COUNT LOUIS.

Evening Star, Issue 7403, 24 December 1887, Page 3 (Supplement)

COUNT LOUIS.

A RUSSIAN STORY.

The shallow and unthinking part of the world in which Dr Dubassof and Count Louis Klapka lived was never tired of expressing amazement at the closeness of the affection between these two men. Dubassof's father had been little more than a peasant proprietor, and his land adjoined the splendid estate of Luvin, where Klapka's childhood and youth were passed until he went to the military school at St. Petersburg. The two had grown, loving, fighting, getting into trouble together, onjoying stolon pleasures, and always inseparable. By the time that each was about thirty years old, and both were living in St. Petersburg, the inequality of their positions had changed much. Dubassof was an only child, and his old father cheerfully spent what was a liberal income to a man in his position in educating the boy. Tho young Dubassof determined to become a doctor, and went to Paris to pursue his studies. Even there, where Count Louis j was also, the two friends were inseparable— Dubassof, in his modest student quarters, and the master of Luvin in his splendid apartment in the avenue de l'Opera, Dubassof, however, with that singular tenacity of purpose which afterward made him great and successful, declined to be drawn off by the pleasures and dissipation into which Count Louis would willingly have led him. Indeed, one of the strongest forces that kept them together was Dubassof's inflexible way of holding to his own modes of life in spite of a thousand inducements to live as Count Louis did. Whatever could be said after the final development of things between them, it could not be charged that the son of the farmer had ever lived off the Count. Dubassof paid his own score always. When Dubassof was ready to return to St. Petersburg, Count Louis was also. In a little while, partly owing to tho powerful connections and friends of his friend, the doctor had established himself. Not only reputation, but fortune waited on him. The commercial instinct that had enabled the peasant farmer to wring a comfortable competence from the hard soil descended to tho son, who, by prudent yet bold speculations and good financiering, was at thirty years of age a rich man, judged by the professional standard, By the time that Dubassof had become richer than he ever expected to be Count Louis had become poorer than he had ever imagined, That is, although owning a splendid estate, he was often embarrassed for money, and the life he led at St. Petersburg with his young brother officers was calculated to relieve him of all his surplus revenue.

But he was so handsome, so captivating ! Dubassof, who had known him from his soul outward all their joint lives, felt this as keenly as if Count Louis were a beautiful young girl whose charms had smitten him. He grumbled at Count Louis' extravagance when, as the case often was, the Count had to borrow money from the doctor. Yet ho always lent it. Dubassof, moreover, hated to lend money. One evening Dubassof was waiting for Count Louis to come for him. The two were to go together to a dinner at the Banker Neftel's, for Dubassof's associates were now chiefly of Count Louis' set, if not his class, and invitations poured in upon him, as the case usually is with a young man who has personal distinction, wealth, and a good presence; for although Dubassof possessed nothing of Count Louis' striking beauty, there was something in his deep and glowing eyes, his massive antique head, that marked him out. The clock had just struck the quarter when Count Louis' step was heard bounding up the stairs, his sword clattering after him.

" Punctual for the first time in your life," remarked Dubassof as Count Louis dashed into the room as if it had been his own.

"More than punctual, George," answered Count Louis, seating himself in Dubassof s own chair. " I was to be hero on the half hour, and see—it is only the quarter." " Then," said Dubassof, " you must have lost some money last night, and want an order on my banker. What a shame it is that with your estates you should ever want money !" Count Louis laughed good humoredly. " Not quite that, my good George. I have not lost any money, but I need some damnably ; so much so, that I would do anything to raise 10,000 roubles. As for raising it at Luvin, my excellent father was only too successful in his efforts to put my estates beyond my reach. You will scarcely believe it, George; but tho income for the past five years has been next to nothing. My father did not know what commercial farming would bring us to when he made his arrangements." "Ah, but ho knew you, Louis. Ten thousand roubles is a considerable amount. Why do you want it ?"

