Litchfield enquirer., 1871-11-09
s.Qnand il fait beau Trends ton manteau: Et lorsqu'il plent
 pPon1a.la as n, xya,.v T

 Et lorsquI plent
 Prends-le si tn veux,
 said Maurice, lightly, and going up. he tied the cherry ribbons at her throat and took the garment in qnestion over his arm; then making me mocking obeisance and Guadalajara another, he lifted Arria' s fingers and retired trippingly, as if from royal presence, turning only at the door, l and there throwing a laugh over their shoulders.
 Iy.-INTO THE DARKNESS.
 ssSenorita, :, said the Cuban, half-shud- derlngly, 'sone should never leave home l in such spirits. One shall return on a shutter He stalked straightway to a guitar took 1t, and taught me Spanish song made me sing 1t to Trefetheness, as the latter entered-declared that my style was perfection, and Art aimed only to be- come what Nature had made me; for an hoar was as much at my feet as if Aria did not breathe, and then obtained his ex- 1t with comforting sense of having play Iesl yell his part. Just after he had closed the door 1t was thrown violently open, and men entered bearing Maurice pale, dis ordered, and bleeding. When they with drew, and while his own physician was hastening-for Maurice had no faith in Trefstheness looked at Arria. She was 1 no less pale or disordered than he; but apart from the dropping cloak, the ruffied hair, there was that in her face which had neyes seen before-a wild anxiety as If her whole soul had been petrified in the moment of it's conception-a sentiment far beyond that which she had any reason to feel Maurice lay with his eyes fixed on hers, and her hand shut tight within the iron grasp where he had first inclosed it, and which he had refused to relax They had driven long without many words-Ar- ria told me later-when suddenly Maurice touched the spirited creatures and leaned forward, gazing far ahead as if he would pierce the future, and paying no heed to anything that was transpiring around him till Arria touched his arm, and then he became aware of the furious speed in which the light carriage rocked like leaf on the wind.
 "We shall be killed !" said Arria.
 s'Well?' said he then, looking directly in her face.
 Tears overfiowed her eyes "Do you want to die ?" she asked. -
 'Can we do any better ?" replied Mau- rice, between his teeth, and winding the reins about his wrist while the fearful swiftness was unabated. A gleaming hoof dashed through the footboard and the splinters flew about them. He knelt down, still winding up the reins and looking for ward
 ''Kiss me, child P said he
 She stopped, bent over his shoulder and kissed the half-upturned face; then she only felt hia arm about her, his hurrying breath, the horses rising slowfy-ez their launches, and all was darkness When she again became conscious, people were bathing her forehead, and others were as- sisting Maurice, who by his wild exertion of strength had occasioned hemorrhage. She sprang to his side, he grasped her hand, and she had not left him since nor had her eyes forsaken his. Now as she stood by his head when the physician en- tered his fingers unclosed, and his eyelids fell, and it seemed corpse lying before us.
 ''Too late P exclaimed the doctor, un- der his breath, but at the sound the curl ing lips announced that Matrices old spir- it was with him yet. Proceeding at once to an examination, the physician after a moment murmured his decision. Mau- rice made gesture of dissent.
 '"The alternative is death, said the oth- CT.
 The large eyes opened moment more on life. He lifted his hand, but it fell fe- ply; yet some intuition told Arria his mean ing, and some unseen spirit bent her face nearer his.
 Shall I live ?" heard him whisper.
 Aria rose and remained an instant. There was not force of tragedy in her na- ture sufficient to bid him curse God and die; she was made for sunshine and ioy: neither could she bid him live; all this re- sponsibility and self-nowledge crushed her pitilessly, and she fell forward on her face, not fainting, but lost, bewildered, and mentally unconscious.
 It smote us as if we had seen the dead rise when Maurice sprang up on one arm and caught her with the other. She fell away from him, but he struck his breast that she might speak, and cried: "I will live" At the words, hoarse and hollow, the red torrent again dashed from his lips and he sank back with the heavy plunge of the dead.
 '.Dead, Maurice ?" cried Trefetheness, darting to his side ''Dead?"
 The dark, sunken eyes opened and clos ed with their former gleam, and directly afterwards, at the Doctors signal, Ire fetheness raised and bore him from the room.
 Hardly had this been done when Guad- alajara broke in, demanding news of his friends condition and proffering his ser vices, and although these were declined, he called daily to renew the offer and inquiry, and never departed till he had enjoyed hIef word from Arria and 8 briefer touch of her hand.
 Nothing could have been so perfect as Matrices mood during his illness. No complaint, no sigh of pain, no murmur of fatigue-there was all that overpowering sunshine of soul that melted every one within his sphere. Arria and I scarcely left him by daylight, and to neither of us was he the sweeter, and after vigil of torturing pain he greeted us in the morn ing as genially as if he had slept on roses. Trefetheness passed many nights of ten der care beside him, yet against his wish, for his thoughfulness for others exceeded theirs for him. He swallowed the nau- seous drugs as if they had been honey draughts; and impatient of restraint as his nature was, he contented himself with the drops of life which prescriptions counted out for him hourly, from cordial, or tonic, or opiate. As he grew better, we went out into the city, one by one, and rehears- ed our adventures to him on our return; we read to him, we talked before him of our three several pursuits. He was for bidden to see his old friends, and express ed no wish to do so; lying therepallid and drawing each breath as 8 gain from eter- nity, he was pleased with the new atmos- phere in which he was centered, and seemed willing that he should continue forever He had neither wish nor ability to speak, and gradually I saw that he seemed to be be saving and amassing health and strength for some future work and that was surely coming. Arria scarcely spoke so often as in his pres ence, but she constantly lowered about him with her little manifestations; she soothed him to slumber by distilling per fumed waters on his head, drop by drop. like clepsydra; she woke him with the tender pressure of he fingers, and by her overhanging presence perchance filled his cff &A~ A@.<xr.z T al Fetf