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Show 132 PRINCESS MARY'S GIFT BOOK FliEUR-IH‘l-IJS materials. had lined the inside of the hood with tissue-paper flowers' white aiid blue Heursale‘hs to match those on the faded satin covcrlct a fragment of ancient grandeur where the Rastignae coat-of-arms was intertwined With the Bourbon lilies of France. And when the baby's vagrant gaze wandered to the flowery heaven above her head. and her had to leave them, to journey on alone to another far country, having just grown wouted to this. Then the light went out of the two little rooms that had been home; indeed, it seemed to go out of the world altogether. [lard times and yet harder ones descended upon poor l'ierre l)upont. Marie's earnings no longer helped to swell the slender income. and there were no willing woman‘s hands to cut and plan and save. to Added to this. the piano suddenly grew contrive and embellish. uncertain. and subject to grave musical lapses, attacks of aphasia in the middle of some tunes, and of asthma in the middle of others: so that the hoot of the stony-hearted bystander and the rullianly small boy became familiar to Pierre's ears; for he could not all'ord to briy new cylinders to fit into the old iiistrrnneiit. and to keep it up to the pink fingers-reached to touch it and to stroke the soft counterpanc, ltlainan Marie would tell her the name of the posies; and so after a time, when she discovered that people and things possessed names Marie Hoittnse Amelie. Mademoiselle Bebe. elected to call herself' 1* lcur-dohs. It was the first word she lisped, and she attached it to herself with the utmost complacency. lt was appropriate enough for she looked as if she might have been originally intended for a flower. and then somehow a soril had strayed into the flower, and it had fluttered down to earth as a child-a curious blossom to come from lowly stocjx'. 2; kind of tender and beautiful miracle wrought out of w] e "cry common ~:' 3} ' the frshioning '2" ' ' ‘ and icfinmg pow 'v e1 of' love. At times, rln l arie sat at her work and looked at Fleur-de-lis eooing and ,mtiiitig lunder her til-coloured (mtains, she forgot the strange land S u | , 1- . u , . » ‘ I . . ' ou sr e t re windows, and the Babel of strange tongues in the crowded tenement, and as her deft, brown fingers shaped the tissue flowers, she limtm ffarilcy thglpoppies and the wheat and the lilies of her native mother "I a ‘* ‘klbm reon 11‘iers. '1' ~ the sun " shining,r on the old ‘ chateau, her th d ringing a cizlrplet on the barons tomb in the little oratory, * '1 re )arone." " \ing ' w v in ' u ,. . ‘ Thcrémte' .55. "1a sadly the pleasance. All, all were gone. t '. . an \i as tisnrantled. lhe proud old family, rooted for Iceili uriisuto the $011 of Brittany, had gradually lost its land and its tl( 10s,. it _now there was only one frail old (lame, poor and childless. si'eiltldlfil't‘tunl the ancient ,t'tle'. All these memories, half sad, half a let, v.1 if m and out of Mar-res mind as she snipped and trimmed iii]: \vlistttc] {‘étle "Ht 1 ] ind shaped, her head on one side to view the result ,' ., Iown pheasant regarding a_ berry: and if lileur-de-lis "('11 ,ts ie rammeld a Briston lullaby as she twined her paper nosegai's. 1a won er. icn i tiat there was. a' french " ' ab) ‘tll‘ ‘ V i‘ attracted purchasers? ( ( ("t them thdt and 1310" So " ho1 ie‘ cla< i l m ' Aplil » v' green ~> " made life " worth living ' ‘ for ‘ father ' :md U] it 1:31 , ant, als fordl‘leur-de-lls, she was a child ; and she had love. r : 'asf enouu' " sad ‘. . we . grow ~ ‘ does not suit" _ n19 rm it' is when so old that it .1 103 ‘ orl us. _ But these days -' H an "emu" ~ . _‘ . .so full (f ) one ‘ d anxiety, ' " ' of " . .s JIM self-denial tinged With li't))i " ~~' ' ‘ when Fleur-de-lis was tyo ' years D old, Maman passionatel (H "CS-‘3. , i l , ‘ came to an i0! Marie, young andendi strong. ,. y 11 me "it 1 life, desperately needed by husband and child. Mr‘4 o of w l 133 demands of" the street, which is always delighted if you "cannot sing the old songs" aird wishes the latest melody to the exclusion of everything else. Fleur-debs had been left in the care of a woman for many weeks after Marie's death, but the sight of her tear-stained face at night. the tender frenzy with which she lifted her arms to her father when he the came in, the sol) of joy with which she buried her head in his coat. sigh of content with which she stroked his cheek between every mouthful of bread and milk as she sat on his knee eating her meagre supper all this was too much for his loving heart. He had a small sum of money that he had been hoarding to attach "Annie Rooney" and "' Comrades " to his unfashioiiable instrument. that he might. with appease the, public by the gratification of its darliirg wishes. arid he took money This cars. sated its from march Boulanger the draw many aird went to a carpenter's shop iii the neighbourhood. After .drawn explanations in his broken English, tln(l‘lll‘zllly diagran'is rudely babyon paper. the carpenter succeeded in building a primitive sortof of its own. carriage on one end of" the street-piano. It had two wheels which and moved somewhat iir harmony with the ancient instrument, as its musical had its dilliculties of locomotion nowadays, as well were weaknesses. It had a drawer in which li‘lcur-de-lis‘s playthings of bright keptria battered doll, and boxes of her favourite scraps and a square of rubber tissue~paper, the top of an old cotton umbrella. Here l‘lcurcloth like that which covered the piano when it rained. l'ierre would de»lis sat for many hours each day. happy and content. until she was tired. often take her out, and let her toddle by his side wore a failed corduroy She again. throne her ascend would she when that, smiled above the jacket and an old woollen cap. but the flower-face |