Indianapolis Times, Volume 35, Number 253, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 March 1923 — Page 8

8

Alice of Old Vincennes By Maurice Thompson COPYRIGHT. 19 OS, BY ALICE LEE THOMPSON

BEGIN HERE VLICE ami IE AN were the foster children of JASPAKB ROUSSILLON, who. :n the absence of a military commander, was •" g-ard*** chi* - ~i2 Vincennes A bottle of fine brandy sent to LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR ABBOTT was stolen by , 1.0. M. HAIR, an Indian, who escaped after being batily sho‘. Alice apprnres the attentions of RENE L)E RONVILLE, a handsome youth of the village, but she has a jealous rival in the hea'Uess di.l ,F ANURIENNE BOURCIER. Bccacsj o' a .-insular birthmark on her shoulder and the inscription "Tarlton ..n the sin a’l locket she possessed containinsf her bahy picture. Alice hoped some day to be identified with her own . aiiir uO ON WITH THE STORY, w yr ROUSSILLON changed the |\ f 1 subject, for he always yf _ somehow dreaded to have the good priest fall into the strain of argument he was about to begin. A stray sneep, no matter how refractory, feels a touch of longing when it hears the shepherd s voice. :>I. Roussillon was a Catholic, but a rtrrying one, who avoided the con* less fonal and often forgot mass, btill, with all his reckless independence, and with all his outward show of large and breezy self-sufficiency, he was not altogether free from the hold ibat the church had laid upon him In childhood and youth. Moreover, he was fond of Father Beret and had done a great deal for the little church of St. Xavier and the mission it represented: but he distinctly desired to he let alone while he pursued his own course; and he had promised the dying woman who gave Alice to him that the child should be left as she was, a Protestant, without undue influence to change her from the faith of her parents. This promise he had kept with stubborn persistence and he meant to .keep It as long as he lived. Perhaps the very' fact that his innermost conscience smote him with vague yet telling blows at times for this departure from the strict religion of his fathers, may have intensified his resistance of the influence constantly exerted upon Alice by Father Beret and Madame Roussillon. to bring her gently but surely to the church. Perverseness Is a force to be reckoned with in all original characters. A few weeks had passed after M. Roussillon’s return, when that bighearted man took It into his head to celebrate his successful trading ventures with a moonlight dance given without reserve to all the Inhabitants of Vincennes. It was certainly a democratic function that he contemplated, and motley to a most picturesque extent. Rene de Ronville called upon Alice a day or two previous to the occasion and duly engaged her as his partcnaire; but she insisted upon having f the engagement guarded in her behalf by a condition so obviously fanciful that be accepted it without argument. “If my wandering knight should arrive during the dance, you* promise to SLand aside and give place to him.” she stipulated. "You promise that? You see T'm expecting him all the time. I dreamed last night that he came on a great bay horse and, stoop Ing, whirled be up beside the saddle, anc away he went!” There was a childish, haif bantering air In her look; but her voice sounded earnest and serious, notwithstanding its delicious timbre of suppressed playfulness. “You promise me?” she insisted. "Oh I promise to slink away into a corner and chew* my thumb, the moment he comes.” Rene eagerly assented "Os course I’m taking a great risk, I know; for lords and

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' barons and knights are very apt to appear suddenly in a place like this.” “You may banter and make light if j you want to,” she said, pouting ad- ! mirably. ‘‘l don’t care. All the same ! the laugh still jump to the other cor- ; ner of your mouth, see if it doesn't. | They say that what a person dreams 5 about and wishes for and waits for i and believes in, will come true sooner j or later.” “If that’s so,” said Rene, “you and i I will get married; for I’ve dreamed it \ every night of the year, wished for it, waited for it and believed in it, and—” it was a madly sudden rush. He made it on an impulse quite irresistible, as hypnotized persons are said to do in response to the suggestion of the hypnotist, and his heart was choking | ,iis throat before lie could end his speech. Alice interrupted him with a hearty burst of laughter. “Avery pretty twist you give to j my words, I must declare,” she said, ‘but not new by any means. Little Adrienne Boureier could tell you that. She says that you have vowed to her over and over that you dream about her, and wish for her, and wait for her. precisely as you have just said to me.” Rene's brown face flushed to the temples, partly with anger, partly with the shock of mingled surprise and fear. He was guilty, and rhe guilt showed in his eyes and paralyzed his tongue, so that he sat there before Alice with his under jaw sag-' ging ludicrously. “Don’t you rather think. Monsieur Rene de Ronville,” she presently added in a calmly advisory tone, “that you had better quit trying to say such foolish things to me. and Just be my very good friend? If you don’t, I do, which comes to the same i thing. What’s more. I won’t be your partenaire at the dance unless you promise me on your word of honor that you will dance two dances with Adrienne to every one that you have ! with me. Do you promise?” Ho dared not oppose her outwardly, although in his heart resistance amounted to furious revolt and riot. “I promise anything you ask mo to,” he said resignedly, almost sullenly; “anything for you.” ‘Well, I ask nothing whatever on my own account,” Alice quickly reI plied; “but I do tell you firmly that j you shall not maltreat little Adrienne Boueier and remain a friend of mine, i She loves you. Reno de RonvUle, and j you have told her that you love her. If you are a man worthy of respoet j you will not desert her. Don’t you j think I am right?” Like a singed and crippled moth (vainly trying to rise once again to the alluring yet deadly flnme. Reno r*<* Renville -stayed to break out of hi? embarrassment and restim- equal footing wi:h the elr! so suddenly be-i"'-irie hi* commanding superior: but j the effort disclosed to him a? well as | to her that rw had fallen to rise no more. Tn his abject defeat h<> accepted the terms dictated by Alice and was glad when sh“ adroitly changed her manner and tore In going on to dis cuss the approaching dance. “Now let me make one request of : you.” he demanded after a while “It’s i a small favor; may I ask It?" “Yes, but I don’t grunt St in ad vance.” ‘ I want you to wear, for my sake, j the buff gowui which they say was j your grandmother’s.” “So. I won’t wear it.” “But why, Alice 0 ” “None of the other girls have anything like such a dross; 1* would not be right for me to put It on and make

