drag me down to hell if I
broke my vow. I took poison with me, Chactas, when I fled with you. I
have just swallowed it. There is no remedy. Oh, God! Oh, God!'

"She was dead in my arms. I buried her where she died, and had it not
been for the missionary, Rene, I would have laid down in the grave, by
her side, and let the blood well out of all my veins. But I became a
Christian, as you know, and then, finding some work in the world to do,
I went back to my own tribe, and converted them. I have been to France.
I have seen your great king Louis XIV. I have talked with Bishop
Bossuet, and it was he who convinced me that I could best serve God by
returning to my own people, the Natchez, and trying to form them into a
great Christian nation under the guidance of the King of France."

* * * * *

CHARLES VICTOR CHERBULIEZ

Samuel Brohl & Co.

Charles Victor Cherbuliez was born in Geneva, Switzerland, in
1829, studied history and philosophy in Paris, Bonn and Berlin
and travelled widely, gathering material that he used in
social and political essays and also in fiction. He won fame
with his first novel, "Count Kostia," published in 1863. After
that date his romances followed in quick succession. Embodying
extravagant adventures, they must be classed nevertheless in
the category of the sentimental novel to which the writings of
Sand and Feuillet belong. Cherbuliez is always an interesting
story-teller and an ingenious artificer of plot, but his
psychology is conventional and his descriptive passages
superficial though clever. "Samuel Brohl & Co.," published in
1877, illustrates his power of drawing cosmopolitan types,
Russians, Poles, English, Germans and Jews, which he portrays
in all his novels. He was admitted to the French Academy in
1881, and died in 1899.

_I.--A Mountain Romance_

"Yes! she is certainly very beautiful as well as very rich," said Count
Abel Larinski, as he watched, through his hotel window, the graceful
figure of Mlle. Antoinette Moriaz. "A marriage between Count Abel
Larinski, the sole descendant of one of the most ancient and noble
families of Poland, and Mlle. Moriaz, the daughter of the President of
the French Institute, is a thing which might be arranged. But alas!
Count Abel Larinski, you are a very poor man. Let me see how long you
will be able to stay in Saint Moritz?