"Because with it I could mako three hundred thousand."

Dubassof gazed at him earnestly, and then, putting up his fingers, blew a long whistle.

" This, then, is what you want the ten thousand roubles for. I wonder you are not pelted with gold in the streets and mobbed by bankers, like my friend Neftel, when you go out, if you can make money like that." Count Louis was not offended at his friend's raillery.

" Just what I said when I heard of it. Nevertheless, I must have ten thousand roubles, and you must lend them to me." A tone in Louis' voice, different from any he had ever heard, struck Dubassof's ear. He did not in the least believe in the three hundred thousand roubles to be made, but he knew that Louis was frankly determined on the ten thousand, and he knew that he, Dubassof, would inevitably lend it to him, considerable as the sum was.

"If it were to relieve your embarrassments—to pay a pressing debt, I should get it for you ; but to put into some wild and baseless speculation, I would not be justified as your friend in so doing. Naturally, ten thousand would not satisfy you—if you made or if you lost you would want more. The usurers take all sorts of risks—and even with the restrictions upon your estates they would supply you." "I have not been to the usurers yet, but unless I get this sum from you I shall certainly go to them," coolly remarked Count Louis.

Dubassof got up and moved restlessly about the room. He felt that his ten thousand roubles were fated, but he would struggle as long as possible against lending —or rather giving them as he feared, beca'ise he had but little doubt that Count Louis, if ever he took a speculative turn, would eventually owe more than ho could pay. "George," continued Count Louis, "you have never heard me speak of making any money. I have not pretended to any talents that way, although I may be pardoned for saying that I have very marked genius for spending it. If this required combination —the balancing of chances—l would discredit my own judgment. But it is the knowing the value of something in advance of the rest of the world. Do you think Neftel a good financier ?"' " Undoubtedly," promptly responded Dubassof, pausing in his aimless walk, and facing Count Louis. "Then—Neftel told me of this. Neftel will put a hundred thousand roubles into it, and is trying to raise more. Neftel got it from the Minister of the Interior. Neftel advises me to do anything in order to get a few thousand, roubles together. He has none to lend. Every copeck he can raise between now and to-morrow evening goes into it."

Dubassof, whoßemind travelled rapidly, saw at once the different aspect this put upon it. Such transactions between bankers and Government officials were common enough; but all at once a grim suspicion pierced him. His black brows closed over his deep eyes, and he looked at Count Louis as if he would read his very soul. " And this strange interest Neftel takes in you—is it that—Nathalie—?"

He paused unable to go on. The prospect that Count Louis should marry Nathalie Neftel staggered him. The brotherhood of so many years made a gallant fight before the overmastering passion. Count Louis blushed like a girl, " No, no," he cried hurriedly, " Madefioiselle Nathalie's name was never menioned between us. Bnt you know Neftel remembers the day his horses ran away on

the quay, and fancies I saved his life theH. So to-day he came to mo, ' I have always intended to return you something in kind,' heßaid."

Dubassof's brow cleared a little, but with a lowering face ho folded his arms and looked fixedly on the floor. Count Louis rose too.

| "Had I dreamed that you—would have thought—" he began blunderingly. He did not know what to say—only some small, invisible link between the two men seemed to have snapped at that moment. "It does not matter what I think," responded Dubassof, "I am a fatalist. It may be that both you and I are destined to love Nathalie I love her already, but until that moment shall have come, we will be as we have always been. I have at Neftel's exactlj 15,000 roubles. This sum I meant to buy a country place with. But if 10,000, Louis, would save you from ruin, and even from temporary embarrassment, I would agree never to have a country place." Count Louis stared as he listened. It was not like Dubassof to speak thus. There had been no need to utter their affection—every action of their lives proclaimed it. " Then it is mine," cried Count Louis, however, jumping up, after a moment, with a sudden return of the old unspeakable confidence. " George, have I not always paid you back ? " " Yes," answered Dubassof, good humoredly, " and you have often borrowed money from mc to lead mo into extravagance, and then paid me back. If you were less honest than you are you could afford to be more extravagant." The scraping of Count Louis' droschky outside as the driver trotted the restless horse up and down caused both to glance at the clock.

