The Son of Clemenceau | Page 4

entertain dread, she came
on apace.
Indeed, he was far from resembling the vagrants. He was clad without
any attention to the toilette, after the manner of the German student,
who likes to affront the Pharisee but without overmuch eccentricity.
Under the voluminous cloak, warranted by the chilly wind, a
tight-fitting tunic of dark green cloth, caught in by a broad buff leather
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 as a model and
result of the combination of all desirable traits in both his progenitors.
His attitude, checked in the advance, denoted this perfection. The
young woman, set at ease by her glances and that peace which true
symmetry inspires, continued her way, averting her head with
calculation, but he felt sure that she was not offended.
He could laugh at the mistake he had made for, at this close encounter,
he perceived that what in the tragic mood originated by the review of
beggars in the shades of night, he had taken to be a child's casket, was a
violin-case. The girl--she was perhaps but sixteen--had the artist's eye,
black, fiery, deep and winning, while haughty 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 in the beholder a flood of passion gushed up and
expanded his heart--devoid of such a mastering emotion before. He
believed this was love! Perhaps it was love--real, true, indubitable
love--but there is a mock-love with so much to advance in its favor that
it has won many a battle where the genuine feeling has fought long in
vain.

Sharing some shock not unlike his own in extent and sharpness, the girl
with the violin-case had paused just perceptibly in an unconscious
attitude which kept in the lamplight her bust, tightly encased in a faded
but elegant Genoa brocade jacket, with copper lace 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 promenading alone at such an
hour. Conjoined with the musical instrument, the attire confirmed the
student in his first impression after the tragic one, that this was a
performer in one of the numerous dance-houses of the popular region,
bordering the fashionable one.
He almost regretted this conclusion, for the girl's forehead was so high,
her eyes so lofty and her delicate mouth so impressed with a proud and
energetical curl that no ambition would seem beyond the flight of one
thus beautiful and high-spirited.
Whatever the revolution she had exercised over him, he dared not avow
it, such respect did she inspire, and on her recovering from her fleeting
emotion, he let her resume her way without a word to detain her.
She had not reached the first plank of the bridge before he suddenly
remembered the officer, like himself, in ambush; and in the same
manner as love--if that were love--had clutched his heart with the
swiftness of an eagle seizing its quarry, another sentiment, as fierce and
overpowering, jealousy, stung him to the quick.
As he glanced--but he had not taken his eyes off her, not even to look if
the military officer were still at his post--she had swept her worsted
wrapper round to set her foot on the first board of the bridge; and 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 as the rest
of her attire. Something innately aesthetical in the student, which made
him adore the exquisitely wrought, impelled him now to be the
slave--the devotee--the worshiper of this masterpiece of Nature.

Perhaps she stood in need of a defender?

CHAPTER II.
SOLDIER'S SWORD AND WANDER-STAFF.
The place was historically favored for adventures. In 1543, the riot of
Knights and Knaves had begun here. On the bridge which preceded this
structure, a band of young noblemen had taken possession of the
passage more important then, as this now foul and noisome channel,
into which the effluvia of the breweries and tanneries was discharged,
was a strong and