Year: 1869

} young girl and 4 man close by bench


beneath some linden trees. They
! were MT sitting, but standing. The
! did not youchsafe me any notice, bu,
:, [ recognized at once the songsress OF
the evening and the geatlemanly
!; young Frenchman. She was leaning
, her head Oh his shoulder, and sobbine
grievously as if her heart would
burst. To me it seemed-but the ae.


ton was so momeutary that | could


not be sure-that he was pointing
with his hand towards the carriage


that was now within sight. Ofcourse


could not venture to say word, or


even to pause, but as walked past


them, l heard a conyulsive sob, and


then in English, in a low tone, quite


a Whisper


20, no, no ! II Cannot be until FIJI
Idayr'


When 1 again turned back to re-
sumo my customary round, the door
of the cabriolet was being opened by
a servant, and methought it was the
same young man who was entering,
but [ could not be certain. The
young girl was sitting absorbed in
thought on a bench-not the same
bench, but another higher up the
avenue With a sudden impulse 1
moved to address her, and respect
fully raised my hat. As soon as she
saw me, an expression of the great
est terror passed into her face, and
she arose and fed like tightening
down the boulevard, and was soon
! lost amid the stems of trees.


II. THE SECOND WHISPER.


l confess, that before l went to
sleep that night, nv mind was full of
speculations on this little scene. At
first l was full Of CONSERVATION about


this young girl, concering whom it
was quite clear that she was lonely
and that she was unhappy. Next
my imaginative faculty set to work
weaving tissue of romance to suit


the somewhat strange events / had
witnessed. mentally resolved that


l would make a point of dropping in
at the Sale d'Artois for the next few
nights, and observe how matters in
general were progressing. In the
morning, over the practical business
of dejeuner la fourchette, the little
romance of last night all its coloring.


There was nothing so remarkable that
an English girl should be singing at
place of entertainment, that she
should have a French sweetheart,
and that her French sweetheart should
make her cry. had no business in
the world to obtain a surreptitious
view of those tears. Then [ did not
see how | could carry my evenings
Investigations any further. That
night we were going out to dinner to
meet at the apartment of some Eng
lish friends who invariably kept us
very late The night following We
had the offer of private box at the
Theatre Franciscan offer too good
to be refused, Imust postpone any
inquiry, or rather let the matter drop
altogether. Everybody gets familiar
with the experience of letting a thing
drop. There is some clew to a diff
Guilty, but we cannot carry it out;
some fresh pursuit, but we have no
time to prosecute it; an interesting
correspondence, but we must give it
up; a new introduction, but we can
not stay to see whittier it may lead,
and as grapes, hanging so high that
we don't care to take the trouble of
climbing for them, are probably sour,
| told myself that the sale was bru-
tai hole not worth entering again and |
that anything I thought remarkable
about the girl was simply the result /
of my own frivolous fancy.


1 may as we'll tell the reader what
was my business and mode of life in
Paris. 1 was a journalist, doing
French work for English papers and
English work for French papers. 1
occupied the dignifed position of
Paris correspondent to the Cooke
town Daily Express" flaming radi-
cal diurnal journal which was pub
lished in one of our great industrial
centres. The proprietors insisted |
that should give my casual cOnver-
sations with great ministers of state
and retail all the gossip that 1 might
hear at the Imperial ball at the Tui- |
leries. As a matter of fact, [ very
rarely went du chdtedH and my visit |
were limited to occasions when the
court being absent from Paris, OBJ
tanned the usual order to go over the
palace. Still, l occasionally played |
a game of billiards with one of the
attaches of our embassy, ard also
knew q set of journalists to whom
lists of political information OCCASION
ally oozed out. One of them, being
of metaphysical tone of mind, told
me that he could "project himself
into any political situation, and hav-
ing arrived at all che data at COM
mand, he thought himself justified in |
making details out of his own inven-
tive faculty. Awaiting myself of
these hints, 1 proclaimed to my Coke |
town constituents plans of the En-
peror for promoting the gradual
growth Of constitutiOnalism aud the
gradual approach of his frontiers to
the Rhine. For the Partisan journal
L edited and expounded the English
news, and occasionally wrote an ar
ticle on any subject of interest that
might arrive.


To any one familiar to the tear and
fret, the hurry and worry of a London
newspaper, the change to Partisan
journalism was not delightful My
paper was an evening paper, and that
saved the night work. Occasionally,
if it was a saints day or fete day, and
the workmen wanted a holiday, we
omitted our usual issue, and it did
not make much difference. Then the
way of transacting business was high
ly pleasing to the journalistic temper
ament.


The hours between eleven and one
o'clock are perhaps the busiest to
our nation of shopkeepers, but to the
Parisans it is time of great ease and
negligence. They take their break
fasts at cafes and afterwards peruse
the papers, sip Le petit rerre, and ogleI
the woman that pass by. III wan
ted to find my newspaper manager,
NJ. Alphonse Koch, about midday, 1
knew that had only to go to a GER
tain cafe on the Boulevard des ItaI-I