"I have just time to write you the order," said Dubassof, sitting down to his writing-table. In half a minuto it was done, and the slip ol paper was in Count Louis' possession. Arrived at a splendidly lighted house of the banker the two friends entered the drawing-room together. On one side of the door stood Nef tel, tall, pale, handsome ; and on the other his daughter Nathalie. The daughter of a Polish mother, Nathalie Neftel had all tho enticing beauty of those wonderful almond-eyed Polish women. Her face was lighted by eyes so softly splendid that all Poland could not producs a lovelier pair—and when she bowed low to Count Louis, opening her fan of long ostrich feathers, a rosy flush crept into her cheeks. As for Count Louis, he had always admired Mdllo Nathalie, but until Dubassof had spoken that night he had not thought seriously what his feelings were. Strange fatalism ! Dubassof, in showing his friend a powerful reason for not loving her, had brought home to Count Louis that he already loved her. The dinner was as splondid as Russian feasts usually arc, but neither Count Louis nor Dubassof observed much except Nathalie and each other. They left the house together at midnight. Count Louis put Dubassof down at his door, and then apparently turned in the direction of the barracks ; but as soon as he was out of sight of Dubassof's door ho made another turning, and in a few minutes was again at Nortel's door.

Neftel was expecting him. Count Louis sat down gloomily. This borrowing of money, which had once been so easy, seemed altogether different now. He doubted whether in order to make 300,000 roubles he would use Dubassof's money. Neftel, however, standing up before him, cried out: "All is in danger. Unless I can get 15,000 roubles more it is impossible. Your friend Dubassof has exactly that sum deposited with me. Had I but known this an hour ago !" He struck his hand against his forehead. " I have done everything to raise money. Nathalie's dowry is secured, so that I could not, even if I would, get it. It would be no wrong to take that small amount from it. But this moment I have heard from the minister that it must be a round sum of 150,000 roubles, or else it must be abandoned—and that the money or its equivalent must be in his hands before daylight. If twelve hours more were possible— !" Neftel stopped. His pale face worked. A born money-maker, the idea of losing so much for so little was intolerable to him.

" Dubassof has given me an order for—" Count Louis began in a cold voice. "For the whole amount the fifteen thousand ?" cried Neftel in a tone more of entreaty than inquiry. Count Louis remained perfectly silent. He had taken the order out of his pockot and was looking at it with a strange expression. Neftel, whose self-control rarely deserted him, rose and went to the other side of the hearth. He read tho working of Count Louis' mind, and he suspected the power of a certain lover.

" You may find it difficult to believe, but it is not for myself X clesi.ro tliis money. It is for Nathalie. The world thinks it knows my devotion to her—" which indeed was great and very marked. " Well, she ia my life, my world, my heart. Nature has givon her all that was possible, and I wish to mako her • fortune correspond with her merits. It has been my ambition to make her the richest heiress in St. Petersburg." In a cooler moment, without the passionate desire for money which had seized upon him and without Neftcl's subtle suggestiveness, the falseness of the reasoning which would seek to make Nathalie, rich instead of happy, would have struck Count Louis. But he was not quite clear.on any point then except that he loved Nathalie.

" Mdlle Nathalie's happiness can be no dearer to you than it is to me. If all this is lost, if even her dowry should go too, it will not alter my intention at the proper time to ask for her hand."

