The Mystery of Choice

waterproof silk, and, as the line hissed through the air far across the pool, I saw

There is not a trout in Brittan

n America,

a!" observed the

iled fly in England,

or people do in England?" d

self and your wriggling caterpillars," I

his hat intensified the irritation, for the flapping brim rested on both ears, and the two little velvet ribbons which hung from the silver buckle in front wiggl

ny man in Morbihan-or Finistère e

nows as much as yo

plied the Purple

e as large as yours," I added, moving down

Darrel, in all his collection he hasn't a specimen, a single specimen, of tha

happen to be the only man who ever captured a 'Purple Emperor' in Morbihan, it doesn't follow that you

o," he

enty of May-flies

e Purple Emperor, "you wo

the stream and began to whip the ripples at the head of the pool. A great green dragon-fly cam

is your butterfly net?" I

Junius, Drury, characteristic, anal angle of post

urst of erudition? Can you tell me, in simple everyday French, what this little fly is-

rple Emperor, "that's

that?" I

came a heavy splash in the

dn't I tell you the fish knew their business?

s latter operation was a demoralizing spectacle, for the Purple Emperor, like all Breton peasants, smoked one of those microscopical Breton pipes which requires ten minutes to find, ten minutes to fill, ten minutes to light, and ten secon

iece. She never admitted it, but we all knew what the black-and-blue marks meant on her soft, round arm, and it mad

had not been avaricious, I should never have seen Lys at all, but he could not resist the thirty francs a week which I offered him; and Lys posed for me all day long, happy as a linnet in a pink thorn hedge. Nevertheless, the Purple Emperor hated me, and constantly threatened to send Lys back to her dreary flax-spinning. He was suspicious, too, and when he had gulped down the si

reasons for h

ong the entomologists of France and Brittany. For the Red Admiral had taken one of these common insects, dyed it a brilliant yellow by the aid of chemicals, and palmed it off on a credulous collector as a South African species, absolutely unique. The fifty francs which he gained by this rascality were, however

f that beautiful butterfly, Apatura Iris, or the Purple Emperor, as it is called by amateurs-the only specimen that had ever been taken i

r to the Groix Inn, where the Purple Emperor lived with his niece, and brought his microscope to bear on the rare newly cap

inned the Purple Emperor; and the

rize, and the Paris Entomological Society made him an honorary member. Being a Breton peasant, and a more than commonly pig-headed one at that, these honours did not disturb his equanimity; but when the little hamlet of St. Gildas elected him mayor, and, as is the custom in Brittany under such circumstances, he left his thatched house to take up an official life in the little Groix Inn, his head became completely turned. To be mayor in a

w you sneaking about the St. Gildas spinny yesterday morning. So you think you can find

e chrysalis, which, if successfully hatched, would become a perfect specimen of the invaluable Apatura Iris. This was the last straw. The Red Admiral shut himself up in h

a distance of fifteen miles each way, had brought several suspicious letters, bearing English stamps, to the Red Admiral, and the next day the Admiral had been observed at his window grinning up into the sky and rubbing his hands together. A night or two after this apparition the postman left two packages at the Groix Inn for a moment while he ran across the way to drink a glass of cider

orner to the cottage of the Red Admiral the Purple Emperor ordered a glass of cider, and deliberately fuddled himself until Lys came in and tearfully supported him to his room. Here he becam

o, and until to-day he had

e relaxation, she to visit and gossip with her little black-eyed friend Yvette in the neighbouring hamle

and withdrawing the cast of three, knotted a new leader to the silk and slipped a fly on the loop. It was a queer fly. It was one of those unnameable experiments which fascinate anglers in sporting stores and which generally prove utterly useless. Moreover, it was a tailed fly, but of course I easily remedied that with a stroke of my penknife. Then I was all ready, and I stepped out into the hurrying rapids and cast straight as an arrow to the spot where the sea trout had risen. Lightly as a plume the fly settled on the bosom of the pool; then came a st

e sulking fish, a lithe, slender girl came hurriedl

for a second, "I thought you w

ound an awful fight going on at the Groix Inn,

ump. Lys, active and graceful as a young deer, in spite of her Pont-Aven sabots, followed along the opposite ban

n?" I called across th

he and my uncle are drinking together and disputing about butterflies. I never saw my uncle so

ess a smile, "your uncle and the Red Adm

erce since he shut himself up three weeks ago, and-oh, dear! I never saw such a look in my uncle'

at was unfortunate. What did t

the ferns, and gave me a muti

had returned: once to rifle the bedroom of the Purple Emperor-an unsuccessful enterprise-and another time to rob his own father. He succeeded in the latter attempt, but was never caught, although he was frequently seen roving about the forests

my heart. For a long time I had refused to believe that any tie of blood linked this dainty blue-eyed creature with the Purple Emperor. Although she dressed in the velvet-laced bodice and blue petticoat of Finistère, and wore the bewitching white coiffe of St. Gildas, it see

asked, watching the line vib

. "Oh," she answered, with a little toss o

ill carry

es

Emperor, the Red Admir

es

do you s

h, no

me say i

sabots from Pont-Aven, made to order. They fi

e answer for yo

onsieur

let me give h

d you concern yourse

uiet, but the rod i

I love

deepened; she gave a gentle gasp, t

e you,

hat you say?"

I love

t face and looked a

ears stood like stars in her eyes.