Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 34, Number 281, 17 August 1909 — Page 7

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IjPopxrifli I99 by Sen. C Hampton

Aubrey Watson was a nice boy nearly dry one agreed; but he was my unlucky sir. We were all right as long as we went ;( separate ways, but let either of us deviate j.t path and there was a crash that could be t st time I met him I lost my dancing slipper

4 (pwJgddle of , the floor; it wa O V f$qJ figure anyhow. The I t. ihd dropped one of motl

was an idiotic hare-, next day he came mother's Doulton tear. iocn dc iook me vo arivr i minx wun me a. 1 - I . . t r ramble through tree-bordered lanes, as a chang from' the prosaic motor-car and the trap, lost tfheell I dt think now that he was awkward, although X dint the time. . He made an effort to explain afteeie driving accident, that when he came near, at, I was so dazzled he was not responsible. But I repded him that even bis being dazzled would icany take a wheel off. ' "Tp one night, when Paul, our chauffeur, was ill witkonsillitis, mother and I took. Fate into our. hani and agreed to let Aubrey Watson drive us in 1 new motor car to the Country Club. You lend, of course, what happened how he insisted on iking the beach road, so I could see the moon water (every man I knew shows me the same i.rte same water) how the tide was coming 3e big breaker after another washed up jpswirling over the floor of the car, carrymother's lorgnette and my fan, while we aat and tnlrf Attrv AXTatann ft - Js,wd' this moonlight bathing, and not to worry -lrs could easily order a dozen or two ooint laca. jfaftj and shell lorgnettes in the morning', and how he author of our rambles sat there, refusing to moe, gritting his teeth with rage, lighting match ill iaittr match between breakers to see if the batteries liTU?iw -;,.-v',-. . :..',.:;.,y . - ...... jse, they weren't, dry; there' was nothing the car except the roof. When it was all the sea "was merely playing sportively H-tne trees, Aubrey got out to inspect the '41 are." rIt must have been plenty, for after, a lot jof ushijl around the spark and the throttle, of pumping up the pressure and lighting matches to look at the indicator,- of taking off the hood and .smashing it on savagely, we still stayed firmlywhere I we were. Aubrey tried to crank up but the engine merely turned over on its other side with a grunt and went to. sleep again. It was, as you will imagine, a unique situation. After a while one of the acetylene lamps went out and the car looked like a dog asleep with one eye open. Finally when neither coaxing nor veiled profanity availed anything, we got out, mother and I, and ankle deep in wet sand we walked and walked iA tVin w wa1lr.4 : It was twn nVlnIr wken

I 3, " " " " " "f ;r the Country Club and were put to bed.

up in blankets and smothered in hot water 'jef The .Van Dunep girls, who went down to - K. eight o'clock the next morning, met Aubrey atson, still in the clothes .he had worn on the car. and he looked as if he had been" tramping the beach' 11 nights ' But, after all, that was only the beginning. The real disaster occured the following week. The Dudleys gave a lawn party, ending with a cotillion in. a tent; it was every complete, everyone said, , f(om . Japanese lanterns and lots of punch to sand flies and taosquitoes. ' Then some idiots suggested going out il"f-rrnrn: a hi floating raft that was anthe second sandbar, out in the harbor. &ng shy of Aubrey Watson all evening, o. When we got to the raft it was very ..ey Haswcll helped me up the little iron tnd turned for someone else. Afterwards he is PaiUard's? An oasis in the desert; of Paris transplanted between two sky scrapers,, a haven for the weary and an infallible remedy for the nostalgic Frenchman. Broadway - swirls at its very , doors ; through its mm windows in the summer comes the wailing cry of .the newsboy, the clang of the trolley gong, the autoSaODMC Horn ana sometime warning; scream irura the engine-house around the corner. But these are far away once you enter its portals, for this is France. ' At hall-past five, ' PaiUard's is crowded to its 3oors, lor this is the hour of the anteprandial absinthe and your true Parisian must have an aperitif or go dinnerless. So there they sit, hatted or hatless, in chattering groups, and watcn tne inue dropper tick-tock with dock-like regularity until their goblets are full of the milky, iridescent fluid that whets their appetites for the meal to follow.. Then there is the pompier, a mild thirst quencher composed of but you shall learn for yourselves. It was a cold day without, and a dry, fine snow fell nd was scattered by a teeth-chattering wind a freezing blast that huddled you into your overcoat and almost swept you past the revolving door. With j b effort jyou ducked under the hood of the y vire, inserted yourself in a division of the s pouie auenaant wnuriea yon into tne

