered.
He was a person that anyone
would pause almost anywhere to
observe. He was young; he was eX-
quisitely dressed dress in which
there was some of the -over-extrava-
gance of detail, that suggestion of
elegance, which the Partisan cannot
avoid.
He was a young man and ex-
tremely handsome. a blond French
type with a dainty mustache n
regular Italian features. and thick,
soft. yellow hair presenting the gloss
Of the SEALS coat. In his physical
aspect, for perfection of detail. the
mar had no equal on the Paris
boulevards.
1t had got him a rich American
lifted him, as by a fairy
lamp, out of the sordid environ
ments of an old family in decay.
The thing seemed a piece of the de-
sign of a Providence with an es-
thetic sense.