A Romance of the Seine.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8034, 22 January 1906, Page 4

A Romance of the Seine.

"I confess," said Munro, "I have committed most crimes once. Did I ever tell you how I blaokmailed a man, and got £IOOO out of him? Then there was my murder, quite an artistic affair." There were four of us loafing in the club reading room. It was a bright hut cold afternoon, and the tire blazed in the grate. We were all ranged about it, sprawling in saddle back chairs. Therfwas Musters, the lawyer, who meant to do something some day; there was old Tufnell, the comedian, who had done all he meant to do twenty years ago; there was myself, the youngest of the group, an unacted playwright; and there was Munro. No one quh;e knew what Munro did for a living. He was a wanderer, and would absent himself from our set for months at a time, but he always turned up at the club sooner or latter. He was a man of 15 or so hair grizzled about the temples, face strong and hard, eyes keen, but kind. ''Let's have the murder," said Masters with a yawn. "A really artistic murder should possess dramatic possibilities," remarked the comedian ponderously, " and may be of service to our young iriend here." The old man indicated me with a patronising gesture. Munro took his pipe from his mouth, and thoughtfully polished the bowl on the sleeve of his coat. "The beginning of the business was in the summer of '97," he began presently! "I /eft at a moment's notice. Eventually I found myself in Turkey hobnobbing with a wioked old pasha of my acquaintance. One day I was with him in Mb house, which was more like a palace, when a dealer brought some newly captured slave girls for his inspection. " My Iriend rejected the majority with scorn; but one beautiful Greek girl found favor in his sight, and after a lot of huggling With the dealer he purchased her. " The girl, when she learned her fate, was terrified, and made a painful scene. "lam not as you know, a ladies'man, but I confess the scared look in the girl's eyes made me feel qualmish. "At the pasha's request I spoke to her in her own language, but could get nothing from her except a despairing requcstto save her from her new master. "The end of it was that I offered to repurchase her. My friend was amazed and much amused, but he good naturedly consented, and so Nada became my property. " I offered to send the girl back to her people, but it appeared that they had been ruthlessly slaughtered when she was captured, and she swore that she would never leave me. The situation was embarrassing, and I anticipated all sorts of trouble. But Nada behaved splendidly. It is true she followed me about like a dog, but she never obtruded herself upon my notice, and yet was always at hand to render me any service within her power. "AH went well for a time, and I had got quite used to her being about the place, and even found myself missing her when she was absent.

"Then in the autumn of '99,1 went to Paris. There I found a certain 11. lonides lording it in fashionable society. He was it appeared, a Greek merchant, who hail made a fortune out of currants. He occupied a magnificent hotel, kept a retinue of servants had a gorgeous equipage, and entertained in a most lavish and princely fashion. • ,: He was enormously rich, enormously fat, and as ugly as a satyr. We had been in Paris about a week, when this M. lonides saw Nada, and at once took a fancy to her. I think I have told you the gill was really strikingly pretty. People turned in the streets to look at her. Well, the Greek was fascinated by his countrywoman, and the result was that one day Nada came flying to me for protection. I soothed her, and thought no more of the matter, but on the morrow I had a visit from the great man. He was pretty frank, talking like a man accustomed to pay for what he wanted and to get it. He understood the young lady was my ward. Would I transfer my office to him ? Between men of the world any sum I might name, would I mention a figure, and so forth. " I looked at his ugly face, his great pendulous cheeks, the puffy mounds of llesh under his beady eyes; and then I thought of Nada, delicate, innocent, childlike.

"In the end I told 11. lonides cautiously that to my extreme regret the matter could not be arranged. " He smiled and shrugged his fat shoulders but, as he went out, he remarked softly that in his experience he had always found it possible to arrange such matters. "A few days later I had to leave Paris on business. I was away about forty eight hours. When I returned I was informed that Nada had disappeared. " Immediately I suspected the fat Greek, and decided to call upon the gentleman when I had dined. "However, I had just finished the meal in my own house in the Hue Ikrbet de Jony, and was sipping my coffee alone, when the door of the room unceremoniously flung open. "I sprang to my feet and confronted a wild, mad looking creature. Her hair was disheveled, her clothes torn and wet, her face distorted, her eyes fixed and glaring. Nevertheless, it was Nada.

