And when he has, with that charming smile of _naivete_ and indifference,
shown you his cases of photographs, and his paintings colored and
executed by ten of the first living artists in the world--all of whom
are in his employ--you follow him into the crystal dome, and are
photographed at eight guineas a dozen, with much the feeling you might
experience were you one of those honored old women who have their feet
washed once a year by the Empress of the French.
"The world likes to be gulled, then let us gull it."
In due time Madame Hesslein, of happy memory, married Vice-Admiral
Oldright, who, as she had shrewdly calculated upon, soon got the post of
admiral, and she was able to take precedence of all haughty ladies of
her set, let them be ever so bitterly proud--she the blacksmith's
daughter, a little tailor's wife.
I do not know whether she has yet quite forgotten that dying
boy in the wretched shed, or those simple happy days by the river
Theiss, but I hear that it is still her favorite waltz:
"Have no heart and a good digestion!"
* * * * *
Knowing the simple soul of my heroine; having a vague conception of the
possible grandeur of my hero, feebly, but earnestly portrayed, need I
assure you that happiness shed its golden light upon their future path,
and that, hand clasped in hand, they paced through each small grief or
joy, fanning in each other that bright and Heaven-born spark which leads
us at last to Heaven?
Thus, gentle companions of these tortuous wanderings. I release you from
your patient chaperonage. I think we part friends, and gratefully I
press your hands, and say _au revoir_!
THE END.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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