Neftel's eyes glowed. He liked this handsome, dashing fellow. Ho knew the splendors of Luvin, the rank of the Klapka family, the confidence reposed in them by the Imperial circle. Such a match would gratify the ambition of the banker, who, though of good birth, was far from uoble. " When that time comes it will not rest with Nathalie," he said. "If—you—can—produce—ls,ooo roubles," he added, slowly. " Now you have my price." Count Louis still sat turning the slip of paper between his fingers. Neftel ran his hands through his hair. " Fifteen thousand roubles !" he almost shrieked. The two men looked into each other's eyes, and something of the greed in the banker's soul crept into Count Louis's. He valued money but lightly, spending it profusely. The amount seemed small to him. It appeared as if a more technicality stood between him r*nd Nathalie and fortune and happiness, Dubassof would have lent him the whole amount had he asked for it. Did he not say that he would have given it to him, Count Louis ? Afar off, as in a dream, he heard Neftel saying: " That a man's life should depend upon a paltry five thousand roubles—for, look you, Count Louis Klapka, that alone stands between me and the point of a pistol. I have not yet told you, but the credit of the banking-house of Neftel is hanging on a thread. If I can get this money all is saved. There will be enough, and more than enough. If Ido not get it, the house of Neftel is dishonored. I will not survive it. Ah, had I but twelve hours more ! " Count Louis spread the slip of paper on the table before him. He raised his heavy eyes, and there were paper, pens, and ink purposely near him. The fierce struggle was over. With the stroke of the pen he changed the figures and letters "ten " into "fifteen." It could be instantaneously detected—but then Neftel would be the only man to see it. When Neftel advanced to the table Count Louis held the scrap of paper toward him. '* There it is," he said. " Fifteen thousand roubles " —and then crying out with a white and desperate face " Ah ! tempter, how well you know me!" rushed out of the room and out of the hoube, and, jumping into his droschky bade the driver go home as fast as he could.

The slip of paper had not been an instant out of his hand before he realised what he had done. At that moment he would have given all he had—Luvin and everything but Nathalie —to undo his work; but her name silenced his conscience. He might be wretched, but she could impart a ray of happiness, no matter how great his misery. Then the thought of Dubassof came—and made him tremble, brave man that he was. He bade the droschky driver get down

and walk home, which he did sulkily, tramping along the street with the tail of his long coat dragging on the ground. Count Louis took the reins and drove up and down the silent streets and quays, revolving terrible things in his mind. He dreaded to meet Dubassof. Yet something irresistible impelled him to drive to his friend's house and tell him all. Could he but get the paper back from Neftel—he turnod and drove furiously to the banker's house. All was dark. He drove at tho same fearful pace to the bank. He saw a light glimmering in Neftel's private room. A watchman and a member of the police were inside the doorway. The watchman might have been managed but for the police. Count Louis' first impulse was to dash them both aside with his powerful arm and to grapple with the banker. But entering a bank after midnight by overcoming the police would have been madness. He had stopped his carriage while all this was passing through his mind, and the hot and excited horse had a moment in which to pant. Then he laid on the whip and disappeared in the darkness. It was two o'clock in the morning, and Dubassof, sitting before the fire in his library, was just about to go to bed. when the door opened quietly and Count Louis walked in. Visits from him at all hours were not unknown to Dubassof, but when he saw Count Louis' face he turned almost as pale as his friend, Count Louis sat down and folded his arms. "Dubassof," said he, "can you imagine tho feelings of a man who in one moment has put his life, his, honor, his fortune in the power of another man ?" Dubassof gazed at him stupidly./ He could not imagine what Count Louis was talking about. "Because," continued Count Louis, "this is what I have done. I found fifteen thousand roubles was necessary instead of ten. You had written ten—l wrote fifteen."

Dubassof could not repress a cry of horror, of anguish, of rage, "No one will know it," Count Louis continued in the same voice, " but you, Neftel, and myself. Neftel will conceal it, because I am to marry Mdlle Nathalie." Of the two men Dubassof was the more agitated. His dark skin turned a shade darker—he trembled in very limb. "Oh, God," he cried, "to loose faith in man and woman both is too much."

"Thus you see," said Count; Louis, with a frightful calmness, " it is quite possible that you should hold my life and soul in your grasp. You can easily prevent me from marrying Nathalie, but I am persuaded that she loves me. That you can not rob me of."

