Year: 1867

My friends would have me cross tn,


frontier TO escape the consequences of my


act but | was ready to face those con-


sequences, and | remained in France


| keep aloof from the court, and reeeiv-


ed "A hint that had best confne myself


to my own province. Many masses were


chanted in the littla chapel of Puy Yer


dun for the soul of my dead cousin, and


his coffin filed niche in the vault of


our ancestors. a


His death had made me rich man


ard the thought that it was so made my


newly acquired wealth very hateful to


me. lived lonely existence in the old


chateau, where l rarely held converse


with any bat the servants of the house


hold, all of WHOM had served my cousin
and none of whom liked me-


1t was hard and bitter life. It gall.
ed me, when rode through the village
to see the peasant children shrink away
from me. | have seen old women cross
themselves steathily as l passed them by
Strange reports had gone forth about me;
and there were those who whispered that
[ had given my soul to the Evil One as
the price of my Cousins heritage. From
my boyhood | had been dark Of visage
and stem of manner; and hence, per-
haps, no woman's love had ever boen
mine. | remember my mothers face in
all its changes of expression but I can
remember no look of affection that ever
shone on me That other woman, be,
meath whose feet laid my heart, was
pleased to accept my homage. but she
never loved me, and the end was tire CHI
cry. '''9"


| had groyn hateful to myself, and had
well>nigh begun to hate my fellow>crea-
lures, when feverish desire seized upon
me, and | pined to be back in the press
and tErong of the busy world once again.
[ went back to Paris, where | kept my
self aloof from the court, and where an
angel took compassion upon me.


She was the daughter Of an old CON
rade, a man whose merits had been neg
lected, whose achievements had been ig-
nored, and who sulked in his shabby
lodging like a rat in a whole, while all
Paris went mad with the Scotch fnan-
cier, and gentlemen and lacqueys were
trampling one another to death in the
Rue Quineampoix. Thesonly child of
this httle cross grained old captain of
dragons was an incarpate sunbeam.
whose mortal name was EyelIne Ouch.
alot. ..a..b


She loved me. The richest blessings
of our lives are often those which cost us
least | wasted the best years of my
youth in the worship of a wicked wo>
man, who Tilted and cheated me at last.
| gave this meek angel but few court
eous words-a little fraternal tenderness
and 10, she loved me- The life which
has been so dark and desolate grew bright
beneath her influence; and l went back
to Puy Yerdun with fair young bride
for my companion. ,d ros sr


All, how sweet change there was in
my life and in my home The village
children no longer shrank appalled, as the
dark horseman rode by the village crenes
no longer crossed themselves; for a wo>
man rode by his side--a woman whose
charities had won the love of all those
ignorant creatures, and whose compan
ionship had transformed the groomy lord
pf the chateau into allowing husband and
, gentle master. The old retainers for
got the untimely fate of my fair cousin,
and served me with cordial willingness,
for love of their young mistress


There are no words which can tell the
pure and perfect happiness of that time.
I felt like traveller who had traversed
the frozen seas Of an arctic region, remote
from human love or human companion
ship, to aud himself on a sudden in the
bosom of verdant valley. in the sweet
atmosphere yf home The change SEEM
ed too bright to be real; and | strove in
vain to put away from my mind the va
que suspicion that my pew life was but
some fantastic dream. e5e1 %


So brief were these halcyon hours, that
looking back to them now, it is scarcely
strange if am still half inclinod to fam
cy the first days ofmy married life could
have been no more than a dream.


Neither 10 my days of gloom nor in
my days of happiness had been troub-
led by the recollection of Andres BIAS
phemous oath The words which with
his last breath he had whispered in my
ear were vain and meaningless to- me-
He had vented his rage in those idle
threats, as he might have vented it in
idle execrations That he viii haunt the
footsteps of h is enemy after death is the