m is J ef on thi f ' i . irom the va r Siwwreassttringly.

armth! What a faint-aromatic coffee and a hundred liqueurs So you, or rather ' I, sank with a the dtvan and Jacques the waiter rom the vantage of the cashier's desk and reassurinnly. Another moment and a demitasse of coffee steamed in front of me. And now I felt warm.- A faint moisture of sheer luxury stood on my forehead. i "Ots, danel" I crooked ray fingers at Jacques. "Pompier," I said. . "Pompier," he murmured and hastened away. Then enters the man with the whiskers..,. There

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said hiS foot slipped anyhow there was a crash and he went bead first into the boat. Somebody screamed and Percy groaned that his skull was fractured. There was a lot of excitement, and before I realized it the boat was headed for shore again, and I was ' left, stranded or not exactly that; one cannot be stranded on the water in the darkness. One of the , girls called that they would come back for . me at once, and I dropped limply on the floor of the Caas. tamaran and stared at the rows of Japanese lanterns strung from the Dudley veranda to the Dudley trees, and from the Dudley trees out along the Dudley-dock.-' - ' . ; When some one on the other side of the raft, coughed apologetically, I nearly fell off, which would have been inconvenient I have not reached that stage in swimming when I can take six strokes without my feet shooting out of the water and my head going down. "You needn't he alarmed about Haswell," the voke went on savagely. "He could not . fracture that thick-skull of his." "It's you, is it?" I aid- "I might have known it." are plenty of men with whiskers, with beards of such' amplitude that you are constrained to wonder how they care for them, endure them, or better still, if they are married men, how their wives endure them. And so the wearer of these perfect furies of whiskers these bushy, thorny, turbulent whiskers t entered PaiUard's and, with a smile that I deduced! from divers . movements of his beard, sat himself down at my table". - "What a day!" he said, shaking his head. "What a land!" he continued. I nodded and waggled by turns. Then came Jacques with my pompier, and the man with whiskers lay back in bis circular seat and roared with merriment. . You fortify yourself against snow with ice," be said; "but in this country one does strange things, what?" He turned to Jacques. "Bring me one, too," he said.' Then -Jacques returned, bottle-laden and alert Three bottles and a siphon. He placed them carefully on the table, first a tall slope-necked bottle on the one side, so; next a bulging-necked black bottle on the other side, so. Then take the first bottle and pour into the bottom of a goblet a generous modicum. That's vermouth vermifuge tart and aromatic Then from the other bottle, pour much or little, as you have a sweet tooth or not. "That's cassis, sugary and thick, a liqueur made of black currants. Now drop in your ice, two cubes, and fill 1 it up with carbonic water from the siphon. Stir vigirpusly with the spoon and "via there's your pompier! . - "Delicious!" said the man with the whiskers. "Most refreshing!". He smacked his lips and plied his serviette roughly ' across, through, up and along his beard and snous-. tache until they had assumed the proper degree of .- ferocity.1 Then he pulled from his pocket that unmistakable . badge of the tourist, a Cook circular . .'.'ticket' i i-v . -. - . - . - -. t

