The Carbon County news., 1931-01-15

dlleE ueF uedlll, ueNelOpeu anu
strengthened by schoolmaster fa-
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 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 suhtlety 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 a way, he was experiencing
the thrill of sanguinary battle. Half
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 firsl
seen Marie Antoinette, when she
was seven and he was nine, he ha(
dreamed of her, and had antici
pated through weeks and months
the journeys which his father per
mitted him to make with him tt
Tonteur manor. On these rare oc
casions he had gazed with childisi
alteration at the little princess o
the seigneurie and had made he
presents of flowers, and feather.
and nuts and maple sugar ant
queer treasures which he br0ugh
from the forests. These tokens
of his homage had never served t.
build a bridge across the abys
which lay between them.
He had stood this hurt and still
kept Marie Antoinette in hi!
thoughts, for there was no othe
child to help fill her place. But sine,
last autumn, when Madame Ton
teur's sister and her son Paul hat
come to the seigneurie, his dream
had grown more clOuded until, ol
this Thursday afternoon, they wer
replaced by grim and merciles
visions of a future vengeance ol
the young man who laughed at hir
and Inundated him, and who, with
out any grace whatever that h
{ could see, basked warmly in tn
smiles and graciousness of Mari
Antoinettes favor.
He was glad when his mothe
and father paused to rest on tn
edge of great rock near the trai
: for this interval gave him opportu
, nifty to go on alone, and when h
! was alone he could tear and thras
: Toinette's cousin in much NOR
admirable way than when tn
others were tramping close at hi
| heels. Suddenly odd stopped S
that his gaunt body made a bal
| rin the IL.