As he spoke ho rose with an air of triumph. He was a criminal before hia judge, but there was one thing inexpressibly dear to him that the verdict could not effect. Just as Count Louis' first impulse had been to dash the police aside, so Dubassof's was to seize and rend Count Louis limb from limb. But the self-control of a lifetime did not desert him all at once. He clenched the arms of the chair in which he sat, but he made no motion toward Count Louis.

" The money shall be returned within a week," said Count Louis, rising ; " but that does not affect things between us. What is done b done. lam going. Have you anything to say ?" •' Nothing," Dubassof managed to gasp. He was stunned, overcome with the event of the last five minutes. He could not adjust himself to the facts.

About ten days after this Dubassof, who had neither seen nor heard of Count Louis, was sitting in his library expecting him. No sign had come from him, unless it was the depositing of 15,000 roubles to Dubassof's credit in Neftel's bank before noon of the following day after their interview. Yet Dubassof had expected him every hour, every minute since. He understood Count Louis too well not to know that he would brave his fate and come boldly to face his former friend. It was now evening, about the time the two friends were accustomed to meet. Therefore, when Dubassof heard a step upon the stair, he knew it was Count Louis.

He entered. Upon hia face, once so brilliant and merry, the history of his fault was written. There was no cringing in his attitude. Dubassof, who had calculated everything, rose and extended his hand as if they were still friends. Count Louis responded. Throwing himself into a chair, ho said: " The three hundred thousand roubles are mine. Neftel had made enormously. To clay he is one of the noblest men of the empire." This made no impression upon Dubassof, although he loved money. He did not even feel a pang of regret that he too had not been allowed to share in the information from the Minister of the Interior. Avarice is strong, but lovo and revenge are stronger. " The fifteen thousand roubles I have drawn from Ncf tel's bank ; and with them I have the slip of paper upon which they were obtained," was his only remark. As Count Louis revolved this in silence his face grew paler and paler. Ho saw it all now. He would not have been surprised at any moment, until the money had finally been withdrawn from the bank, to have been arrested at Dubassof s instigation ; but the refinement of cruelty implied in Dubassof s words had not occurred to him. .

"To keep it always ?" Count Louis asked.

" To keep it always—unless—" Dubassof answered. "Unless what?" " Unless you promise me not to marry Mdlle Neftel."

Count Louis laughed—a strange, mirthless laugh. " You ask what is impossible." " Wait until you have lived a year, knowing this to be in my possession." "I know the force of your threat; but what would it profit you, should she not marry me ? She will marry neither you nor any other man." The note of triumph in this ehord infuriated Dubassof. His rage, however, was of a cold and deliberate kind.

" You esteem women more highly than I do. They talk much of their constancy, but it is chiefly in their imagination." " I know nothing of the constancy of any, except Nathalie Neftel. I have faith in her as I have in God."

" Then you are not willing to buy this of mo ?" asked Dubassof, touching his breast. " Not at your price," answered Count Louis. " Nathalie was the bribe offered mo in the first instance. She has cost me too dear to part with her. I now go to her, that I may tell her all." It was not lon<r before the announcement was made of the approaching marriage of Count Louis and Nathalie Neftel. Whatever Dubassof felt, no human being heard him express a word. He was as often seen with Count Louis as ever. Nathalie made one or two timid approaches in regard to the paper which she found he carried constantly about his person; but Dubassof was not to be drawn from his reserve. One week before the day appointed for the wedding a great dinner was given at Neftel's house. For the first time on that evening a vast dining-room, with a ball-room over it, was thrown open. A hundred persons sat down to table, some of them the most distinguished people in St. Petersburg. Others were of the rank of life of Neftel and Dubassof—professional men, bankers, and merchants. Nathalie was radiant; Dubassof, who was among the number, watched closely the brilliant creature to find a trace of fear or nervousness. In Count Louis' face he saw the look of a man whose hold on happiness is insecure. But to the world he was the same gay, captivating Count Louis. The dinner progressed with all the merry formalities of such affairs. Towards the close Neftel, whose face for once lost its saturnine expression, rose and said: "In my country—in Ltttenania 'tis the custom to drink the health of the prospective bride from her own dainty slipper. We will modify this custom, but we will not ignore it." At this the servants presented to each guest a slipper of Bohemian glass, with the bride's initial on the top in gold. These were filled with champagne, and then the long line of gnje'sts stood up, amid gay confusion, to drink Nathalie's health. But Dubassof, although he stood up, held a glass in his hand. He had no slipper. "How is this?" asked Neftel, frowning

