A Story Of Two Continents

Ni. very Jotijj npo, a yonnjr lody, the daughter of aFrenéh gentleman rcsiv, buL herself American boni, I think, went to tho French Capil.-tl with her mother, sister, and sister's husband. Dni'ing their tísíI they met a íParisian who f ell, or claimed to fnll, violently in love with the young eirl, and in duo season became engaged to her, pressing for nn early ■ marriage. Tl.e brother-in-law feit :v violent prejadice sgainst the lover ut first, but having found his refercace s&íisfactory could íake no steps toward interrapting tlie course of truc love. The trousseau was ordered; the Europenn tour cut short, and finally the day set for the cxpectaot bride and her mother to return to America in order that the girlshould be married from her fat her' s house. Thon, contrary to all French etiquette, wMch is extremely rigorous in forbidding a lover to Iravel with his betrothed, the Frenchman insisted upon crossing the ocean by tho same steamer that bore his future wife. This still further roused tlie guspicion of the brother-inlaw and to some extent of the mother; for she '.vas slill influenced by the custocasothornatiTe lauJ. aJiUough she had so long lived away from it. The yonng lady hers.:lf having been reared in. the freer atmosphere of the Republic, and doubtless feeling n pardonablc prille in the devotion of hei lover, thought very little of tlie matter, and ultimately the lover carried his point in spitc of the earnest remonstronce oí the mother and t!ie brotheri'.i-law. No sooner had tiie party of three sailed, howcver, than the brotherin-law, who iviih his wif e had Temained in Paris, applied to the Prefect of the Paris pólice for tlie history of tlie man he distrusted. In tliree days he was s::nt for to come to the Prefecture, and was there .handed the history of his sister-i n-law's impntient gwain. It bogan with his birlli at such a place on such a date; pnve his real name, which was quite different from the one he was under; the name of his parents, the places of their birth and their occupation; in what towns he had lived, the streets, numbers and rooms hc had occupied, with the price hc had paid i'or his lodgings at the different houses; the journeys he h:id made, the luggage, naming immber of pieces and each arl iele that he had each time taken - as, for instance, that he had gone January 25, 1869, from Brussels to Ghent, carrying a sole-leather trnnk, a black hat-box, a canvas traveling-bag and a brown rur in a s'iawl-strap - and in the minutest details of his misspent life, including the most important points of all, that, od a certain date, he had been married to a Belgian woman, by whom he had several children, stating the dates and places of their birth, and that he was then wantod by the Belgian Government on a criminal but not extraditable utt'ense. The happy brolher-in-law, delighted with thus casilj' and promptly obtaining the evidenee he wantod, cabled to bis father-in-law in this city to stop all preparations for the marriage till his letters were received; and when the lovers arrived in New York (!ie}r were met by tho stern parent-, who forbade any coüüiiunication between them till he learned the nature of the charges against the wonld-be bridegroom. In due time tlie whole tbiag came out, mul the wretched scamp offereii to be boup-ht off for iive hundred dollars, but was iinally contented with one hnndred dollars, and took hia depurture, Jeaving the imhappy girl he had imposed upou rery thaakfui for her escape and for the eiiieiericy of tlie French poiice. -