Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1922-11-14
Qt.il1n1phS Of -.
M;Jonquel1eX:
BY. MELVILLE DAWSON POST p
20 1000 NEA, Service Inc.
Service a INC.

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 cigarette in his fingers, his manner
and air, a well-bred, bored indif-
ference. The whole house was
crowded. There was not a vacant
seat.
1t was the last performance II
Paris Of Nine. Zirtenzoff's Salome.
A few belated persons passed NJ
Ionquelle and entered tine doors tC
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 one knew him
or cared to know him, all WI.
cnious about the man.
The vast music @ss, nbled and 90.
tended itself.
The foyer becar.e amlty, and sta
NJ. Jonquelle did not 90 in. Per.
haps it was because Nine. ZirtCnzoft
md not gone on. She was a ia nous
reauty; her Salome had the abandon
which stimulated even the jaded
nerves of France. 1t had been on
at the Opera for fifty days, and
Paris was still keen to see it.
The woman was Russian exotic,
one of those ailuring creatures that
alawys assemble fabulous legend
There was a wild passion in her
Salome, and her conquests were
the gossip of Paris.
The opera had continued for per-
laps thirty minutes. Nine. Zirten-
zotf had come on; her voice, like a
silver bell, reached NJ. Jonquelle
clearly where he sauntered in the
fgyer.
Presently the door to a box opened
aod one of the pages of the theater
appeared with an immense bouquet
Of orchids. The flowers were worth
a thousand francs. They could have
been grown in Paris only with ex-
treme care and under every perfec-
ton of light and temperature. 1t
was a mass of flowers that would
have drawn the attention of any
body, exquisite orchids of the genus
0ncidium Kramerii, called the
Notified Butterfly.
1t seemed to nave drawn the at
lection of NJ. Jonquelle. He stopped
the page as he passed him.
"Garcon," he said, handing him a
piece Of geld, find me a box of
cigarettes before you go on with those
flowers. Quickly--dun; l will hold
Chem until you return
The boy knew the great chief of
tie Service de la Surete
He gave M. Jonquelle the bouquet
Of orchids and disappeared down the
stairway. He was gone hardly
moment; when he returned, NJ jon
quelle had not moved from his posi-
ton by a pillar of the foyer. He
handed back the orchids to the page
and received the box of cigarettes.
lie paused moment, fingered the
10y but did not open it; instead, he
walked a few steps down the foyer
and entered the box from which the
page had come out with the or
chds.
One looking would have Won
dered why the Project of Police re-
quired pack of cigarettes, at the
cost of a ten franc gold-piece-
especially as, after having turned it
in his hand, he had put it carelessly
into his pocket and entered a box.
1t would appear that he waited
for these cigarettes 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 was visible to the eye
there was but one person in the box
which M. Jonquelle had entered.
He was person that anyone
would pause almost anywhere to
observe. He was young; he was ex-
Guisitely dressed-a dress in which
there was some of the over-extrava-
Eance of detail, that suggestion of