and surprised, of the servant behind his chair. "It is I—it is my fault." Nathalie cried from the other side of the table, where she sat in the centre of the line facing her father. ■ ■ •

"lam not entitled to any slipper—for I keep my own—this is our friend's—l made a mistake. Take this to Dr Dubassof," she said to a servant, handing him a slipper foaming with champagne. A little murmur of admiration at her ready taot went around. Both Nef tel and Count Louis flushed at the courteous way in which she had extricated herself from what might have seemed a rude and awkward position. Dubassof, bowing low, received the toy and drank with the others.

This was the concluding ceremony of the dinner, and soon they all repaired to the drawing-room. A ball was to follow immediately. If Dubassof had admired Nathalie's selfpossession before, he would have seen it fail somewhat then, for her eyes constantly followed him, and she seemed absent in her manner. But he could not notice anything. A strange drowsiness seized upon him. He had drank more wine than usual, and that little glass slipper of champagne had been too much. He spoke little to anybody, and presently Nathalie saw him disappear in the embrasure of a window. A divan, wheeled out of the way, was there. He dropped upon it, and in two minutes he had fallen into a heavy sleep, the long curtains concealing him. It was some hours after that he became imperfectly conscious. of the rhythmic beat of dancers' feet over his head. He roused himself with an effort. By degrees his dim consciousness came back to him. He pulled aside the curtain and saw himself alone in the drawing-room, where the lamps burned low and the candles in their sconces flickered.

Things came back to him slowly. He was vexed and mortified beyond expression —but he was puzzled to know how the very moderate quantity of wine he drank should have so overcome him. Ho tried to rise and sank back weak and dizzy. All at once the glass slipper of champagne he had received from Nathalie's hand occurred to him. He thrust his hand into his bosom. Yes, it was gone. He was cheated of bis revenge. He sprang up, neither weak nor dizzy then. "The sound of the dancing had ceased, although the throb of the orchestra was still heard in the great suite of upper rooms. People were saying good-night—he heard the tramping of many horses outside, the oaths of drivers, the opening and shutting of vestibule doors as group after group passed out. He stood erect, torn by the tempest within him. And yet, in the middt of baffled rage and despair, something like relief crept over him. Fate had placed in his hands an instrument by which he felt obliged to avenge himself on those two enemies, Nathalie and Count liouis. Yet these two, whom he would have crushed between the millstones of his wrath, had been dearer to him than anything on earth. He longed to have that little slip of paper back—he hated himself for being the dupe of a woman's slight yet cunning trick ; but after all it was not his terrible destiny to ruin Louis Klapka and Nathalie Neftel. He waited in the drawing-room until he thought nearly all the guests had left. Then he mounted the broad stairs lined by weary footmen, and entered the splendid ballroom. At the end Nathalie and her father, with Count Louis, were receiving the adieux of the last lingering guests. Dubassof advanced, and Nathalie, with the same wonder she had excited in him, observed his coolness and naturalness—and the tiger, too, had tasted blood before he was robbed of his prey. For her the triumph, the joy, the keenness of her success shone in her brilliant face. Count Louis looked pale and agitated. He knew all, and the crisis had unnerved him.

