The Son of Clemenceau

rn Germany. The evening breeze in this truly March weather came chill over the plain of stones where Isar flowed darkly, and at the first puff of it, fo

ere were, in this southern and unfashionable suburb, only a few modern structures, and most of the quaint and r

lar in plan and period of erection; the windows had ornamental frames of great depth, but some were blocked up, which gave the facades a sinister aspect; the walls had not only ornamental tablets in stucco, but, in a better light, would have shown rude fresco paintings not unworthy medi

pers had renounced any hope of taking more money, in this ward, gloomy, neglected and remote from the mode, no display of goods was made after dark. But the man, finding novel effects in the obscurity, co

ak did not wholly muffle. With his dark complexion and slender form, not much in keeping with the thickset and heavy-footed natives, and his glist

roll work, which Quintin Matsys would not have disavowed, but, overhead, the sky was reddened by the reflection of the thousands of gas jets in the north and west; the gay and spendthrift

t has even now the effect which Gustavus Adolphus termed: 'a gilded saddle on a lean jade!'" Then, shivering again, he added, struck as well by the now completely deser

narrow and devious passages, between tottering houses, and those even more squalid in the rear, a commingli

r-jutting porch of an old residence, with sculptured armorial bearings of s

ming from their resting-places to substitute themselves for the honest toilers on the thoroughfares; each

as though in disgust at this horde of Hans hastening to invade the district of hotels

nd far along at the other end of the line. Some certainly spied him, for these wretches could see as lucidly as the felines in the night-their day from society having reversed their conditions. But, though these whispered the

sed hermetically, but the upper windows no longer emitted a scintillation of lamplight. The spy by accident concluded that he would raise his

ely contemplated Diogenes in his tub; not that our

hs, the misstep of a wooden leg of which the clumsy ferule slipped on a cobblestone, and the querulous whimper of a child, half-starved and imperfectly swaddled in a tattered shawl, on a flaccid bosom, the m

stranger confidently expected to see a commander appear whose flashing, fearless e

and announced the commander whom all awaited-a bent-up, scarcely human-shaped form, hardly

eview the vagabonds and put questions and issue orders to each, which were received like mandates from C?sar by his legions. The voice was fine an

unter's cap, with earflaps and a drooping foxtail, worn as the pompon but half-loosened in time. The eyes that inspected the file of vagrants, shone with undiminished force,

ore odd from its being a Slavonic title, meaning "grandmother." Was it possible that he had before him one of those prolific centenarians, truly a mother of the tribe, a gypsy queen to w

the feminine general to direct a piercing glance toward him, and hasten to conclude her arrangements. The line broke up into li

haps, among her rags, resolutely moved toward the spy. He expected to be interrogate

a pistol-barrel; listened again and stared; then, muttering what was probably no prayer for the stranger's welfare, she crossed the street with amazing rapidity. The st

a decidedly soldier-like man in a long cloak, thrown back

g was rapidly exchanged between them. Baboushka seemed to enjoin caution for the stranger hooked up his trailing sabre, wrap

the student might have lost any misgiving about the vagrants

swagger of a personage of no inconsiderable rank, and also of some degree in the nobility. Tall, burly, overbearing, the stra

made his heel ring on each plank. But, on reaching the farther end, to the surprise of the watcher, his carriage immediately altered; his step became cautious and, like the other whom he had not noticed, he s

Venus. And the architectural student, not fearing to pass the soldier in his excusable ambush for a sweetheart, since his route over th

, which kept him hidden from the officer but revealed him to any one approaching in the street, before a third individual of singular mien caught

poor, thin woolen wrapper imperfectly shrouded. She enchanted by the mere contour; it was her weird burden which appalled the watcher. In

n instant recognizing that he was neither one of the usual nocturnal deni

ther belt with the clasp of a University, admirably defined the shapeliness of a slight but manly form. His hair, black as the raven's wing, was worn long and came curling down on his shoulders; his complexion was dark but clear. But the whole appearance was of a marvel in physical excellencies; a physiologist would have pointed to him a

ughty for the vulgar worshiper; her hair was treated in a fantastic fashion as unlike that of the staid German maiden as its hue of black was the opposite of the traditional flaxen. Even in the feeble street-lamplight, she appeared, with her finely chiseled features of an Oriental type, handsome enough to melt an anchorite, and

ornamentation, coming down upon a promising curve, clothed in a similarly theatrical skirt of flowered satin and China silk braid. On her wrists were bracelets and on her ungloved hands many rings, with stones rather too large to be taken for genuine on a woman pr

so lofty and her delicate mouth so impressed with a proud and energetical curl th

it, such respect did she inspire, and on her recovering from her fle

in ambush; and in the same manner as love-if that were love-had clutched his heart with the swiftness of an

nd he caught a glimpse, delightful and bewildering, of a foot, long but slim and delicately modeled, and of a faultless ankle, in a vermilion silk stocking and low-cut cordovan leather slipper-as theatrical a

tood in need