A Girl of the Commune

s informed that Madame Michaud lived on the third floor. On ascend

e Mademoiselle Brand

is,

e her my card,

" the servant said, and led the

he bareness of the floor. An oval table on very thin legs stood in the middle; the chairs and couch seemed to have been made to match it, and had an eminently bare and uncomfortable appearance; a vase of flowers

window unoccupied by the vase and its support. She put the wri

Mr. Hartington. I should never ha

e, I imagine, Miss Brande

f the sudden death of your dear father. He was always so kind when he came to see us, and I liked him so much, I felt for you deeply. It must have been an awful shock for you. I heard it a few days after I got to Dresden. Then came the other news about that terrible failure and its consequences. It seemed

k I preferred it should be to your father rather than anybody else. I believe

ook he

al at all, and I was miserable all

would not sell my father's hunters, and that no one should ride them, but that they should be pensioners as long as they lived; and the sa

id all seem so wrong and so pitiful. I could not learn much about you from father. He said that you had only written once to him on business since things were finally settled; but that you had mentioned that you

nd pounds that had been settled on my mother, and fortunately that was not affected

on in a way, Cuthbert, but so differ

end two hundred a year,

course I don't spend anything like all of it; but as I said, it is so d

a quarter of what I paid for my chambers in London. I can dine sumptuously on a franc and a half. Another franc covers my breakfast, which is generally café au lait and two eggs; another franc

oked at him

wing cynical, I

ly not conscious of it. I

do not see any change in you, b

nt," h

all

e to become, a very earnest person indeed, and som

Cuthbert; but if it is true it is very good n

r in Paris. I am afraid the Prussians are going to interrupt my studies a good deal. This has made me angry and I have enlis

the Germans!" she exclaimed, indignant

ignation. "I suppose you are almost Germanized, and regar

nothing that would hurt the feelings of the people round me, but there can be no doubt that the French deserve all the misfortunes that have fa

I do not say that it would not have been much wiser if they had avoided falling into the pit dug for them, my sympathies are wholly with them, except in this outburst of folly that has resulted in the establishment, for a time at any rate, of a Republic. Now, I have no sympathy whatever wit

for two or three min

differently, Cuthbert. However, we may talk about your doings without arguing over the cause. O

there will be some sharp fighting, and I b

at him in

pause, "you were the last person who woul

gadocios as they are, and always have been, can at least starve well. They held out against Henry of Navarre till numbers dropped dead in the streets, and until the Spaniards came at last from the Netherlands and raised the siege, and I believe they will hold out now. They have courage enough, as has been shown over and over again at the barricades, but they will be

aughed, "but I think you are altogether wrong. Howe

t if you will see it quite in the sam

at them," she s

I can get them. I have heard that the country rat, the fellow that lives in ric

a thing," she said, indignantly,

ings that woman has as much right to do as man; but if you do, I

say that rats may not be eaten in the poor quarters. I do not know what they eat there. I hear they eat horse-flesh, and for anyt

ly took out a pocket-book and made an entry. "And now," he said, a

ound the Boulevards. One can walk just as freely there as one could in Germany, but I find that

unnoticed, especially if she looks English or American. They are coming to understand that young women in those countries are pe

u like, but I do not think you will be altogether gratified with the result of your researches, and I think that you would obtain a much closer i

ers I have read a little of are detestable. I don't

f the ordinary type; but as you take up the cause of woman in general it is distinctly necessary

ain, Mr. Hartington," she

dle classes, you are touching but the fringe of the subject, for they are outnumbered by twenty

der said, despondently, after a pause

the mountain may move of its own accord; but the efforts of a thousand or ten thousand women as earnest as

inciples, but I do often feel discouraged. The task seems to grow larger and more difficult th

woman differs as widely in her ideas-I do not say aspirations, for she has

Voltaire and Rousseau revolutionized French thought from the top to the bottom. Why should not a great woman some day rise and exercise as great influence over her sex as these two Frenchmen did? But do not let us talk

upon him and say that you have an interest in me-you can assign any reason you like, say that you are an aunt of mine and intend to make me your heir-

hing at me again," she broke off as she looked up at him. "Of course I cou

at was all, now I am on the highway to becoming an artist. Goudé will only receive pupils whom he considers likely to do him credit, and on seeing two of the things I had done after I had been working with Terrier, he accepted me at once. He is a splendid master-out and away the best in Paris, and is really a great artist himself. He is a peppery little man and will tolerate no nonsense, and I can assure you th

so much nobler to work than it is to fritter away a life doing nothing. How tiresome it is," she said, "that

I am very fixed in my resolves. I was content to be lazy before simply because there was no particular reason for my being otherwise, and I admit that constitutionally I may incline that way; but when a cataclysm occurred, and, as I may say, the foundations were s

Mary said, indignantly, but w

her I ought not to turn over a new leaf when I came in suddenly for Fairclose; that of course seemed to knock it all on the head. Then came what we may c

ncere at the moment, he had very speedily come to laugh at his own folly, and had recognized that the idea was altogether ridiculous. Upon her it had made so little impression that it had scarcely occurred

e for you to come here in the evening sometimes, and it would be better for h

say the sailors will garrison the forts and the army take the outpost duty; but I fancy, when the Germans really surround us, it will be necessary to keep so strong a force outside the walls, that they w

vening generally? You mu

ave little supper-parties and go to each other's rooms to chatter and smoke. Then, occasionally, I drop into the theatre. It is very much like the life I had in London, only

laughed

ing when you are reduced to

five pounds in laying in a store; and mean to take up a plank and hide it under the floor, and to maintain the most profound secrecy as to its existence. There is no saying whether, as time goes on, it may not be declared an offence of the gravest character for any one to have a private store of any necessary. If you have any specia

y some tea and ch

r keeping a sheep or two, or a bullock; and bread, at the end of a couple of months, could scarcely be eaten; but, really, I should

sly, when, on fetching Madame Michaud in, that lady, in the course of conversation, mentioned th

ly that there will be an order issued that everything of that sort is to be given into a public store for general distribution, so it must be brought here quietly. He tells me that every one

that is necessary, madame

month or two the country will come to our rescue and destroy the Prussians, but till then we have got to live. Alre

that, as you say, there will be a prohibition of anyone keeping provisions of any sort, and everything will be thrown

ublic magazines?" Mary asked. "It will not go further th

their houses, they will break in and sack them. That would only be human nature, and therefore in the interest of order alone a decree forbidding anyone to have private stores would have to be passed; besides it would make the food

if prepared to be reduc

er of small bags to hold the flour; then we shall hide it away under the b

rcel they will search so closely everywhere that they will find the rest. For that

d said, with a gesture of tragic despair. "Who could

are useful now not only in protecting the city but in covering a wide area, where the cattle and sheep may feed under the protection of the guns. I don't think we are as l

enchwoman said, calmly, while Mary Bra

it is not so bad; but I cannot think that they will have to kill the horses

one of the regiments of v

uard, and they say every one will have to take up a musket; but

s just as likely to fall on the roof of the house where I live as on any other,

," Madame Michaud said, cordially; "it will give my husband pleasure to meet a

iend of our family, and I have known her ever since she was a little child. It will be pl