The Two Vanrevels

izen of another portion of our country who, know

lights sometimes shone there all night long, and the gentlemen drove away, whitefaced, in the dawn. The cupola, rising above the library, overlooked the garden; and the house, save for that, was of a single story, with a low veranda running the length of its front. The windows of the library and of a row of bedrooms--one of which was Miss Betty's-lined the veranda, "steamboat fashion;"

ending late from the mysterious garret might be not so quiet as they intended, and the young lady sufficiently dist

ker. For she had found in her father's library many books not for convent-shelves; and she had become a Girondin. She found memoirs, histories, and tales of that delectable period, then not so dim with time but that the figures of it were more than tragic shadows; and for a week there was no meal in that house to which she sat down earlier

tion for her introduction to his friends (such was his phrase) he treated her with a perfunctory civility which made her wonder if her advent was altogether welcome to him; bat when she noticed that his hair looked darker than usual about every fourth day, she began to understand Why he appeared ungrateful to her for growing up. He went out a great deal, though no visitors came to the house; for it was known that Mr. Carewe desired to present his daughter to no one until he presented her to al

ther's stories of him perhaps more clearly than she remembered her mother; and one of the older Sisters had known him in Paris and had talked of him at length, giving the flavor of his dandyism and his beauty at first hand to his young relative. He had been one of those hardy young men wearing unbelievable ga

n room an& studied long and ardently, until sometimes the man himself seemed to stand before her, in spite of the fact that Mile. Meit

the tight trousers of white and yellow stripes were tied with white ribbons about the middle of the calf; he wore white stockings and gold-buckled yellow shoes, and on the back of his head a jauntily cocked black hat. Miss Betty innocently wondered why his letters did not speak of Petion, of Vergniaud, or of Dumoriez, since in the historical novels which she read, the hero's lot was inevitably linked with that of everyone of importance in his ge

taking much pride in passing with some small, cynical speech, murmured to himself, concerning the futility of a gentleman's getting shot by his friends for merely being present to applaud them. So, fancying him thus, with his yellow hair, his sc

ll events, it is certain that many people who bad never beheld her were talking of her; that Rouen was full of contention concerning her beauty and her gift of music, for a song can be heard through an open window. And how did it happen that Crailey Gray knew that it was Miss Carewe's habit to stroll in her

lay white on the trees a

romenade and seated her

"touched," as the books

ranquillity of the scen

sighs and melancholy w

f the earth. The breeze

of violets and cherry

the air playing the new

eamt, which pl

ved me just

must break; for what reason she could not have told, since she was without care or sorrow that she knew, except the French Revolution, yet tears shone upon the long lashes

nch by which she stood, and appeared, indeed, like the stage of a little theatre a stage occupied by a bizarre figure. For, in the centre of this shining patch, with the light strong on his face, was standing a fair-haired young man, dressed in

le face lurked something reckless, something of the actor, too; and though his smile was gentle and wistful, there was a

showing the white above and below the large brown iris. Her breath came faster and deeper,

been accused of coolly selecting his best tone; and it became only sweeter when, even

she began to tremble excessively, and sank back upon the bench

ounted upon, and far from his desires.

!" she gasped. "Who

eginning she cut him off short, her fears dispelled by his commonplace. Nay, indignat

ed. "What do you mean by coming here in th

kly, but very gently. "You'd al

ght, and her chin dexterously wrought between square and oval; that her dark hair lay soft as a shadow on her white brow; not that the trembling hand she held against her breast sprang from a taper wrist and tapered again to the tips of the long fingers; nor that she was of that slenderness as strong as it is delicate; not all the exquisite regularity of line and mould, nor simplicity of color, gave her that significance which made the Incroyable declare to himself that he stood for the first time in the pres

t skipped across his mind (like the hop of a flea in a rose-jar) that some day he might find the moment when he could tell her the tru

say for yourself, say it

to change the word. "The spell of the song came over me-it is my dearest favorite-so that I stood afterward in a sort of trance, only hearing again, in the silence, 'The stolen hea

u wearing t

'm on my way to the masquerade;" he answered, with an airy gesture in the direction of the violins. "I'm an Incroyable, you se

the brilliant apparition must offer so tame an explanation. What he said was palpably the truth; there was a masquerade that night,

a failure. This would not do; the attitude of tension between them must be renewed at once. "You'll forg

and added, with a straightforwardness which made him afr

no better sponsor than a white cat, and had no desire to carry her unconventi

on of pleading in a voice that was masterly, being as sincere as it was mu

e rest will meet you when the happy evening comes, will dance with you, talk with you, see you when they like, listen to you sing. I, alone

firmly; and stood quite stil

m the convent, he ventured this speech in a deep, thrilling voice, only to receive a distinct shock for his pains, for she gre

eman that he was left with his mouth open-for, suddenly leaning toward him out of the sha

u a mur

poor comedian, having come to play the chief role, but to find the scene taken out of his hands. Then catching

are a

irresponsible, with more the look of refusing responsibility than being unconscious of it; eyes without care, without prudence, and without evil. A stranger might have said he was about twenty-five and had never a thought in his life. There were some blossoms on the hedge, and he touched one lightly, as though he chucked it under the chin; he smiled upon it then, but not as he

nd waved them toward the house, as children wave to each other across lawns at twilig

about and began to walk in the direction of the beckoning