The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-05-04

with knowledge, and yet open with in
nocence; the eyes of youth marked with
that restfulness which age may bring.
There was sadness in them, and long
ing vet with it was contentment. The
passage of years had scared them, yet
left them fresh as a little child's. To
me they incarnated an eternal para
dox.
turned to the old boulevardier. My
friend withdrew his gaze from Elise
and turned to him also. The old gen.
tleman glanced from one to the other,
of us and chuckled.
"Ah! She has caught you, helm ?"
He moved his hands in a gesture which
meant more than any words could COM
pass. You are intrigued"
We admitted that we were.
He spoke confidentially. II know
her. She is of my geratest friends.
You would wish for an introduction %
We said, with enthusiasm, that there
was nothing we wanted more.
SO he took us across the pavement
and introduced us to Elise.
That was some time ago. I have
paid many visits to Paris since, and
each time / have met Elise. for to me
Paris would be incomplete without her,
She and l are friends now. Our
friendship started and grew from those
moments during which we chatted to
here as she sat in the Hispano on the
Capucines. Yet cit was only recently
that / heard her story, and learnt all
that which was written in her eyes.
The old boulevardier must have
known it all the time, but he said moth
ing, standing by, watching until Elise
should choose to tell me herself, which
l am sure he was confident she would
do from the first.
And one day she told me.
The story of Elise interested me tre-
mendOusly, although not so much as
Elise herself. am going to try to tell
it to you, not as Elise told it, sometimes
with hating phrases and deep flush,
sometimes with quickened words and
shining eyes, with little white hands
moving swiftly in gestures no words
can paint because that is impossible;
but plainly, at length, so that you who
have not seen Elise might gather some
thing of her from what / have set down.
For, after all, Elise is her own story.
only IN one thing / am departing from
the truth, and that is in the names of
the people you will encounter in it, of
Elise and those others she met during
its course.
There will be hate in the story. and
passion, love and forbearance, wicked
ness and much good. 1t is set in Paris.
on the darkened outskirts where the
creatures of shadow cling to life's edge
and watch for the days dawning with
wide, frightened eyes. 1t is set where
the night lights CLEAN white to the
skies on the hill at Montmartre and
the butterflies flutter in their glare
IN tne tlame touches their wings and
they sink in agony to oblivion.
/ will try to tell you of the men
and women who gathered there about
Elise, and who still gather about her
kind; of their rapacity and their lust,
OF their lives and their deaths; but,
above all, l will tell you of Elise her
self, of what happened to. her, and why
we saw her that sunny afternoon rid
ing in the big HispanO on the Boule-
ward dies Capucines, she who had lived
in garnet behind the Olichy and stared
into the eyes of hunger.
Some of you, in the reading. NAV
think the story incredible; some of
you may condemn it because it touches
those things outside the pale of ordinary
sheltered existence. On this last l
have ponedered much before putting
1t into writing. Yet because it is a
page torn from life's book, because it
tells of real happenings to a poor crea-
ture caught in the maelstrOm of dread
unspeakable which Swirls beyond the
fringe of all great cities, think it is
worth the telling.
These things are and always will he.
There is lesson in them for those who
wish to find it; there must at least
be interest for those who study human
ity.
In presenting the story to you in
dulge in no argument. 1t is a plain
tale, as | have said, which endeavors
not to point moral 1t tells of a girls
coming to surely the most dreadful
crossroads that ever could be CON
ceived.
On her decision in that alternative
| make no comment. That she did
right or wrong is for you to Judge
when all the story is told.
That she suffered we none of lis
can deny. That shespaid cent per cent
for all the happiness she NAV have
snatched is beyond all argument.
Some of you may say, when You