" Mademoiselle," Baid Dubassof, bowing low, " that your happiness is great I can well believe. Fate, which directs our destinies, decrees that you shall be happy." Nathalie bowed deeply in return. " I thank you. We thank you," was all she said. The sparkling of her eyes was as a star to Dubassof, and there was that singular feeling as if a burden had been lifted from him.

Some years after this one of those periodic convulsions to which St. Petersburg is so miserably subject occurred. It was proved that Dr Dubassof had, at the risk of his life, dragged men from under the ruins caused by an explosion, and had dressed their wounds skilfully without asking what their politics were. For this he disappeared. After this Count Louis seemed troubled. He and Nathalie were now among the most splendid members of a. splendid society. One day he went to his wife and took her hand. " Nathalie," said he, " year by year" I have felt rising within me, as sap rises sometimes in a tree that has been struck by lightning and partially withered, the old feeling of thirty years ago. Dubassof was a fatalist. Some subtle instinct has told me that the same change is going on in him.' Think—we were essential to each other's happiness for so long. Dubassof loved fiercely, and I robbed him both of his love and his revenge. He lost his friend and the woman he loved at once. Shall I not go and find him ?" Nathalie could not say him nay.

After some months Count Louis found that Dubassof was under strict surveillance in a small village in Western Siberia. He was not allowed to receive letters, and was treated with great harshness. To a man of Dubasoffs temperament the effect of this terrible and isolated life may be imagined. '

It was towards dusk of the short Siberian twilight when Dubassof, walking under the solemn fir trees at the back of his little garden, saw through the misty shadows Count Louis Klapka approach.- For an instant all that had occurred since those boyish days at Luvin suddenly deserted him. A thrill of something like the passion of joy that used to fill his soul when he saw Louis after a short absence overcame him. By some unknown force the same feeling came to Count Louis. The sight of Dubassof's whitening hair, of his emaciated form, smote him to the heart; and Dubassof was clothed in little better than rags. As Count Louis took all this in, the first tears of his manhood welled up from his heart. He seized Dubassof and cried " George ! George!" He could say no more.

Dubassof was calm. Grief and despair had worn themselves out with him.

" You have not come so far except to bring me your forgiveness and Nathalie's," he said.

"Moro," answered Count Louis, still holding him. " Pardon from the Emperor —begged from him by Nathalie and me and our children. Ah, George, how welcome was this chance of reparation ! The time, the labor, even the spending of money eased my heart." The two men, one grey and broken, walked together up and down under the fir trees, with their arms entwined boy fashion as in those far-off days when they were two early headed lads. In Dubassof's poor cottage, whither they returned after some hours, was but one bed. Count Louis, seeing Dubassof's pallor and weakness, forced him to take that, while he himself sat up all night in a chair. On the morrow they were to start southward together. The gray light of morning was stealing into the wretched room, when Count Louis heard a groan from the bed where Dubassof lay. He went to him. Dubassof lay on his right side, breathing heavily. There was no physician in the little village so Dubassof had told Count Louis the night b'efore —and he dared not leave Dubassof for a moment in that condition. In a little while the village people would be stirring, when assistance might be had, but never for' one moment did Count Louis mistake the look of death upon that face. In a little while Dubassof opened his eyes and began to talk indistinctly. " Hear the birds," he said with difficulty. " They are the thrushes at Luvin. Come, Louis, let us go bird's nesting." His mind, wandering, went upon its dim and unknown way. He thought he was a boy again at Luvin. 11" Ah, Louis," he cried, " I wish it were always summer and you did not have to go away again. The winters are long. I have nobody but you. When you are a man you will live at Luvin always. There are the birds again." After some hours two peasant women

came. Dubassof was dead upon the wretched bed. Ckmntr tenia-wm sitting by him holding the dead man's hand. Ithad been so long the arm was quite stiff. Ithad, to be broken when he was put in the coffin. Next'day, after that poor coffin, walked a t solitary mourner—Count Louis. ' '