"The girl ww quite mad. At times she would fa.ll on the ground at my feet moaning piteously, then in a frenzy of hysteria she would rave atmc, and then again she would turn shiveringly from me and, crouching in a corner, would sulk in silence. No connected story, hardly an intelligent sentence, could I get from her. I sent for assistance and she was put to bed. Thivgcoi woman whose services I had requisitioned came to me in about half an hour, and her face was grave. She told me that the girl had been terribly ill used. She was a mass of bruises, and across her shoulders were the livid marks made by the lash of a whip. "When I heard that I gave instructions that she should be properly cared for, then lit a cigar and walked across to the hotel of M. lonides. "I found him alone in his magnificent apartment, seated behind a richly inlaid oak table. I thought I detected amused expectation in his tiny eyes, but there was certainly no shadow of fear in them. Evidently the fat rascal felt secure behind his rampart of gold. Evidently, too, his creatures were near at hand to protect him from present violence, perhaps crouching behind the heavy curtains which bung at his side. " Indeed, as I drew near to the table his great puffy right hand rested on it within an inch of a button of an electric bell. " I took all this in at a glance, and between the door and the table, a matter of five paces, I had made up my mind how I should kill this oily, smug-faced villian, for I knew that if I challenged him he would not fight. " I apologised for the lateness of my call. 'The fact is,' I said, laughing, 'I am devoured by curiosity. You kept your word and you have got the girl; but how the dickens did you manage it ?' " He was taken aback a little, I think, but he readily fell into my humor. He laughed and chuckled over his achievement till his great side shook. Then he offered me money. I would not listen to this, assuring him that I considered myself fairly beaten, and I congratulated him on his adroitness.

"Ho was delightcrt. ' Yon arc a man after my own heart,' he declared. • But you need not congralule me. The business turned out most unfortunately. The B irl was a (001. «by, my dear sir, she tried to kill me! 01 course I had to give her a lesson, hut it did no good.' He raised his fat, beringed hands in a gesture ot disgust.' 'You know my little place on the Seine? She was locked uu in a room high above the river, but she jumped out of the window and was drowned.'

" From that time," went on Mnnro in his queer, emotionless, monotone," I cultivated the acquaintance of M. lonides, and we became inseparable. Do you know 1 found him an amusing companion ? "One forenoon we were drinking wine together in a famous cafe he ate and drank at all hours—and he happened to turn his ponderous bulk away so as to sUro in comfort at a pretty woman at a distant table. I took the opportunity to drop a little white pellet into his glass. " You know I have made a study of poisons. In this country there is a prejudice against them nowadays, I know, but it was not always so. The drug I used was an old Italian poison. I believe originally it came from the east, but it owes its fame to the extensive use made of it by the Borgias in Italy, Its peculiarity, which is also its great virtue, is that it does not kill its victim until the expiration of thirty days or thereabouts. "I stayed with M.lonides until he had drained his glass. Then I left him. "My next step was to persuade Nada to write a letter to her countryman in which she prophesied his early death. The girl was still quite out of her senses, but with rne she was submissive and obedient.

" Every day a letter to the same purport was sent to the Greek, and each letter was signed ' Nada of the Seine.' " A week passed before I saw 11. lonides again. He was greatly changed. He was paler, and less grossly fat, and his great face had lost its complacent simper. He confided in me, whom ho declared to be his one true friend in Paris. He told me that he experienced queer arid alarming pains in his head, and lie admitted that he was worried by an anonymous letter writer. 'Of course, it is ridiculous,' he Rehired ; ' hut she—that is, I mean the writer ot these confounded letter—says I shall not live beyond the 2!Hh of this month. And—and, well, it is now the Sth. I tell you, my friend, I don't like it!'

