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KOSEMAtt->? I (Con eluded). ifrock and had forbidden her mother tlio comtesse to paint. She had ordered champagne, an extra entreo and a bunch of flowers for the table. Yet the guest had neither come nor sent an oxcuse. She had stopped in the house all the evening, thinking that lie might have been detained by an accident to his automobile, but the hours had dragged on emptily. Nothing happoned except a bad headache and a quarrel "with her mother, who was ungratefully inclined to bo sarcastic at her expense. Half the night mademoiselle had lain awake wondering why the bird had not come hopping into the trap, and through tho other half _ she had wondered anxiously if the bird would come tomorrow with excuses which she might n/jf graciously accept. At last sho had fallen vVV asleep and dreamed ecstatic dreams about diarC . \ ?\ mond necklaces and thousand franc notes. f\l I | When the procession of threo left tho Beau Arfd, I I * Soloil on its way to tho English church strings ^ (\t^ 1 diamonds were still being drawn through Vf^ mademoiselle's head, charming, though v wreathed with patent curling pins. JN It was half past 11 when she was waked \vl hy tho comtesse ringing for pctits pains and chocolate. A toilette was hastily made witli* out too much time being wasted on water, and mademoiselle?all in black and whito this morning, liko a jeune fille in second mourning?hurried out to walk en tho terrace at the fashionable hour. If sho did not find tho truant there, sho said to herself, sho would go into tho Casino, for lie was sure to bo in one place or tho other at this time of day, even though it was Christmas. She walked a little, but not much, for her high heeled shoes were tight and made her feel even more annoyed with tho world and every one in it, except herself, than sho had been before she started. Presently she sat down on one of the green benches and arranged a "peace on earth, good will to men" expression which pinched her lips ^almost as painfully as her shoes pinched her toes. Sho wore it unremittingly, nevertheless, even though many of tho women who passed her walking on the terrace were prettier and younger and better dressed than sho and, more grievous still, were accompanied by agreeable looking men, while she sat alone, scarcely glanced at. by the promcnadcrs. She had just begun to think that she had belter try the Casino when down the .steps from the upper terrace came three figures. There was something familiar about, them all, hut to see them together made them more than strange. Besides, the two she knew best were strange in another way. Their habit was to bo shabif </ ^ v> l'lou&'1 Now there was no one on the terrace as beautifully dressed as this tall young woman and the slim little girl. No; it couldn't be Mme. ClilTord and her petit I /' C c^l0llx' And yet?and yet?as they came nearer, near enough for mademoiselle to reeogHwo tho man with them, she felt a horrid v> sensation, as if something which sho called her heart were dropping out of her bosom from sheer heaviness, leaving a vacuum. Hardly knowing what sho did, she sprang up from her bench whilo thoy were still far \ oil and began walking toward them. There was a queer singing noiso in her head and a feeling as if tho skin wero too tightly stretched across her forehead. Still sho smiled and winked her long lashes to keep her eves moist and soft. The sun was on Evelyn Clifford's hair, burnishing it to a halo of gold under tho whito hat. Sho looked radiantly beautiful and as happy ns if her soul wero singing a Christinas carol. On tho face of Hugh Egerton was a look which no woman could mistake, least of all such a woman as JuJic do Lavalotto, and it was not for her?never would be for her. Now sho knew why her expccted guest had not come last night or remembered to send an excuse. Sick with jealousy and spite, sho bowed as sho passed, trying to look eighteen and tenderly reproachful. Her bow was returned indifferently by Evelyn, but by Hugh with eyes of stool and a mouth of bronze. If ho had cut her, ho would havo shown less contempt than in that stiff raising of the hat. Julie turned and walked straight down to tho Condamino, forgetting that her shoes wore tight. # $#? NOTICE OF FINAL SETTLEMENT ! and all persons having claims against We will make final settlement on i said estato will prosont them duly the estato of Mrs. Elizabeth Canver- attested. on, deceased, in the probate court for I II. W. Cameron, Newberry county on Friday, the sev- | T. L. Cameron, *entec ith day of January, 1908, at j Executors. II o'clock in tire forenoon, and im-j ? ? * nvdi itely thereafter apply to the , WANTED?All your cotton seed at said court for letters dismissory. All | tho highest market price. Scales persons indebted to said estate will : and soed house at C., N. & L. depot, make payment on or before snid .tat* I C. H. Cannon, POSEMARY choso Iho toys for tlio