The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1875-05-06

er s movements.
What business was it of mine? often
asked. What right had / to feel curious or
TO inquire why Mary went, came or had fits
of absence of mind. Simply that / was
in love with her, and could not help it.
She and Bertha Hammerstein got on won
derful well together. They were two clear
eyed, bright girls, with no morbid elements
about them, and always seemed 10 suit each
other. How wonderfully they dug up old
Ferrara, and with what delight and intelli-
genee did they study the freseoes at Raven
Ma They were both great and diligent
readers of I. Adolphus TroIIope, and his
beautiful Italian novels of ''tcmma," "L Le-
onora Casalori," "The Sealed Packet" and
better than all, "A Sircn," were our guide
books through these enchanting spots.
Mary wore the ring with two lions," and
grew kinder to me every day Never can
forget one day in the Pinetta, neai
Ravenna, where we had gone TO verify oul
I. Adolphus. ! do not intend to tell what
occurred, but i know that H1mlncfstein
came home blue with S2easy, and
that Ainslie, who had been t'.ikfng elective
sfinirIes with Bertha, looked back quite too
often as we wandered through the pines.
Often at our hotel we found ar. Handy
side Marbury. He was not man 10 present
to the ladies, but Ainslie and I, over our
evening cigar, had many good talk with
him. He seldom chose any subject less
erudite than the Mcrovipgian Kings, and he
and Ainslic would discuss Charlemagnc with
as much interest and with scarcely less avid
ity than two politicians show talking over
General Butler. Mr.. Marbury, like many Il
good for nothing whom | have known, was
entirely above gossip. 1t is your respccta-
BILE man, with an interest in the country,
who wishes to know If YOU have heard that
Mr.. 4 is little too attentive to Mrs. b, and
that c is rather shaky on his commercial
legs. Handyside Narbury lived in an at
mosphere of great principles, grand ideas,
magnificent conceptions. He had contempt
for Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, because the
religious honesty of that prelate was ques.
tionable. Handyside Marbury, in thread.
bare coat, and with five borrowed dollars in
his pocket, sat in judgment Oh Tarquin, last
of the Kings of Rome, and think Tarquin
had the worst of it.
So / was very much surprised when he
broke off suddenly in the midst of an elo-
quent essay on Roland and Oliver, Paladins of
Charlemagnc. and asked me about Mrs. Jes-
saminc and Mr.. Carter. Had those worth
les stepped down from the facade of the
cathedral | should not have been more
moved Ainslie said blushed: why, do
not know, except that ineongruity affects the
mind somewhat as outraged modesty is said
to, and anything more incongruous than
our seedy old Turveydrop and the highly
respectable Mrs. Jessamine could not con-
ceiye.
SO your elderly belle is the one to be
matched, / see" began Mr.. Marbury.
81 thought YOU cared for no belle since
Cleopatra" l answered through my bushes.
q love fools whenever l see them. They
shall inherit the earth," said Marbury. :"
have looked on occasionally at your party
(although / confess the present is the only
age of the world that l do care for), and
have seen that elderly Irritation with pleas
ure and interest. 1t amuses me to see types
reproduced. Here in Mrs. Jessamine ] sec
again 0ctavia, and all the stupid, formal
fools who have their weaknesses underneath
Do you think she will marry Carter"
81 do mot know the state of Mrs. Jes.
samine's affections, nor her matrimonial
intentions" | answered, in a voice which
was intended to be severe.
"She is very rich. He will get a great
deal of money. He has nothing She is q
fool" said Handyside Marbury, growing
since he defended Hypatia.
Ainslie and | walked away astonished
What should he know or care for these pco
pie.
