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* ^Monsieur Beaucaire^ ; By BOOTH TARKINGTON, ! ^ ' ' T L - i Arntn f w /Vf /7 *J/7 ' ' fi Y) A ' ' TA/ j 11 SI Ulnar aj i nc vrrr?*?c ftmu a ' ?" ^ ??> ? >. -? . . l\ Conquest of Canaan." I 1 Copyright, 1900, by McClure, Phillips & Co. ^ CHAPTER II. BHE chairmen swarmed in the street at Lady Malbourne's dcor, where the joyous vulgar fought with muddled footmen and tipsy link boys for places of vantage whence to catch a glimpse of quality and of raiment at its utmost. Ilawn was in the east, and the guests were departing. Singly or in pairs, glittering in finerv, they came mincing down the steps, .the ghost of the night's smirk fading to jadedness as they sought the dark recesses of their chairs. From yithin sounded the twang of fiddles still swinging manfully at it, and the windows were bright with the light of many candles. When the door was flung open to call the chair of Lady Mary Carlisle there was an eager pressure of the throng to see. A small, fair gentleman in white satin came out upon the steps, turned and bowed before a lady who appeared in the doorway, a lady whose royal loveliness was given to view for a moment in that glowing frame. The crowd sent up a hearty English cheer for the beauty of Bath. The gentleman smiled upon them delightedly. "What enchanting people!" he cried. "Why did I not know, so I might have shout' with them?" The lady noticed the people not at all. Whereat, being oleased, the people cheered again. The gentleman offered her his j # Jiand. She made a slow courtesy; placed the tips of her fingers upon fcis own. "I am honored, M. de Chateaurien," she said. "No, no!" he cried earnestly. "Behol' a poor Frenchman whom emperors should envy." Then reverently and with the pride of his gallant office vibrant in every line of his light figure, invested in white satin and very grand, as he had prophesied, M. le Due de Chateaurien Jumded Lady Mary Carlisle down the steps, an achievement which had figured in the ambitions of seven other gentlemen during the evening. THE CROWD SENT UP A HEARTY ENGLISH i CHEER JVR THE BEAUTY OF BATH. "Am I to be lef in such onhappiness ?" he said in a low voice. 'That rose I have beg' for so long"? "Never!" said Lady Mary. "Ah, I do not deserve it, I know so well! But"? j "Never 1" "It is the greatness of my onworthiness that alone can claim your eharity. Let your kin' heart give this little red rose, this great alms, to the poor beggar." 1 "Never!" She was seated in the chair. "Ah, give the rose," he whispered. Her beauty shone daulingly on Mm out of the dimness. "Never 1" she flashed defiantly as she was elosed in. "New!" i "Ah!" ' "Never!" I The rose fell at his feet "A rose lasts till morning," said a voice behind him. Turning, M. de Chateaurien looked beamingly upon the faee of the Duke of Win terse t " 'Tis already the daylight," he replied, pointing to the east j "Monsieur, was it not enough honor for you to han' out madame, the ,?ant of Lady Mary ? Lady Kellerton retain' much trace of beauty. Tie strange you did not appear more happy." "The rose is of an unlueky color, I think," observed the duke. "The color of a blush, my brother." "Unlucky, I still maintain," said the other calmly. 'The color of the veins of a Frenchman. Ha, ha!" cried the youngjnan. "What prioe would be too high f A rose is a rose! A * good night, my brother, a good night. 1 wish you dreams of roses, red roses, only beautiful red, red roses!" "Stay! Did you see the look she gave these street folk when they shouted for her? And how are you higher than they, when she I knows ? As high as yonder horse boy!" "Red roses, my brother, only roses. I wish you dreams of red," red roses 1" CHAPTER III. WAS well agreed by the fashion of Bath that M. le ^ I ^ Due de Chateaurien was a person of sensibility and gt haut ton, that Lis retinue and equipage surpassed in ! elegance, that his person was exquisite, his manner engaging. In the company of gentlemen his ease was slightly tinged with graciousness (his single n_ iknnal in Rnth Krirur his irrflce of Wintersetl. but it ^"1 ? O O ? -was remarked that when he bowed over a lady's hand his air bespoke only a gay and tender reverence. Ke was the idol of the dowagers within a week after his appearance. Matrons wanned to him. Young belles looked sweetly on him, while the gentlemen were won to admiration or envy. He was of prodigious wealth. Old Mr. Bicksit, who dared not, for his fame's sake, fail to have seen all things, had visited Chateaurien under the present duke's father and descanted to the curious upon its grandeurs. The young noble had one fault. He was so poor a gambler. He cared nothing for the hazards of a die or the turn of a card. Gayly admitting that he had been bora with no spirit of adventure in him, be was sure, he declared, that he failed of much happiness by his lack of taste in such matters. But he was not long wanting the occasion to prove his taste in the matter of handling a weapon. A certain led-captain, Rohrer by name, notorious, among other things, for bearing a dexterous and bloodthirsty blade, came to Bath post haste one night and jostled heartily against him in the pump room on the