children of tho rock village, and then the "picnic" began. The car whizzed them up tho zigzag road to La Turbio while the noon sunshine still gilded Caesar's trophy. They lunched in tho Moorish restaurant and then sped on along tho upper Cornicho, with a white sea of snow mountains billowing away to tho right and a sea of sapphire spreading to tho horizon on their loft. Out from orange groves and olives they saw the hill of Eze rising liko a horn, while on its almost pointed apex tho old town hung like some carved fetich to keep away tho witches. The car swooped down and up again, but half way up tho rocky horn the wido white road turned into a stone paved mule path old as tho Romans. Evelyn and Rosemary climbed hand in hand, singing a Christmas carol, while Hugh carried tho two huge baskets filled with toys and sweets in little packets. Some small sentinel perched on high, perhaps bidden among the ruins of that fortress castle where onco tho templo of Isis stood, must have spied the odd proccssion, for as the tall white girl and the little bluo one, with the brown young man, reached the last If step of the steep mule path a tidal wave of childrcn swept down upon them out from the mystery J of dark tunneled streets. /ji ivl ! $$/ Such eyes wero never seen as those that gleamed at tho newcomers, great with surprise and won- Um / der?eyes of brown velvet, with diamonds shining PyV through ; eyes liko black wells, with mirrored stars in their unfathomed depths; eyes of wild deer, eyes of fierce .Saracens, eyes of baby saints, all set in small bronze faces clear cut as the profiles on ancient Roman coins. "Bella madonna, bella madonna !" piped a tiny voice, and forty other voices caught up the adoring cry. The brown children of the old rock village had poured down from their high evrio to bombard the strangers from the world below, to stare, to beg, to laugh, to lisp out strange epithets in their crude patois, but at sight of the wonderful white lady and her gold haired child ?>elhv. Mfcwdoixrvav-I they, crowded back upon each other, hushed, after their first cry, into awed admiration for visitants from another world. Few tourists climbed to their dark fastness, and of those who camo none had ever shone with such blinding radiance of white and gold. It was certain that the lovely lady was none other than the Madonna herself, and the child she had brought was some baby angel. The man alone was mortal. He had perhaps been bidden to show la bella madonna the way to Eze. Rosemary, shy, but happy, began giving out the toys, diving with both hands at once into the baskets which the fairy father held. Trumpets, bags of marbles, tops and furry animals for the boys, according to their age?oh, Rosemary was a good judge and never heoitated once!?dolls for the girls, dolls by the dozen, dolls by the legion, and sweets for all. As the amazed children received their gifts they fell respectfully back, as if they had received an order to give place to their companions, and others came forward, open mouthed, large eyed, ready to fall upon their knoes if but one of their number should Ret an example. Still there wero toys left, toys in abundance. Tbo wondrous benefactors passed slowly on, always going up, up into the huddled village streets, tunneled in rock or arched with stone, where eager, astonished faces peered from the niy8tory of shadowed doorways and the hum of ^?^ aiU^ ^miration swelled to a sound liko the murmur of tho sea. Of grown folk there wero not many?a few mothors with brown babies in their arms, a fow h mumbling crones and bent old men, with faces liko strange masks?but tho flow of children v never ceased. the children of Ilamlin followed the pied #2L" piper to tho sea, so tho black browed children of Eze followed the Christmas visitors from' crooked street to crooked street, up to the castlo ruins and back again. They did not shout as they took their gifts, but still the murmur ran from mouth to mouth, "Bella madonna, bella madonna !" At the end of an enchanted hour, when thero was not a child in Ezo who had not both hands full, tho benefactors turned to go, with empty baskets. Massed on tho plateau above the mule path, the wholo population of tho village stood to watch them down tho steep descent. As they went tho church bells of Ezo boomed out, calling all pious souls, young and old, to vespers, and, as if tho loosened tongues of tho bolls loosonod also tho tongues of tho children, at last thero aroso a cry: "Come again, bella madonna and littlo angel 1 Come again 1 We shall pray to soo you next Christmas day, bolla madonna and littlo angel I Don't forget?next Christmas day 1" ********* * "I'm perfectly happy, dearest," said Rosefnary when onco moro they sat in tho car spinning back from tho shaded eyrio to their fair world whoro tho sunshine lay. Tho othors did not speak, but the samo thought was in their hearts. Whon you are positively bursting with happiness cho best outlet for