A Romance of Youth, Complete

very large to him. Amedee had received for a birthday present a box of water-colors, with which he was sprawled out upon an old rug, earnestly intent upon his work of coloring the wo

the year 1845, who does not feel the tears of homesickness rise to his eyes as he turns over the pages of an old number of the 'Ma

He saw extending before him, from right to left, with a graceful curve, the Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs, one of the quietest streets in the Luxembourg quarter, then only half

nse of pure sky across which large clouds, like

soft voice

office soon. We must wash your hands bef

such charming blue eyes, always carrying her head on one side, as if the weight of her lovely chestnut hair was too heavy for her to bear, and smiling the sweet, tired smile of those who have not long to live! She made his toilette, kissed

th one arm, before kissing him, exclaiming, "Houp la!" A moment later he kissed his

coughed mu

r head like a child who tells

before his mug, and the young mother, going into the kitchen, would bring in the supper. After opening his napkin, t

ny, Lucie? Put a shawl on, then," said M. Violette, while his wife was pouring t

ee down from his chair, and le

and now the great clouds resembled mountains of gold,

tte," suddenly said a cordial

s work. He was large and bald-headed, with a good-natured face, a red beard sprinkled with white hairs, and he wore a short, loose coat. As he spoke

ittle girls; one, the smaller of the two, was two years younger than Amedee; the other was ten years old, an

he elder of the girls, knew how to read, and told the two little ones very beautiful storie

s back at the moment when the wolf, hidden under coverings and the grandmother's cap, said, wi

pon the terrace. It was a

together. The Violettes were quiet people, and preferred rather to listen to their neighbors than t

engraver, who was a simple politician, after the fashion of 1848, would declare that we must accept the Republic, "Oh, not the red-hot, you know, but the true, the real one!" Or he would wish that Cavaignac had been elected President at the September balloting; although he himself was t

are the most distant of all Amedee's memories. Then there was a break in his memo

her bed. When he was installed near the bed, before a little table, cutting out with scissors the hussars from a sheet of Epinal, his poor mamma almost frightened him, as she leaned her elbo

in the morning, but an old woman in a short jacket, w

ary. Sometimes he was accompanied by the physician, a large man, very much dressed and perfumed, who panted for breath after climbing the five flights of stairs. Once

there to talk with him. Then Amedee's mother would call to him, and he would climb upon the bed, where she would gaze at him with her bright eyes and

with a forced smile wh

t did the

better. Only, my poor Lucie, we mu

owsy invalid, in the close room smelling of drugs, where only the old snuff-t

adame Gerard, would come to

erard," his mother would respond. "A

d would not let

ling boxes of primroses in little carts on the sidewalks. You will surely be better as soon as the sun shine

t the child every afternoon, and he becam

paper, made the worthy man's skull shine as he leaned over his copper plate. He worked hard all day; with an expensive house and two girls to bring up, it was necessary. In spite of his advanced opinions, he continued to engrave his Prince Louis-"A rogue who is trying to juggle us out of a Republic." At the very most, he stopped only two or three times a day to smoke his Abu-el-Kader. Nothing distracted him from his work; not even the little ones, who, tired of playing

pths of her lair, from which escaped a delicious odor of bacon. "Let

dy have such wild ideas at five years of age as this Maria? She took the arm of Amedee, whom she called her little husband,

, Madame, i

d Louise, who lent herself complacently to the play, for s

ed Maria, gravely, "

. Madame Gerard, reassured as to the state of her stew, which was slowly cooking-and oh, how good it smelled in the kitchen!-entered the dining-room. Both looked at the child

n the house. Everything alarmed him now. He was afraid of the old woman who smelled of snuff, and who, when she dressed him in the morning, looked at him with a pitying air; he was afraid of the doctor, who climbed the five flights of stairs twice a day now, and left a whiff of perfume behind him; afraid of his father, who did not go to his office any more, whose beard was often three days old, and who feverishly paced the little parlor, to

ay that Amedee never will forget, alt

d bloodshot from so much crying. Why was their neighbor, M. Gerard, there so early in the morning, and with great tears roll

or friend! Have

m, and then his head fell like a dead person's upon the good engraver's

cried the little Ame

m that his mother had gone for a long time, a very long time; that he must love his papa very much and think only of him;

n a singular, almost respectful manner. What had caused such a change? Louise did not open her piano, and when little Maria wished to take he

gh streets that the child did not know, across a bridge in the middle of which stood a large brass horseman, with his head crowned with la

of them were writing addresses upon large sheets of paper bordered with black. M. Violette was not c

thes, he uttered a groan, and arose, staggering

him in the morning in his black clothes, while he listened to the noise of heavy feet and blows from a

want to

d to him that he ought to be very wise and good, and try to console his father, who

all the rain, quickening his childish steps, with his little hand tightly clasped in his father's, carry away? What did they bury in that hole, from which an odor of freshly dug earth was emitted-in that hole surrounded by men in black, and from which his fat

ly two plates. The poor widower, who had just wiped his eyes with his napkin, had put upon one of the plates a little meat cut up in bits for Amedee. He was very pale, and as Amedee sat in his high chair, he asked hims