Verona is a very poor place to make love
in, in spite of Remeo and Juliet. Verona il
the Amazon of Italian cities. She has stood
at the foot of the Alps, barring her beautiful
breast to the storm, defending the softer
danes who live further south sfcr many cen
tuTiUs- thiul< IT has roade-9ssz -hard and
unsympathetic. She is beautiful, cIcur, auu
cold, like Diana. How splcndidly she wears
her coronct OF fortitications-how goddess
like she Is as she bathes her feet in the blue
water of the Adige. She holds the tomb OF
Juliet in her bosom, not as a loving sister
but as cold moralist, SAYING: "Oh, We mis-
taken children of passion, sec, see, to what
dust and ashes, red sandstone bath-tubs
and dried leaves you too are coming, if you
love as did this foolish Juliet! Be like me
10 hris hal.
your feet instead of high-heeled slippers ro
setted. Go and look at my Amphitheatel
where lions and tigers ate up the young
girls. Better for them, | assure you
than matrimony. Go shake the chair
armor around the tombs of tn,
to Case Grande's wife, or to anybody's wife
No, we have never cultivated the softer emo
tions in Verona; mistake of Shakespeare's
who was no histvI; IN except when he delin
| Gated our little tcripers. / strike my shiclt
and call to arms, not in the tender but in tn,
Amazonian sense"
Such is the atmosphere of Verona. /
struck across me, after the gentler impres
sions of Sicna, Parma, Bologna, like :
breath from the unyielding SHOWS of tn,
Alps From all of which fine writing yor
may draw the simple truth, which | nigh
have told three paragraphs back if | hat
chosen-when we got to Verona Mar,
snubbed me.
In vain did take her to walk, to the Cy
press Gardens, the tomb of Juliet, to tht
haunted shades of the Amphitheater. Sh'
was absent minded, sad, cold, troubled. Tn,
dear abandon to smiles and girlish eoquetry
so suited to her age and to our relations
| growing, as thought, more naturally lover
| ike, which had made me so happy in th'
Pineta, were all gone, and totally unsympa
thetic being sat by my side.
We were alone in the Amphitheater; N,
| spectators but the ghosts of the buried En-
| pcrors looked down on us; and determined
| to speak out. l cleared my throat-alas
was nv phrase properly to be like that o
| those poor fellows who came out IA thousant
years ago, and said: lie morituri salu
| tant ~
MARY" said |, stretching out my hant
for hers, "why are you so sad and cold t,
me? Are you not my love-my darlingAhl,
| life? Has Hammerstein stolen you from
| me, or has Ainslie won you away, with hi
giittering generalities Tell me, Mary, yol
| have not misunderstood me, am sure. Hav
| ! misunderstood yous"
| She looked me mournfully in the face
Charleton,n said she, Z" / can explain moth
| ing, except that this acquaintance of our
| must stop here. Forgive me If | have giyel
| YOU any reason to hope. | ought never t,
| be young, and loving, and frivolous. | an
called to other paths. Nay, | should no
| have taken your ring, given though it wa
| in a light moment of friendship-not at a.
| as a love gage"
Here she bushed deeply; and she took OF
| the ring with the two lions-she as red a
| the ruby in the eye of the lioness. / looke
! at her long and earnestly. She did not lool
| at me, nor relent one moment from the cold
| sad, abstractcd gaze on the ground, he
| blu shes died away into a cold pallor. 1t wa
chilling enough, but it did not entire
| freeze me. / saw, if she did not love me
| that she loved no other man. Her absorl
/ ton was of another kind.
May ask if your aunt has anything t
| do with your present feeling, Nary" said
| You may ask me nothing said she
| Yes, | shall ask you to keep the ring,
| but for that day in the Pineta.n
| She looked at me moment, with a CLEAN
in her eye which gave me hope, and extend
| ed her hand.
| Put it on again. if you please, MI
| Charleton. / shall be sorry to part with il
/ have superstitious regard for it. Tha
| old ring has power in it; and IL you vii
respect my conditions | will keep it"
~ will promise anything you say" sal
| j, for by this time her small white hand wa
in mine.
Then promise not to ask why do any
| thing; where / go; why L am sad Let ou
| acquaintance be the generous and unques
| tioning thing ii has been, or let us part"
/ put the ring on her hand, and kissed j
once more. As did so the old lion caugh
my eye. BY Jove, what splendid express
sion that old fellow had. He looked at In
as one OF his kind may have looked at
muscular Christian. Was it warning or en-
| couragement:
| She walked away alone, and sat an hou
| dreaming in the silent Amphitheater, an
/ then | walked-not into one of the dens @
| wild beasts, but the next thing to i'll wen
to see Mrs. Jessamine.