SHORT STORY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1722, 12 April 1913, Page 15

SHORT STORY.

A CRUST OP BREAD.

* (By Henry Lavedaiu) i "Let' mo Booi eight 6andwiches— seven pieces of oak©—nine eclairs—six ices. . , .f" Tho group of well-groomed and correctly garbed young men, all anxious to pay at onco, insistently tendered their gold on to tho rnarblo counter, without for a moment interrupting thoir lively chatter with tho bevy of pretty girls with whom Thibousfs, tho famous pastrycook's, was crowded. Every timo tho door opened a porfumo of baked crust was wafted over tho thoroughfa.ro, and every miiruto small, white-capped and aproned cook-boys marched out, bearing on their heads, with all gravity and rospect, trays loaded with odorous and appetising wares. Outside a tall, whito-faced young man, poorly clad, stood gazing, hia faco closo ugainst. tho window. It is in December . , . not too warm! There will surely bo a frost to-night. Tho traflio goes by, peoplo meet and pass each other, hastening about their business; tile sergents-de-villo blow upon their, lingers; cabmen, on tho point of running down a pedestrian, shout a belated warning; Paris, tho Great City, roars on as of custom. The white-faced young man still stood. there, gazing. ... A lady approached, dragging an ex-jjensively-drcssed,. plump littlo boy of lour, a dead weight on his mother's skirts. Ho seemod to run. a great risk of choking himself with tho big spice-bun ho was attempting to eat., "Mamma, I can t eat my cake!" "Very well, dear; tlirow it away." Tho child let fall tho bun by tho edgo of the pavement. Tho white-faced youth turned, bent down, and stretched out his baud . . . then suddenly., recovered himself. Of a certainty ho would not disdain to eat what that pretty child had touched with his little, pearly teeth, but there were too many peoplo about, and ho was ashamed. He hesitated a moment, plunged his two fists into his pockets; then ho started to go away, skirting the shop windows. No' doubt he is in haste, for ho walks at a great pace. Where is ho going? He passes tho shelter where tho 'buses 6top. crosses the Place ciu Palais Royal, and takes tho Ruo de Rivoli. At a corner, under tho arcades, a loud-voiced street hawker accosts liini. "Map of Paris, with views of tho principal monuments, three sous! It's giving ( them away!" Without turning his head, the: young man passed on, crossed tho road, and madp directly to an open door on tho far side of Louvre courtyard, threaded several white, echoing galleries, and stopped at length, silent, cap in, hand, as though in a church. The Gallery of Antiquities I . Calmness and quietude. i A caretaker, slumbered upon a bench; his mouth widn open. Closo by, in tho embrasure of a window, a girl in blade was copying tho "Diana and lawn." Sho liad the cool complexion and calm, pure eyes of a studiofls child, 1 , beautiful brown eyes, glancing upwards at tho marble goddess and immediately . lowered upon the paper over which her lingers, blackened with charcoal, moved to and f- ; lhe short sleeve exposed a slender, baio wrist; and upon tlie bar of her stool rested her feet, half-hidden, under tho serviceable skirt. Not tho leet of a' leisured idler, but honest littlo feet that every day boro her down the hill of Montmartre, tripping bravely in their thin boots, find tired themselves 111 tho long walk through distant and ill-paved suburbs. Sho worked on, permitting nothing to distract her attention, neither the stifled laughter of> a group of lads in front of. a Hercules, nor the loud voices of a troop of foreign sightseers searching for tho exit, nor the caretaker s prolouged snoring in a minor key—nor even the presence of the tall, palo young man who was standing bemnd her. Only now and then pretty, impatient gesture; the pout of a schoolgirl who has just blotted her copy; tho rosy. tongue-tip brought by a' cr'isls' ofconcentration to tho corner of tho lipj"; bread rubbed into crumb upon the-same spot twenty times over—dainty and -charm* iug mannerisms of a girl artistMu~ presence of a modal whoso ■ relentless pti .lection induces a feeling, of despair. The Diana opposite, her long, slight robo stretched backhand'..her. dindainful, lips, had the air of posing'expressly for the girl's benefit; tho fawu also,'crouching in readiness .'to';; spring, curving her tw r o clean-cut, sinewy foreleg.* into parentheses, seemed Jo. bii.iwaiting.' until sho' had finished" before ] ving down beside the Huntress .to : lick. : lien'Wliitiv feet. • .A'.l around, upon' pedestals: of■ • green',' violet, grey, bluish or.polyohfbmo'.marble,' stood Mercurys, poised"for: flight,-' Satyrs with pointed ears and salient cheek-bones, shaken with wild laughter as they breathed into their pipes; Athletes fastening their sandals; Tiber, indolently reclining upen his bed of oozy weeds; Aesculapius with his serpent; the Discobolos, serene, self-confident; Ceres, Apollo, Silenus, and Bacchus; shaggy Fauin, groaning undoi tho burden of tho architraves resting on their shoulders; Cybelo shaking her taboret; lions in green Egyptian basalt rolling marble balls, fawny as-their eyes, Under velvety paws; Jupiter and ilie'Snßes, with their curling beards, their filletbound brows, their blind eyes, wide open, yot regarding not, eyes such as Oedipus | and Homer must have had, which-seem |to plunge into deeps beyond human' ken. ... ■ Daylight was waning. In winter dark«ness comes swiftly on. It.invpded the vast qallery, casting great pools. of blackness into tho corners, drawing shadowy blinds over the tall windows, draping tho statuary in wrappers of thick, yet diaphanous shade, through which tho eve could distinguish hero and there, dimly white, the fugitive contour of a shoulder, the fibula clasping a peplum, tho wing of a caducous, tho roundness of a hip, or tho barely perceptible curvo of a delicate limb. ... Tho alien visitors had at last discovered a door, and the noisy youths had followed, indulging themselves with a little horse-play; the Rallery had fallen silent. The Lou™ clock struck tho quarter! Tho caretaker shook himself awake. "Closing tinKs!" . His voico rolled, echoing beneath tho vaulted roof, and the Antiques, yawning, stretched limbs wearied with an eternity of sculptural poses, seeming also to bo whispering to ono another: "Closing