The Son of Clemenceau | Page 5

pellucid tributary of the Isar. They levied tribute on
the burghers, kissing the comely women and not scrupling to cut the
purses of the master-tradesmen; in this, imitating the mode of operation
of their country cousins, the robber barons in the mountains to the
south, or over the river in the opposite direction.
But, as for the third or fourth time, the student was on the verge of
quitting his haven, another interrupter arose. Pausing at the head of the
bridge, prompted by natural caution or instinct, for the officer remained
prudently invisible to her, the girl, with the violin-case, looked over her
shoulder and beckoned to some one on the further side of the
astonished student.
The desert was becoming animated, indeed, as he had wished, for, in
the hazy opening, a man appeared, carrying under one arm what
seemed a musket or blunderbuss, while leaning the other hand on a
staff which might be the one to rest the firearm on. He had a flat felt hat
on, with wide shaggy margins, ornamented with a yellow cord in
contrast with its inky dye, and a dingy, often mended old
cavalry-soldier's russet cloak, covering him from a long, full grey beard
to the feet, encased in patched shoes. The aspect of a Jew peddler in the
pictures of the Dutch school, who had armed himself to defend his pack
of thread and needles on the highway.
But, as before, nearness dispelled the romantic conceit: the supposed

gun resolved itself into a Turko-phone, or Oriental flute, while, on the
other hand, the bright eye and well-shaped features, with the venerable
impression suggested by the beard, lifted the wearer into a high place
for reverence. Just as the girl was unrivaled for beauty, this man, a near
relative, perhaps her father, would have few equals in the councils of
his tribe.
While not old, spite of the grey in his beard, illness had enfeebled him,
for he needed the walking-staff. The brisk pace of his daughter had left
him far behind and it cost him an effort to make up for the delay. But in
parental love he found the force, and quite nimbly he passed the student
without observing him in his haste to join his daughter.
At the sight of him coming, she had not waited for his arm, but retaken
her course. She was half way over the bridge when he began to ascend
the gentle slope, and when he was arduously following with the summit
well before him, the officer emerged abruptly from his covert. He must
have been calculating on this moment and this separation to which
Baboushka had no doubt contributed. She now loomed into view.
Repulsed by the Jew in his detestation of beggars--for while the
Christian accepts poverty as a misfortune to which resignation is one
remedy, he regards it as an affliction to be violently removed--she
hesitated to continue her annoyance. The bridge was so narrow that he
had no difficulty, thanks to the length of his arms, in placing a hand on
each rail, so that, as he bent his broad, smiling face forward between
them, he effectively barred the way. With a tone which he intended to
be winning and tender, but which nature had not allowed him to
modulate very sweetly, he said:
"Divine songstress of Freyer Brothers' Brewery Harmonista Cellars!"
She stopped quickly and faced half round, so as to be in a better
position for retreat if he made an advance toward her. "In the hall on
Thursday--when you made the circuit with the cup for the collection
after your delightful ballad--you refused me even a reply to my request
for an interview. That was for the favor of a salute from those
somewhat thin but honeyed lips! Now, there is nobody by and I mean
to be rewarded for the bouquets I have nightly sent you!"

"Father!" cried the Jewess, too frightened by the position of her
assailant to flee.
"Your father? Bah!" with a contemptuous glance at the old man
approaching only too slowly. "I repeat, there is no one by! That I
arranged for."
The speaker had red curly hair like his whiskers; his brow was not
narrow but his eyebrows overhung; his face was flushed with animation
and carnal desire--perhaps by potations, though his large lower jaw
denoted ample animal courage. He was powerful enough in the long
arms and strong hands to have mastered the girl and her father, but it
was not the dread of his prowess physically which awed the daughter of
the race still proscribed in this part of Germany.
Frederick von Sendlingen, Baron of ancient creation, enjoyed a wide
fame among the knot of noble carousers who strove to make one corner
of Munich a pale reflection of the "fast"