tr-ur. ail feel that I had taken *n ad vantage of th rn just becaause I could: that’s why.” "But then none of thm 1s beautiful and educated like you.” he said; “you'll outshine them anyway." "Save your compliments for poor pretty little Adrienne,” she firmly responded, “I positively do not wish to hear them I have agreed to be your partenaire at this dance of Papa Rous- | sillon’s, but it is understood between os that Adrienne !s your sweetheart, i I am not, and I'm not going to be either. So for your Fake and Adit enne’s as well ns out of consideration for the rest of the girls who hav no fine dresses, I am not going to wear the buff brocade gown that belonged to Papa Roussillon’s mother long ago I shall dress Just as- th rest do." It Is safe to say that Reno De RonviUe went heme with a troublesome bee in his bonnet, lie was not. a badhearted fellow. Many a right pood young man. before him and since, has loved an Adrienne and beer, dazzled by an Alice. A violet is sweet, but a rose is the garden’s queen. Tim poor youthful frontiersman ought to nave been stronger: but be was not, and what have we to say? As for Alice, since having a confidential talk with Adrienne Boui-ei r recently, she had come to. realize what M. Roussillon meant when he said: "Rut my tittle girl is better than most of them, not a foolish mischief maker, I hope.” She saw through thn situation with a quick understanding of | what Adrienne might suffer should j Reno prove permanently fickle The : thought of it aroused all her natural ' honest and serious nobleness of I character, wheh lay deep under the | almost hoydenish levity usually ob I aervable in iter manner. Crude as her sense of life's larger significance was, ; ard meager as had been her experi- | oiiee in the things which count for most in the sum of a your.g girl’s j existence under fair circumstances, • she grasped intuitively the gist of : m all. The dance did not come otf; it had to be postponed indefinitely on ac count ot a grave change in the political of the little post. A day or two before the time set for that function a rumor ran througn th town that something of Importance was about to happen. Fathor Gibault, at the head of a small party, had arrived from Kaskaskia, far away on the Mississippi, with the news that France and the American colonies had made common cause against the English in the great war of which the people of Vincennes neither know the cause nor cared a straw about tha outcome. It was Oncle Jazon who oamo to the Roussilion place to tell M. Roussillon that he was wanted at the river- nouse. "Alice met him at the door. “Come in, Oncle Jazon,” she cheerily said, “you are getting to boa stranger at our house lately. Come In; what news do you bring? Take off your cap and rest your hair, Or-cle Jazon.’ "Dje scalpless old fighter chuckled

DOINGS OF THE DUFFS —

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THEM DAYS IS GONE FOREVER—

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raucously and bowed to the bast of his ability, lie not only took off his queer cap, but looked Into It with astartled gaze, as if he expected something infinitely dangerous to jump out and seizo his nose. “A thousand thanks, Ma'm’selle,” he presently said, “will ye please tell Mo sieti' Roussillon that 1 would wish to see ’im?” “Yes, Oncle Jazon; but first be seated, and let mo offer you just a drop of

OUT OUR WAY—By WILLIAMS

THE OLD DOME TOWN—By STANLEY

eau do vie; some that Papa. Roussillon brought back with him front Quebec. He says It's old and fine." She poured him a full glass, then .setting the bottle on a little stand, went to find M. Roussillon. While she was absent Oncle Jazon improved his opportunity to the fullest extent. At least three additional glasses of the brandy went the way of the first. He grinned atrociously and smacked his corrugated iijjs; but when Gaspard

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Roussillon came in, the old man was sitting at some distance from the bottle and glass gazing indifferently out across the veranda. He told his story curtly. Father Qibault, he said, had sent hint to ask M. Roussillon to come to the river house, as he had news of great importance to communicate. “Ah, well, Oncle Jazon, we’ll have a nip of brandy together before we go,” said the host.

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“Why, yea, Jes’ one agin’ the broilin' weather," assented Oncle Jazon; •‘I don't mind jes’ one.” “Avery rich friend of mine in Quebec gave me this brandy, Oncle Jazon,” said M. Roussillon, pouring the liquor with a grand flourish; “and I thought of you as soon as I got it. Now, says I to myself, if any man knows good brandy when he tastes it, It’s Oncle Jazon, and I’ll give him a good chance at this bottle just the

FRECKLES AND HIS FRIENDS—By BLOSSER

OUR BOARDING DOUSE—By AHERN

first of all my friends,” "It surely Is delicious," said Oncle Jazon, “very delicious." He spoke French with a curious accent, having spent long years with English-speak-ing frontiersmen in the Carolinas and Kentucky, so that their lingo had become his own. As they walked side by side down the way to the river house they looked like typical extremes of rough, sun-

FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 1923

—By ALLMAN

—By AL PU^hlN

burned and weather-tanned manhood*. Oncle Jazon a wizened, diminutive scrap, wrinkled and odd in every respect; Gaspard Roussillon towering six foe£ two, wide shouldered, massive, lumbering, muscular, a giant with long curling hair and a supotb beard. They did not know that they were going down to help dedicate the great Northwest to freedom. (To Be Continued,)