I 1 The days went by. The Greek grew thinner, more worried, and the pains in his head became more frequent. The most famous doctors of Paris could make nothing of bis complaint and asked him if he had any secret worry.

" Every day I.called upon liim to watch, him as he slowly died. It was, I remember on the 23rd that he met me in a stormy and rebellious mood. ' I will throw this thill" off,'lieshrieked. "Six more days to live ! Bah! I am scaring myself into the grave. This cursed scribbler tells me I shall die on Friday next. Well, it is a lie. I will live ! On Saturday next I will give a banquet such as Paris has not seen for many a year, and all society shall be present. Thus I will celebrate my triumph.' "Icordially approved of the plan, telling him that in the preparations for the banquet he would forget his vain fears. With feverish eagerness he pursued the idea. The short week went swiftly by. The falal Friday came and went, and the Greek stiil lived. I found him Saturday morning almost mad with delight. A great weight seemed to have been lifted from his soul. All fear of death had passed away from him. Even the pains which had been bis constant companions for a month appeared to have vanished. That night I attended the banquet at the lonides mansion—a banquet still talked of in Talis. It is easy to sneer at the vulgarity of wealth, but it is hard not to bo fascinated by tho splendor it cun purchase. * "The cream of Talis fashion, lrauty and talent assembled round tho Greek merchant's table.

" Never had I seen tho man so exultant, so vivacious, so full of life. He and I, wero probably the two happiest persons in 'the room. He did not know, and I did, that in an adjoining room a woman, closely veiled, was awaiting my signal. "She sat alone, swaying gently to and fro, and crooning softly to herself. " The hours passed swiftly with good food, good wine, and good talk. The affair was at its height. Some one proposed the toast, ' The Giver of the Feast.' It was drunk with acclamation, and the unweildy Greek rose to reply.

"Then I gave my signal, and at the same time slipped quietly out of my seat at the foot of the table.

"My place was taken by a figure dressed wholly in black.

"All eyes were turned upon her as she drew off her veil.

" White as the damask cloth on the table, but more beautiful than I had ever seen her, she stood silent and motionless. "lonides leaned heavily on the table with both hands, and stared at her with eyes almost as wild and fixed as her own.

'• Then she raised a thin delicate arm slowly, pointed at him with a gesture quite mechanical, and uttered the one senlencc 1 had rehearsed to her a thousand times during the last week -' The Seinegivps up its dead.' " The Greek's jaws moved, the muscles of his face were convulsed, and the veins stood .out on his forehead. Again and again he tried to speak, but no words passed his lips. Then suddenly he straightened himself up, his great arms sawed the air, his clashing fingers clawed at nothingness, and at last a cry, shrill, piercing and blood-curdling, escaped him, a cry of mingled agony and horror.

" Then he fell forward and crashed clown upon the table among the gold, silver, shuttered glass, and there ho lay like a great loathsome frag, ugly, and disgusting. lie was quite dead. I touched Xnda on the arm. and she followed me like an obedient child. I had thought the shock might restore her. That was my chief reason for confronting her with her countryman. But it was not a success. She never recovered her sanity." Mnnro ceased speaking and began to refill his pipe. Masters yawned and rose to his feet. " Did you ever try to writea novel, Jlunro? " he asked with his irritating drawl. Tufnell and 1 laughed, both a little relieved I think, at being brought back to the sane world after the gruesome recital. Munro said nothing, but, taking a letter from his pocket, flung it over to me. I caught it, and the other two leaned over my shoulder as I read. It was a brief notification from the superintendent of a private asvlum, and il ran thus:

" Dear Sir: I have to inform you that the patient known as Nada is seriously ill. If you care to see her you may do so at any time of the day or night on presentation of this paper." I noted that the letter bore a date two days old. I handed it back to Munro in silenco. Ho twisted it into a spill and took a light for his pipe frojn the fire. Then he moved toward the door. " You went, of course," I said impulsively. " Is she better?" " Yes," he replied simply. " She died In my arms last night."

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