following morning. M. de Chateaurien bowed and turned aside without offense, continuing a conversation with some gentlemen Hear by. Captain Rohrer jostled against him a second time. M. de Chateaurien looked him in the eye and apologized pleasantly for being so much in the way. Thereupon Rohrer procured an introduction to him and made some obeervations derogatory to the valor and virtue of the French. There was current a curious piece of gossip of the French court: A prince of the blood /oval, grandson of the late regent and second in the line of succession to the throne of France, had rebelled against the authority of Louis XV., who had commanded him to marry the Princess Henrietta, cousin to both of them. The prinoeas was reported to be openly devoted to the cousin who refused to accept her hand at the bidding of the king, and, a9 rumor ran, the prince's caprice elected in preference the discipline of Vincennes, to which retirement the furious Jring had consigned him. The story was the ? ~ i? ; staple gossip of all polite EUrope, ana Captain itonrer, navmg in ms mind a purpose to make use of it in leading up to a statement that should be general to the damage of all Frenchwomen and which a "Frenchman might not paac over as he might a jog of the elbow, reI pea ted it with garbled troths to make a scandal of a story which bore none on a plain relation. ' He did not reach his deduction. M. de Chateaurien, breaking into his narrative, addressed him very quietly. "Monsieur," he said, "none but swine deny the nobleness of that good and gentle lady, Mile, la Princesse de Bourbon-Conti. Every Frenchman know* that her cousin is a bad rebel and ingrate, who had only honor and rispec' for ber, but was so willful he could not let even the king say, 'You shall marry here, you shall marry there.' My frien's," the young man turned to the others, "may I ask you to close roun' in a circle for one moment f It is clearly shown that the Duke of Orleans is a scurvy fellow, but not"?he wheeled about and touched Captain Rohrer on the brow with the back of his gloved hand?"but not so scurvy as thou, thou swine of the gutter!" Two hours later, with" perfect ease, he ran Captain Rohrer through the left shoulder/ after which he sent a basket of red roses to the Duke of Winterset In a few days he had another captain to fight. This was a ruffling buck who had the astounding indiscretion to proclaim M. de Chateaurien an imposter. There was no Chateaurien, he swore. The Frenchman laughed in his face and, at twilight of the same day, pinked him carefully through the right shoulder. It was not that be could not put aside the insult to himself, he declared to Mr. Molyneux, his second, and the few witnesses, as he handed his wet sword to his lackey?one of his station could not be insulted by a doubt of that station?but he fought in the quarrel of his friend Winterset This rascal had asserted that M. le Due had introduced an imposter. Could he overlook the insult to a friend, one to whom he owed his kind reception in Bath? Then, bending over his fallen adversary, he whispered, haughty man, tell your master find some better quarrel for the nex' he sen' agains' me." The conduct of M. de Chateaurien was pronounced admirable. There was no surprise when the young foreigner fell naturally into the long train of followers of the beautiful Lady Mary Carlisle nor was there great astonishment that he should obtain marked favor in her eyes, shown so plainly that my Lord Townbrake, Sir Hugh Guilford and the rich Squire Bantison, all of whom had followed her through three seasons, swore with rage, and his grace of Winterset * " J * 1- < >- ML V,^T*7C suuaea irum utr huul d uuubo n uu u??-n t?vn? Meeting the duke there on the evening after his second encounter, de Chateaurien smiled upon him brilliantly. "It was badly done, oh, so badly!" he whispered. "Can you afford to have me strip' of my mask by any but yourself I You, who introduce' me! They will say there is some bad scandal that I could force you to be my godfather. You mus' get the courage yourself." "I told you a rose had a short life," waa the answer. "Oh, those rosea! 'Lis the very greates' rixson to gather each day a fresh one." He took a red bud from his breast for an instant and touched it to his lips. "M. de Chateaurien!" It was Lady Mary's voice. She stood at a table where a vacant place had been left beside her. "M. de Chateaurien, we have been waiting very long for you." The duke saw the look she did not know she gave the Frenchman, and he lost countenance for a moment "We approach a climax, eh, monsieur?" said M. de Chateaurien. ( Continned on seventh page. ) k Heart Strength 19365^1 ^ isifc if rr?<f iftja * i Heart strength, or Heart Weakness, means Rerve flV\ *1 19 W Mj Strength, or Nerve Weakness?nothing more. Pos- Bfw V 'A fa ^ Ul-1[ U._ Wvelj. not one weak heart In a hundred Is, in IV ^7*>rr *7 If Ml BIB > self, actually diseased. It U almost always a TmgWP 1^ A ? u hidden tiny little narre that really Is all at fault. THI ?'"* At II. This obecure nerre?the Cardiac, or Heart Nerve BndV WN. ?timply Deeds, and muat hare, mora power, more GRBAT HiTr ? ? 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