Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1871-05-31

the music Of her voice with that of the
instrument, she sang a wild, wandering
Castilian song. Now it was the idyl of
an idle heart, full of perfect tenderness
and peerless truth; and anon it was the
wailing OF wrath in the desperation
Of despair; then as her hands few back
and FORTH with meteOr-like swiftness,
and her voice rang and reverberated
! through the room, the music became
grand, ecstatic, Incompatible, until an
undertOne of Dantesque terror thrilled
US allan undertone that lOudened and
lOudened until very diapason of devils
did it seem; but while we still bent for
ward with blauched faces to hear the
sweet, satanic strains, they had sobbed
( themselves into a sepulchraI silence.
/ On the following morning I awOke
with a rapid pulse, and a dull, heavy
pain in my head. A physician was
summoned, but l grew worse as the
hours wore on, and by nightfall 1 was
.delirious. For days and days my life
was despaired OF, and during that time
there were periods that were utterly
blank 10 me, and then some sudden
dreams, full Of colors that blinded, full
of sounds that. deafencd would follow
the darkness and Stiffness Of oblivion.
In one of these feverish visions 1 saw
IsOla, her hair flying in the wind, stand
ing in an ivory car, drawn by fame
eyed tigers, dashing W itn a song Of tri-
umph over my broken body, while
Aubrey stood afar of with Outstretched
arms and welcoming eyes, as she drew
nearer and nearer to him, my blood
dripping from the jaws Of her beasts,
dropping from the wheels of her char
/ lot.
When l had commenced TO conva-
Iesce, and was able TO be wheeled TO the
window in an easy chair, the earth and
sky we're changed, the glory of the sum-
mer had faded from them both, the
latest leaves were falling in shower Of
scarlet from the forest, the downs were
bleaker and more barren still, the sun
was shining through a shrOud Of sick
liest mist.
And Aubrey, too, was changed.
Sometimes could see the old love in
his look, bear it in his voice, feel it in
his touch, then Isola would enter and
attract him from me as if by some mag
netic force that acted at times in OppO-
sition TO his will.
When they supposed me sleeping,
while sat beside the CRATE with half
closed eyes, he would read 10 her, and
converse with her, just as he and had
read and conversed together before my
/ illness.
Looking at them, AYE, aud listening
tool could feel my heart turning from
flesh tostone, as I thought of the slow
sorrowful years that must crawl by be-
fore the clods would rattle upon my
coffin; thought of
"The long, mechanic pacings 10 and fro,
The set, gray life, the heapathetic end"
that must be mine; and all because I
was faithful and he was false, because
he was treacherous and was true.
One afternoon having endeavOred to
escape from these thoughts, that threat
ened me with lunacy at times, and hav-
ing failed, found myself saying in
wickedest whispers:
why, why, was God so unjust, so
unmerciful, as to give me life and take
this love away? Why, why, was born
into this baleful world at alp
Then implOringly:
20 let me die!-lct me die!-let me
diep
Aubrey was reading to Isola at the
time, from the pages of the poet-laure-
ate, when suddenly, sharply, as it
seemed to me, this maddening senti-
ment, foul with all falsehood, rose
mockingly above the others:
"'TiS better to have loved and lost
Tllsn never TO have loved at ALL"
The beautiful, brilliant woman at his
side lifted her eyes from the parrot that
perehed itself cOmpIacently upon her
finger, and, thinking herself unobserv-
ed, she fixed proud, pitless look upon
my face-a look that stung and stabbed
me!-a look that branded me as with
hottest irons.
Then a purpose took possession Of me,
soul and body, and like tie movement
of some mighty avalanche, like therush
of some resistIess cataract, it bore me
down, down, down to destruction and
TO death!
To be concluded ncrt Ueck.