Samuel Brohl and Company | Page 2

one of those anemic disorders of which we hear so much
nowadays, and which may be called la maladie a la mode. He was
obliged to break in upon his daily routine, employ an assistant, and
early in July his physician ordered him to set out for Engadine, and try
the chalybeate water-cure at Saint Moritz. The trip from Paris to Saint
Moritz cannot be made without passing through Chur. It was at Chur
that Mlle. Antoinette Moriaz, who accompanied her father, met for the
first time Count Abel Larinski. When the decree of Destiny goes forth,
the spider and the fly must inevitably meet.
Abel Larinski had arrived at Chur from Vienna, having taken the route
through Milan and across the Splugen Pass. Although he was very short
of funds, upon reaching the capital of the canton of Grisons he had put

up at the Hotel Steinbock, the best and most expensive in the place. It
was his opinion that he owed this mark of respect to Count Larinski;
such duties he held to be very sacred, and he fulfilled them religiously.
He was in a very melancholy mood, and set out for a promenade in
order to divert his mind. In crossing the Plessur Bridge, he fixed his
troubled eyes on the muddy waters of the stream, and he felt almost
tempted to take the fatal leap; but in such a project there is considerable
distance between the dream and its fulfilment, and Count Larinski
experienced at this juncture that the most melancholy man in the world
may find it difficult to conquer his passion for living.
He had no reason to feel very cheerful. He had quitted Vienna in order
to betake himself to the Saxon Casino, where roulette and
trente-et-quarante are played. His ill-luck would have it that he stopped
on the way at Milan, and fell in with a circle of ill repute, where this
most imprudent of men played and lost. There remained to him just
enough cash to carry him to Saxon; but what can be accomplished in a
casino when one has empty pockets? Before crossing the Splugen he
had written to a petty Jew banker of his acquaintance for money. He
counted but little on the compliance of this Hebrew, and this was why
he paused five minutes to contemplate the Plessur, after which he
retraced his steps. Twenty minutes later he was crossing a public square,
ornamented with a pretty Gothic fountain, and seeing before him a
cathedral, he hastened to enter it.
The cathedral of Chur possesses, among other curiosities, a painting by
Albert Durer, a St. Lawrence on the gridiron, attributed to Holbein, a
piece of the true cross, and some relics of St. Lucius and his sister
Ernesta. Count Abel only accorded a wandering attention to either St.
Lucius or St. Lawrence. Scarcely had he made his way into the nave of
the building, when he beheld something that appeared to him far more
interesting than paintings or relics. An English poet has said that at
times there is revealed to us a glimpse of paradise in a woman's face,
and it was such a rare blessing that was at this moment vouchsafed unto
Count Larinski. He was not a romantic man, and yet he remained for
some moments motionless, rooted to the spot in admiration. Was it a
premonition of his destiny? The fact is that, in beholding for the first

time Mlle. Antoinette Moriaz, for it was none other than she who thus
riveted his attention, he experienced an inexplicable surprise, a thrilling
of the heart, such as he never before had experienced. In his first
impression of this charming girl he made one slight mistake. He
divined at once that the man by whom she was accompanied, who had
gray hair, a broad, open brow, vivacious eyes, shaded by beautiful,
heavy eye-brows, belonged to some learned fraternity; but he imagined
that this individual with a white cravat, who had evidently preserved
his freshness of heart, although past sixty years of age, was the
fortunate suitor of the beautiful girl by his side.
There are some women whom it is impossible not to gaze upon.
Wherever Mlle. Antoinette Moriaz appeared she was the object of
universal observation: first, because she was charming; and, then,
because she had a way of her own of dressing and of arranging her hair,
a peculiar movement of the head, a grace of carriage, which inevitably
must attract notice. There were those who made so bold as to assert that
she assumed certain little peculiarities solely for the purpose of
attracting the chance observer. Do not believe a word of it. She was
altogether indifferent to public opinion and consulted her own taste
alone, which was certainly impregnated with a touch of