Mary Roberts Rlnebnrt

"Yes. it is. It's too bad, isn't it?" ... This I ignored. It was evident that it was too bad. " ' . V. t "May I trouble you,", I asked,"to take me back in your boat?" "Won't you stay a little while? x His tone was almost imploring. "There's a place' there to' the right where the swell strikes the sandand a bit of spray flies, that looks like a mermaid. IT iff to n 5 te "Oh, indeed!" This was distinctly an affront. "If I am disturbing any love affair, I " "You're not disturbing my love affair,"" he said cooly. "It is a communion of the spirit, and you do not interfere at all. In fact, I believe I like to have you around, you stimulate ray imagination." "Thanks," I said icily. -The swell at that moment lifted the raft sharply at one side and slid under the other. I sat down suddenly and tried to find something to bold to. I found it, a man's coat sleeve, and I held desperately for a minute. I glanced toward the shore; somehow the - lanterns showed less plainly from .gorgeous colored butterflies against the dark they looked like pale fireflies, flashing a faint gleam at intervals.

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AT PAILLAMyS

By Montague Glass "Voili, m'sieu'," he continued, "in this country everything is big, your railroad tickets, for instance. I travel to Cincinnati and return. They sell me a ticket, a whole volume when folded, a telescope unfolded. ' It is immense. It is gigantic. So also are your high buildings. I go to the top of one and feel that I must jump. I must throw myself over the parapet. It is astonishing, but, mind you," he paused to run a white hand though his hair, "very amusing; no less, m'sieu', than that; very amusing." "It is fortunate that you resisted the impulse," I said. " : :;i , .r v -; "Fortunate!" he exclaimed, and burst into a loud laugh "I have had my lesson fifteen years ago. All my life, m'sieu', I have been subject to such impulses. I see m the street a pretty girl, very pretty. Do I kiss her? I want to, I admit, but I deny myself. What? Of course I deny njyself. It is unlawful and leads to complications." ; He seized his chair on the sides by both hands and jerked it nearer the table. "IH tell you something," he went on, confidentially, "about myself, about that lesson fifteen years ago. ' I was then, twenty-five, a dangerous age and full of -fire. The wine of youth flows in one's veins. " All is ' impulse, but of reason and wisdom, very little. . So fifteen years ago I am a young man twenty-five eh? accustomed to indulging my every want and -very happy to do so, m'sieu I assure you. "No regrets, no, not one, just every day to drink my fill of wine, to gamble and to take pleasure in feminine society.4.! was, to confess candidly, m'sten. a dissipated young dog. "Well, in this way I spent ray time tiH at last there happened the inevitable. My nerves, none too strong at their best m'sieu, gave out and I retired to the residence of my uncle at La Voulte. The village of La Voulte is to be compared to New York or Paris, no, not for a moment; merely a village, that's alt Bat in La Voulte there are convents and churches, m'sieu, .1 assure yon, in plenty. sue goea enters, in tne rones of tnev orner, are 1 take plenty of exerase by .dirs

