1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



361 



THE FIRSTBORN. 



The flrstliorn, with tlio inothor's arm 

 Enibracintf it, in slunibor lies. 



Hush, ](.'st a whispt^r brwvk tho charm I 

 Talk only with your oyesi 



Husband and lovi;r, on this day 

 Thy ono year bride is doubly fair. 



Kneel ; It t the hi.'art in silence pray, 

 While she lies smiling there I 



Look on her, love her, hold her dear, 

 The dearer for this sa(-red tie. 



Unnoted for one moment here 

 Let all the world go by 1 



—J. R. Eastwood. 



i SOLDIER'S EOMANCE 



Every eveiniig after maneuvers Mau- 

 lice Touriiier, a young lieuteuant in the 

 /■eserves, was only too glad to get back 

 to the house where he had been quar- 

 tered. From the fir.st day that he had 

 been quartered in this house his be- 

 havior tow'ard its occupants had been 

 marked by great courtesy and consider- 

 ation. If he happened to meet either of 

 the two ladies in the hall or on the 

 Btairs, he would always stand aside re- 

 spectfully to allow her to pass, but 

 when the elder lady, won over by his 

 deference, invited him to dine with 

 them he had always accepted the invi- 

 tation gladly. As a rule the elder lady 

 would be lying on the sofa, while the 

 younger one would be reading aloud. 

 From the dictatorial tones and sudden 

 caprices of the former and from the re- 

 signed obedience of the latter the young 

 officer had soon guessed that it was a 

 case of a wealthy aunt and a poor niece. 

 The fact was that the young girl, 

 Louise do Lery, had been left an orphan 

 and totally unprovided for. Mme. Pri- 

 meau, her greatauut and the only rela- 

 tive she had in the world, had therefore 

 adopted her. Without being of a really 

 unkind disposition, Mme. Primeau, 

 ■who was a great invalid, had gradually 

 ■worked on and profited by her niece's 

 gratitude until at length the poor girl 

 had become quite a slave. Her aunt 

 ■would not suffer anyone else to do any- 

 thing for her. She could not bear to 

 hear other footsteps in the room or to 

 hear any other voice but that of Louise, 

 and for the last five years she had thus 

 thoughtlessly and quite unconsciously 

 been crushing all the spirit and ail the 



gayety out ot the young girl's me. 



Louise de Lery was now 25, and, 

 though she had lost the freshness of her 

 girlhood, the youjig officer thought her 

 very beautiful. Her eyes were of a deep, 

 unchanging blue. She had an aquiline 

 nose, arched lips and waving, chestnut 

 colored hair, with just a touch of the 

 gold in it that one .sees in autumn l(;aves. 

 ■Little by little had the elderly lady 

 been won over by the gay good humor 

 and never failing courtesy of the young 

 officer, and so he had .seen a great deal 

 of his hostess and her niece during his 

 month's sojourn with them. 



He had delighted in Louise's conver- 

 sation and society and had soon discov- 

 ered that this girl, who had lived thus 

 obscurely in the shade, possessed a mind 

 which was only waiting for a touch of 

 sunshine to burst into the most perfect 

 beauty, and there was something ro- 

 mantic in the idea that in this old, gray 

 looking dwelling, half buried in a little 

 old world town, he had thus come across 

 by chance the pale, captive princess of 

 his dreams. 



During the last week of his stay it 

 seemed as though Mme. Primeau had 

 scented danger, for suddenly, and appar- 

 ently without any cause, her manner 

 toward the young man bad changed. 

 She was always cold and sarca.stic when 

 she spoke to him, and she did not invite 

 him to dinner with herself and niece. 

 The time was getting desperately short 

 — only three days more — and then, 

 through his own foolish procrastination, 

 he would forever have lost the oppor- 

 tunity he now had of speaking and per- 

 haps of winning as his wife the only 

 woman he would ever love. 



In the evening, when the two ladies 

 happened to be sitting out in the gar- 

 den. Lieutenant Fournier on his arrival 

 took his chair, and in spite of the ag- 

 gressive expression which he read in 

 Mme. Primeau 's eyes planted it near to 

 hers and began to talk boldly about his 

 departure, about Paris, and then about 

 his own position and means. Then sud- 

 denly and without any leading up to it 

 he announced the fact that he w as weary 

 of bis solitary life, and that he wanted 

 to marry and .settle down. Louise, bend- 

 ing over her embroidery, listened to all 

 the young man was saying, just as she 

 might have listened to one of the love 

 stories such as her aunt adored and 



