Year: 1877




About sixty years ago was in Paris
for the first time in my life. Bonaparte
still fingered at st. Helena and the ad
venturers, good, bad and Indifferent in
character, who had served i'll his armies,
had OF yet lost all hope of the return
OF their idol, and consequently had not
yet thought it worth while to settle down
into thorough peace and quietness.


Young Paul Ferrand, whom / fire.
quently met at the cafe, and who had
served as a captain ut Waterloo, was
sure that the Little Corporal would come
back again soon. "You have not yet
beaten him, 4" he would tell me laughing.
"You sent him to Elba, but he returned;
you have sent him to st. Helena, and he
will return again. We shall see."


Ferrand was an exceedingly nice fell
low and although he professed to cher
ish an unquenchable hatred for England
and everything English, he had, by some
means or other, become attached to Alice
Rae, a young English lady of my ac-
quaintance, and who had been living
with her mother since the conclusion OF
peace at Paris, not far from the abede of
the ex-captain. And he was always very
friendly with me too. He would, it is
true, abuse my countrymen most unmer-
cifully but. .he was always particularly
good-natured, and whenever he found
himself saying little too much he
I,
heartily that l never could be angry with
him. was alone in the French capital,
and had few friends there except Mrs.
Rae, her daughter Alice, and Paul and
so it happened that passed good deal
of my time in the society of the three.
The mother, q woman still in the prime
of life, and the widow of a kings mes
senger, was n connection of mine by
marriage, and that fact gave me a good
excuse for Offering my services as escort
whenever she and her pretty daughter
thought fit to go to the theatre or the
opera. At such times Pajhalways had
seat in the stalls and between the
acts he would come up to my box, to the
delight of Alice, who was in love with
him, and to the no small satisfaction OF
Mrs Rae, who. herself had quite ma
ternal affection for the young French
. man, and did not in the least discourage
his attentions to her daughter. If there
were no formal engagement between the
two, it was at least perfectly understood
by all parties that as soon as Paul should
get an appointment, for which at the
time he was a candidate, he was to marry
Alice and 1, though only few years
her senior, was to give her away.


One night the opera house was crowd
ell more than usual. A great singer wa
to appear, and new work by a re
nowned composer was to be performed
But Paul Ferrand, sitting in the stalls
seemed scarcely to listen to the music o.
TO notice the acting and much more
often were his eyes turned in the direc
tion Of my box than in that of the stage
Alice and her mother were with me, anC
as the curtain fell at the conclusion 0
the first act Paul came up to us. H
was in high spirits, for he had hear'
that the minister had decided to give hin
the coveted post, and he expected t
hear in a few days that his appointment
had been signed by the king. We con
graduated him, and as he left us to retur
to his seat whispered to him YOU
be happy man in month or tw
now, Paul" He smiled and shut tn
door.


We watched him as he threaded hi
way to his place. 1t was in the cent?
of the second row from the orchestrl
and he had left his opera-glasses on Ii