"What is it?" I asked anxiously, as Aubrey Watson stirred uneasily and got to his feet. "Give me your hand," he said imperatively. "You mustn't slide off, and 111 have to look around." "It's a fog." I said suddenly; "a fog like a blanket Hurry, we must get home." "Say, look here," he said, sitting down again and still holding my hand. "Honestly, I would give anything if I hadn't been on this cursed raft when you got here. I've brought you the worst kind of calamities ever since I've konwn you, and upon my word, every day they grow worse. I'd give my right hand to save you trouble, and instead all I seem to do is to pull you into it." "What is it now?" I asked with the calmness of utter despair. "Oh, nothing," he said . mildly, "except that I haven't any boat I got the launch to land me here." "Well, they'll be coming back, wont they?" "Yes, they'll come back, all right, but look at the fog!" "We can shout," I said hopefully. "And have you anything we could burn? Even a pocket handkerchief " ' "If we cannot see the glare over there," he said dismally, "it isn't likely they couht see anything here." : But be obediently got out his matches and burned up his small linen, piece by piece. The result was scarcely encouraging in the dampness there -was a great deal more smoke than flame and my white chiffon scarf went up in a perfect cascade of sparks. Still-there was no result no call came over the muggy water. I was coughing with smoke and fog, chilled with cold, smothering with indignation. Tt it's dreadful," I broke out-nally. "It would be funny if it wasn't so tragic. If you come within three hundred yards of me something awful happens." - "Yes, I know it," he said dejectedly. "I'm going home in the morning- " "If there is any morning," I choked. "But you cannot deny," he went on more hopefully, "that here is one case where I had nothing to do with the matter, and where my being here is, to say' the least, a comfort What if you were alone?" "If yon had been back in the tent dancing with proper young ladies," 1 began, "instead of flirting ' with mermaids" "I came out here," he said meekly, "because the only girl I cared to dance with wouldn't dance with me." "Perhaps yon didn't ask her," I suggested. "I didn't need to. She despises me. And when I tell ber, as I shall some day that I was born on Friday the tWrteeath---" "Look here," I said suddenly. "Don't you haven't you a kind of quecrish feeling, as if this thing is moving?" . - - Aubrey leaned over and peered into the darkness below. Then he loosened his grip of my arm and rose cautiously. "Don't move for anything," be said. Til try to find the anchor rope." ' Before I realized it, he had slipped his dress coat around me, with its ridiculous tails over my shoulders, and he was down the steps, fumbling in the water underneath, before I knew what he meant to do. Something like sputtering profanily came up from below, followed by a form that stayed discreetly away from me and dripped water all over the wooden flooring of the raft. . "She's loose," he said quietly, "but I don't think she's moving much." "Loose!" I screamed. "And with the tide going . out! 'Why, well be out at sea in an honr!" "Perhaps," he said, "but don't be nervous. With these airtight cylinders she cannot sink "

of say physician, and so in walking I meet these nuns, m sieu, wherever I go. I turn a street corner there, face to face, is a good sjster. . . "La Voulte, m'sieu, is a healthy climate fine peaches, magnified ent vineyards. The wine of La Voulte is of bouquet the most delicate. Yes, m'sieu. everybody drinks wine in La Voulte, even the sisters, sod everybody has a fine complexion and plump red cheeks. ... "So I walk around La Voulte and encounter the sisters. Their faces are bound in white linen and long black veils fall from their heads to their feet "M'sieu', every time I see a sister I say to myself, 'What a droll thine, what a situation it would be, should I take my fist so, and with the index finger -crooked so, chuck ever so gently the plump chin of that good sister, right underneath where it emerges s from its snowy linen bandage." "Understand me, I am sane-quite sane, m'sieu, at this time; but there is some defect of the will. So the thought preys on me continually, and I ssy nothing about k to anybody. At last X can stand it no longer. I will return to Paris, where there is hfe and the distraction of the boulevards and the theatres.., -,,.. ; . I dare not trust myself outside the house, m'sieu, I sssure you for fear I offer this trivial, this altogether silly and unnecessary affront to the good sisters. Finally I take my portmanteau and am ensconced in a first-class compartment labeled for Paris, when the door opens and in comes a rekV giense. -f . - "M'sieu. I assure you, I tremble like like a leaf, . m'sieu, like a leaf and close nay eyes. I need not open them to see those white bands, that dimpled chin, those ruddy, tempting cheeks. An these I see with my eyes dosed, m'sieu, for 1 had caught a glimpse of ber long black veil as ebe entered. "PSctare to yourself, m'sieu. the situation. There I nit and opposite sac the good sister. I keep my eyes tight cloned and listen. Sae has been eating the sausage and iff ill hu the good wine of La VenUc'tntr, and thecal Can nseel is

