The Coolidge examiner., 1931-04-03

ther, had given to her a medium of
priceless value by which to meas
ure happiness.
Because of her adrOitness in fash
ioning beauty and perfection out of
simple and inexpensive things, and
also because she was of the spawn
of the despicable English, Madame
Henriette TOnteur had come to re-
gard her with much the same aver
sion and dislike with which she
would have looked upon a cup Of
poison.
TOnteur knew this and cursed in
his honest heart at the woman who
was his wife, with her coldly patri-
clan face, her powdered hair, her
jewels and gowns and her platonic
ignorance of love - and then
thanked his God that little Marie
Antoinette was growing less like
her with each day that passed over
her pretty head. For Marie An
toinette was tempestuous, like him
self, a patrician without doubt, but
with warm and ready passion to
offset that curse, and for this, too,
he blessed the fortune which in one
way had been so kind to him.
Behind her husband and boy
Catherine had been thinking of
Tonteur and of his wife, the aristo-
cratic Henriette. For a long time
she had known of Madame Ton
teur's hatred, but it was not until
this afternoon that the other dis
cOvery had come to her, for, in spite
of his most heroic efforts, Tonteur
had betrayed himself when sudden
ly she had caught him looking at
her. Catherine had seen the shad-
ow of his secret-like a ghost swift
ly disappearing. Up over the Hill
she had added many twos and twos
together. until, in the sure way of
woman, she knew what Tonteur
was thinking and did not fear or
distrust him for it.
And Madame TOnteur hated her.
Disbelieving whatever good might
have been said of Catherine, she
hated her first as a deadly enemy
of her race, and hated her then be
cause she dared hold her head as
proudly as barOn's lady. and
hated her last Of all because, moth
ing more than the wife of a worth
less backwoodsman like Henri Bu-
lain, she was impudent enough TO
be the prettiest woman anywhere
near the Tonteur seigneurie.
And, so far as it was in her
power, she had planted and nur-
tured this hatred to growth in the
heart and mind of her proud daugh-
ter, Marie Antoinette, until Tonteur,
blind to the feline subtlety Of a
woman in such matters. wondered
why it was that his girl, whom he
wOrshiped above all other things on
earth, should so openly display un-
friendliness and dislike whenever
Jeems came to Tonteur manor.
OF this same thing Jeems had
been thinking as he walked ahead
of his father and mother. His mind,
at present, was busy with the stress
of fighting. Mentally, and physical
ly, in way. he was experiencing
the thrill of sanguinary battle Half
a dozen times since beginning the
long climb over Tonteur's hill he
had choked and beaten Paul Tache,
and in every moment of these men,
tai triumphs Marie Antoinette
looked on with wonder and horror
as he pitilessly assailed and van
quished her handsome young cousin
from the big city of Quebec.
Even in the heat of these vivid
imaginings, Jeems was sick at
heart, and it was the shadow of
this sickness which Odd caught
when he looked up into his mas
ter's eyes.
From the day Jeems had first
seen Marie Antoinette, when she
was seven and he was nine, he had
dreamed of her, and had antici-
pated through weeks and months
the journeys which his father per-
mitted him to make with him to
Tonteur manor. On these rare Oc-
casions he had gazed with childish
alteration at the little princess of
the seigneurie and had made her
presents of flowers, and feathers
and nuts and maple sugar and
queer treasures which he brought
from the forests. These tokens
of his homage had never served to
build a bridge across the abyss
which lay between them.
He had stood this hurt and still
kept Marie Antoinette in his
thoughts, for there was no other
child to help fill her place. But since
last autumn, when Madame Ton
teur's sister and her son Paul had
come to the seigneurie, his dreams
had grown more clOuded until, on
this Thursday afternoon, they were
replaced by grim and merciless
visions of future vengeance on
the young man who laughed at him
and humiliated him, and who, with
'ut any grace whatever that he
could see, basked warmly in the
smiles and graciOusness of Marie
AntOinette's favor.
He was glad when his mother
and father paused to rest on the
edge of a great rock near the trail.
for this interval gave him epportu-
nifty TO go on alone, and when he
was alone he could tear and thrash
Toinette's cousin in a much more
admirable way than when the
others were tramping close at his
heels. Suddenly Odd stopped so
that his gaunt body made a bar
rier against JeemS' knees. Thev