The Project Gutenberg EBook of Marie, by Laura E. Richards

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Title: Marie

Author: Laura E. Richards

Release Date: November 11, 2004 [EBook #14018]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARIE ***

Produced by Al Haines

MARIE

BY

LAURA E. RICHARDS

AUTHOR OF "CAPTAIN JANUARY," "MELODY," "QUEEN
HILDEGARDE," "NARCISSA," ETC.

1894

TO

E. T. T.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER

I. MARIE
II. "D'ARTHENAY, TENEZ FOI!"
III. ABBY ROCK
IV. POSSESSION
V. COURTSHIP
VI. WEDLOCK
VII. LOOKING BACK
VIII. A FLOWER IN THE SNOW
IX. MADAME
X. DE ARTHENAY'S VIGIL
XI. VITA NUOVA

MARIE.

CHAPTER I.

MARIE.

Marie was tired. She had been walking nearly the whole day, and now
the sun was low in the west, and long level rays of yellow light were
spreading over the country, striking the windows of a farmhouse here
and there into sudden flame, or resting more softly on tree-tops and
hanging slopes. They were like fiddle-bows, Marie thought; and at the
thought she held closer something that she carried in her arms, and
murmured over it a little, as a mother coos over her baby. It seemed a
long time since she had run away from the _troupe_: she would forget
all about them soon, she thought, and their ugly faces. She shivered
slightly as she recalled the face of "Le Boss" as it was last bent upon
her, frowning and dark, and as ugly as a hundred devils, she was quite
sure. Ah, he would take away her violin--Le Boss! he would give it to
his own girl, whom she, Marie, had taught till she could play a very
little, enough to keep the birds from flying away when they saw her, as
they otherwise might; she was to have the violin, the Lady, one's own
heart and life, and Marie was to have a fiddle that he had picked up
anywhere, found on an ash-heap, most likely! Ah, and now he had lost
the Lady and Marie too, and who would play for him this evening, and
draw the children out of the houses? _he_! let some one tell Marie
that! It had not been hard, the running away, for no one would ever
have thought of Marie's daring to do