tho surplus quantity is to benefit somebody elso, and thero is no .time liko Christmas for a successful experiment. "What ciso can wo do for somebody?" asked Hugh. "There's Jane," suggested Rosemary. "I told her this morning how I went out and found a fatlior, and she said v pooh, ho was all in rny eye, and, besides, sho'd never hoard of fathers growing on blackberry ^ bushes, but if wo bought her a present and you gave it to her yourself she'd have to bolievo in /' you." "I shan't feel I have a suro hold on existenco " until sho does," said Hugh. "Let's buy her some- ^7<) thing without the loss of a moment." / >,-m So they bought Jane a ring, which Rosemary ft UU if ~ 1 ifl chose herself after mature deliberation and with J/"' duo regard to the recipient's somewhat pronounced taste in colors. "Sho admires red and green together more than anything," saidij^H the child, "and I want her to have what sho really likes, because if itjflfl hadn't been for her I shouldn't have known Christmas evo was thft^^J time to search for fathers. Just supposing somebody else had gone?^^B out and snapped him up instead of mo 1" As a matter of fact, somebody else had gone out and had coinf^^H Very near indeed to snapping him up, but there aro things which do no^^H| bear thinking of. It was Hugh's firm conviction that destiny and not Jano had filing Rosemary in front of his motor, but destiny could not be rewarded, and Jano could. Rosemary would be satisfied with nothing less than a formal pros- ,fl| entation, and that the ceremony might bo gone through with without delay the car was directed toward the Condamine. As they noarod the street of the Hotel Pension Beau Soleil a cab came jingling round the corner. It was occupied by two ladies who sat half buried in traveling bags.^^H? rugs, baskets and shawl straps, such as women who are not of the glo-Saxon races love. A tiny motorphobe in the shapo of a black Pomeranian yapped viciously at the automobile a# the vehicles passed each other, and, though the ladies, one stout, the other slim, were JH thickly veiled, Rosemary cried out: "Oh, it's the comtesse and made- MB inoiselle! They must be going away!" Hugh said nothing, but his silence was eloquent to Evelyn, who knew now the whole story of the girl with thc^HH soft eyes. Both were pleased that this was the last*^^B -j, of her, but neither quite knew Mile, do Lavalette. jfl l J ^he had been busy with other matters besides her jflfi packing while la bella madonna and her suit were ^Eg collecting adorers on the heights of Eze. Evelyn and Rosemary disappeared to take off OL.. -r their hats before the grand presentation ceremony '( should begin, and Hugh had begun to occupy the ^ 1 i*'' time of their absence by lighting the fire with pine ' cones when a cry from the beloved voice called him to the room adjoining. The door was open, and the woman and the child stood dumfounded and overwhelmed in a scene of incredible desolation. The air was acrid with the smell of burning. Blouses, pink ancVi;^ green and cream and blue, were stirred into a seething mass in the fireplace as in a witch's caldron, their fluffy laces burnt and blackened. Chiffon fichus torn in ribbons strewed the carpet. An ivory fan had flH been trampled into fragments on the hearth rug, and a snowstorm of fl feathers from a white boa had drifted over the furniture. On the w| washstand a spangled white tulle hat lay drowning in a basin iialf fuU w of water. g It was a sight to turn the brain of madamc in the magasin of smart "confections," nor would the presiding genius of the toyshop have || gone scathless, for Rosemary's possessions had not been spared by tht^ I cyclone. JB Dolls had lost their wigs, their arms, their legs, and beautiful blue J^H eyes had been poked into far recesses of porcelain heads with ruthlea.i^^W^ scissors. Little dresses of silk and satin had been flung to feed tl/e jl flames which devoured ill starred blouses, picture books had made/fina I kindlings, and that proud and stately mansion which might haVe af- I ,? ^ forded shelter to many dolls had js ^ 'a ' collapsed as if shattered by a cy- tl | ^ ^!/il olone- 1 i, JTa I "Oh, Angel, is it some dreadful 1 il dream?" wailed Rosemary, and H ^ Eve]yn fmmd no answer. But-jjll \~'J\ Hugh had pounced upon a car^T^ y I ajjr/\.y \ r P*nncd on the window curtain, andp 5 j( \ as *ie ** ou^ *n eloquent silty/ioo | \Aji 8^? r0ft(^ fll?ud over his shprUldoi,, ?1 "Compliments of Mile, do Lava- jfi ^10 en(^ locked ft 'n8^an^ they both laughed wildly, f? (losPerately? It was tho only thing Jg todo"After all," gasped Evelyn Jg "she has paid me back?what shft^pffj r' owed me?and Rosemary." M||| *r "She's given me tho pleasure orcSi|i 1 making Christmas come all over4E9 again tomorrow, that's all," said Hugh. "Women aro strange. Thank*? heaven, she has vanished!" ? PtWs "But nothing matters?at least not much," said Rosemary, smiliy^Rffi through her tears, "since you'reto guar BOjSE