Argosy, September 1955 — page 61: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

7 \ 59 Brandy for the “Colon by Paul Gallico UT of the shadows of the starlit night, from the oleander- scented banks of the River Cher at the bottom of Colonel Bobet’s garden, came the sound of a young girl’s weeping, followed by her despairing voice saying, ““ Ah Michel, I love you. I am the unhappiest girl in the world. . . I shall die.” Seated on a bench in the darkness by the grape arbour where he used to go to sip his post-prandial cognac, but now as dry not only as a bone but as an entire ossuary, Colonel Francois Louis (Papa) Bobet recognized the voice as that of little Julie Trouet, the orphan who some years ago had been taken into their home as household servant and drudge. A masculine voice now replied to this pitiful lament with commendable masculine fervour, “ Julie, little flower, do not weep. You know that I love only you. A pest upon the dowry. We will manage somehow. If necessary, I shall give up the idea of going to Paris.” But this declaration of devotion to the point of sacrifice only provoked a fresh outburst of grief from the girl, whose white dress could now be seen glimmering faintly through the caverns created by the bending willow branches. ‘No, no, Michel. I would rather perish than become a mill- stone around your neck. You will be a great artist if only you have your chance to go to Paris. Without the dowry it is im- possivie ...” Papa Bobet, still a stalwart, upright military figure in spite of his accumulation of seventy-four more-or-less troubled years, clasped his hands over his cane in the shadows and thought to himself, ‘‘ Ah, ah! Julie is right. Who would have believed the little one was possessed of so much sentiment and at the same time so much sense? I wonder who the fellow is? I did not know we had any budding Renoirs in Aurance-sur-Cher.”’ As if in answer to his query, the two came up the garden path together from the river, and Papa Bobet recognized the personable comiclbooks.conn