[*][Note from Brett: The original uses "penertation" and
"penertating" but I could not find this word anywhere so assumed
it was a typographical error.]





Mademoiselle Fifi




The Prussian Commander, Major Graf von Farlsberg, was finishing
the reading of his mail, comfortably seated in a large tapestry
armchair, with his booted feet resting on the elegant marble of the
mantelpiece on which, for the last three months that he had been
occupying the Chateau d'Uville, his spurs had traced two deep
grooves, growing deeper every day.

A cup of coffee was steaming on an inlaid guerdon, stained with
liqueur, burned by cigars, notched by the penknife of the conquering
officer who, while sharpening his pencil, would stop at times and
trace on the marble monograms or designs according to the fancy of
his indolent dream.

After he had finished his letters and read the German newspapers,
which his orderly had brought him, he rose, threw into the fire
three or four enormous pieces of green wood, for these gentlemen
were cutting down, little by little, the trees of the park to