"She can turn over," I protested wildly. "Net when it's as smooth at this. X dunk, if yotrYw sure you can hold on. Ill take the anchor ropa and try to tow her a hit" ; "It's too far to swim." I was ready for tears now.. "Besides, which way win yon go? I haven't any ife where the shore is, and I "know yon haven't cither." . He hadn't then the courtesy to answer. He stood ' for a minute, I couldn't see bis face, but I suppose he wss deciding which way to tow. Then I heard him let himself down into the water. The floor of the raft tilted and righted itself with every swell; ay arms ached from holding to the edge of the platform, and all around that wretched fog hung like a wall I could have battered my fists against it Finally, I could not stand it another instant. "Aubrey," I called frantically. "Come back here; you may get a cramp or or something." "Can't I'm busy," he called through the fog. "Come at once." I said firmly. "I shall not ait here another instant alone. "I'm I' so lonely, I don't know what to do." In a moment Aubrey came around to my side of the' raft and pulled himself to the edge. "I won't come near you," he said, Tm dripping.1 "Where are we?" I demanded. "Oh, well be all right," he said, with an effort at cheerfulness. , "Somebodyll find us." "We may be ran down," I shuddered. "We're probably in the open sea by this time. And it's grow ing rougher, too." Aubrey sat down on the very edge, and reaching ' over gingerly took my hand. . "Weill hope for the best" he said, "but I want to tell you something, so that if well, so that yon will always remember -whatever happens" "Don't," I said, shivering. Whatever happens to you will happen to me." "Will it? Do yen mean that sweetheart? Do yon snean that you are willing to share my fate nay life, , perhsps nry death?" - "Oh, Aubrey, don't; I cannot bear it" I said. Don't talk about your death it's too terrible." ; Tfie fog was lifting a little now. I could sea nip face dimly. "Then well both live," he said decisively. "Witli your love " "I didn't ssy I loved yon " I began, but he stopped me. "With your love, Fm ready for'any endeavor," h'e , said, leaning toward me. "I-think I know a wayj-" "What it it?" I cried. "Do you love me?" he asked. . - "What is it?" "Are yon wiling to marry me and risk' the Koodoo to" "Yes, yes." I said frantically, "but what is las . way " " "You will marry me. positively, not later than November -no, October?" , - , "Yes, September, if yon like," I assented, "eery teD e." lie leaned over and kissed me quickly.'' Then be , laughed joyously, exultantly. "Look behind you, sweetheart," - he said. Ann' there, emerging slowly from the fast thinning fog, was the Dudley launch, while just behind, stiU a. trifle pale, the Dudley lanterns gleamed jreUow and , red on the shore. "Then then " I stammered, "it was all" ' "A mixture of Fate and falsehood," he said, an ts kissed me. "We haven't moved an inch." "Yen have lost a sent," I said, gUnaag at bis dkfe ping clothes. " " . 4 "I have gained asy suit" U pail liotica3. " 1

she makes little sounds with' her lips as if she reSsSne it anew. - , "Yes. m'sieu'. I listen, and tA me it ia it is the quintessence of irritation. For fifteen . nutos ana continues tnese sounds, and I, m'sieu. X feel thst I simply must look just once, to see ken she does it. Yet I know that if I but open my eyes I am lost. So I struggle inwardly and perspire, m'sieu. I assure you, I am wet through and through, yes, through and through I am fiSed wit trepidation,'.- ;-. .... "Bat at last I can stand it no longer anil so I' open nry eyes. Aiei - I take one look sn'sics. clenching any fist so, and crookinj finger so, I chuck that stood sister violently. wish all the force of pent up energy, under owinjegcnin.' He learned back in bis chair and laughed untH . ice in our pompiers fairly clinked an echo. I sntSal tn sympathy. The point is not yet" be continued, again scruS-, king his beard with his serviette. "The point ia fadeed not yet m'sieu'." . J He paused and laughed once more. " "That black veil, m'sieu'. it is not the far el religieuse. - A ok, no," lie went on. dIt is the snonrning veil. Yes, m'sieu, she is a widow. ChF What do yon think of that- A widow, yes, sn'ssss. and it cost me two thousand francs before I wee through with her. An exnenshre indulgence, what?" . as saiq, strnrtung into us overcoat wits j t Tn m m m assistance, "nut I learned my lesson, m'siesr. T now have my impulses weH in hand and so I wf you good evening." He turned to leave and then, as an afterfS wheeled and- made a deep obeisance. - j ' "An revoir." I replied, and tn assaut (Se i rag gone nog nam ns its ctatcses anJ

tne rlnsttnng night. .