Part 23 (1/2)

He led her to a great stone bench near by; and, passing his arm about her waist, he drew her head down to his shoulder as he said:

”Well, tell irl of twenty-four, with perfect frankness, because she was absolutely loyal, told him why she felt that they must never see each other any hter of a colonel in the French army The sudden death of her father had left her penniless and alone Coiven lessons in the household of a high officer of the empire This man had been attracted by her beauty, and had seduced her

Later she had secured themore deeply each month how dreadful had been her fate and how she had been cut off froirls She felt that her life h her ignorance and inexperience She told Gambetta that her name was Leonie Leon As is the custom of Frenchwomen who live alone, she styled herself madame It is doubtful whether the naiven to her at baptism; but, if so, her true name has never been disclosed

When she had told the whole of her sad story to Gaain:

”You cannot lovein coirl That is what I came here to explain to you Let us part, and let us for all tiet each other”

But Gambetta took no heed of what she said Now that he had found her, he would not consent to lose her He seized her slender hands and covered theed that she should marry him

Her ansas a curious one She was a devoted Catholic and would not regard any e On the other hand, Ga the opposition to the Catholic party in France The Church to hiious body as a political one, and to it he was unalterably opposed Personally, he would have no objections to being married by a priest; but as a leader of the anti-clerical party he felt that he ious e would destroy his influence with his followers and ht even i and earnestly both then and afterward He urged a civilto the rites of the Church could ever purify her past and give her back her self-respect In this she was absolutely stubborn, yet she did not urge upon Ga her in church

Through all this interplay of argurew every moment more hopelessly in love Then the woman, with a woman's curious subtlety and indirectness, reached a so of a civil e in the eyes of Pope and prelate On the other hand, she did not wish Gaious cerenized two fore in the future and gave no es until after the formal ceremony But there was another kind of betrothal known to the theologians as sponsalia de praesente According to this, if there were an actual betrothal, the pair e immediately, if only they sincerely er ht at this bit of ecclesiastical law and used it with great ingenuity

”Let us,” she said, ”be for, and let us promise each other to marry in the future After such a betrothal as this we shall be the sa to the laws of the Church”

Ga was purchased; and then, her conscience being appeased, she gave herself completely to her lover Gambetta was sincere He said to her:

”If the time should ever come when I shall lose le, when I am deserted and alone, will you not then marry me when I ask you?”

And Leonie, with her arms about his neck, promised that she would Yet neither of thee this should be, nor did it seem at the moment as if the question could arise

For Gambetta was very powerful He led his party to success in the election of 1877 Again and again his triumphant oratory mastered the National assembly of France In 1879 he was chosen to be president of the Chamber of Deputies He towered far above the president of the republic-Jules Grevy, that hard-headed, close-fisted old peasant-and his star had reached its zenith

All this tih it was carefully concealed save from a very few She lived in a plain but pretty house on the Avenue Perrichont in the quiet quarter of Auteuil; but Gambetta never cauarded very carefully by the feere his close associates But er every year Leonie thrilled at the victories of the man she loved; and he found joy in the hours that he spent with her

Gahest tension, like an engine which is using every pound of stea that was happening in Paris, and who had no liking for Gare,” once said to a French you who thinks of revenge, and who is any sort of a er I ahtlessly I know froreat man leads, and I know his habits Why, his life is a life of continual overwork He rests neither night nor day All politicians who have led the sa To be able to serve one's country for a long tily woman, have children like the rest of the world, and a country place or a house to one's self like any coo and rest”

The Iron Chancellor chuckled as he said this, and he was right And yet Gah overwork as by an accident

It may be that the ambition of Mme Leon stimulated him beyond his powers However this may be, early in 1882, when he was defeated in Parliament on a question which he considered vital, he ined and turned his back on public life His fickle friends soon deserted him His enemies jeered and hooted the mention of his name

He had reached the time which with a sort of prophetic instinct he had foreseen nearly ten years before So he turned to the wo to hi of infinite peace

”You promised me,” he said, ”that if ever I was defeated and alone you would marry me The time is now”