Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1878-07-09

night breezes like foamy sea flushed
with the gold and rose of an aurora bo
realis.
The call of distant night-bird, thu
rustic of mouse in the wainscOting, OF
the creaking of the dead tree that grated
against the windows that flanked the
portrait-some sound that was neither Q
song, nor f1utter, nor sigh, startled
me,
l arose from my recumbent ease on q
sofa and looked curiously about me.
The luminous, silvery splendOr of the
old moon crescent lay broad and cleal
down the length of the room and touch.
ed the picture of the painted woman
with an unearthly light.
AS looked, the vivid scarlet of the
lips, the lustre of the azure eyes, the
coronal of dead gold hair, the exquisite
| figure and lace, seemed to grow dim
and fade away, and shroud of ghostly,
bluish-white cloud veiled the canvas
from the ceiling to the floor. And then
out of the spectral cloud grew delicate
corpse-like form, and with waving of
waxen hands and mesmeric gaze of
eyes, that were like two smothered blue
flames, transfxed me as if in a night
mare.
81 am Genevra Romaine,n said an
Eolian voice that thrilled me. "You
have often looked upon me as I was
once in the days of my youth and pride
and loveliness. My lady, fifty years
have come and gone since those halcyon
days. Shall I tell you what my life was
like then? 1t was like that of the sky
lark you found dead among the roses
this morning-the dead bird with the
broken-wing, whose heart had been
| pierced, while it was singing towards
the sun, by sportsman's needless shot.
1t was like the lily you plucked this
morning before it was torn and trampled
by the strange blood hounds that bayed
at your gate. A lily and a lark-that
was what he called me-the man loved.
My lover was Colonel Beresford.
He had much wealth, and he was heir
to little, and all I had was this little
house, with its gardens and fields of
roses and apple-b bloom. But he wooed
me as a gallant knight should WOO a
royal lady, and became his wife. But
our marriage was at dead of night, in
darkness and secrecy. No bridal bells
were rung; [ wore no strange flowers,
nor bridal satins and laces. There was
no witness of our wedding vows save
the one acolyte of the weak old priest
who read the service and heard our
promises, and declared us man and wife,
But I was satisfied and happy with my
handsome, dark-eyed husband. This
house was our home, this very room
our marriage chamber. I loved the
place, for here was born and here my
parents died loved it with an eternal
love, and when my husband was made
Count Beresford, 1 was 10th to leave it
for hio hNVnn q hn A Grck,,
husband laughed at my foolish fondness
for the place where he had wooed and
won me. He said he must cage his
singing lark in his beautiful English
castle; that he must clothe his wild
wood lily in cloth of gold and royal
jewels, and that she must live delicious.
ly and fare sumptuously with the titled
and favored friends of his own country.
Still at the end of a year he went alone
and left me here desolate. Oh, it was a
weary, dreary time! He never wrote,
he never sent for me, he never camel
The voice ceased in quivering wall,
and again all was silent save the rustic
of some rodent wandering behind the
wainscoting. or the rattle of the dead
tree limbs without the windows. Then
the hands, SO unearthly and luminous
seemed to stir the vapory vail through
which the strange, spectral eyes, scin-
tillated like incandescent sapphires.
81 said he never came" spoke the
vision, "but he did after twelve months
silence had passed. He came at dead of
night and surprised me sleeping in yon-
der old oaken bed, where you lay only
last night. He did not awake me with
kisses, as he had been accustomed to
when he loved me first. I was aroused
from sweet dreams of him by his cruel
hand crushing my lips like weight of
iron and the deadly suffocating odor of
some insidious drug scorching up my
nostrils to my brain. was conscious
of being in his arms, and then of listen
ing to the rumble of wheels with
dreadful delirious alright. AT length
the roaring and the whirring was stop
ped, and 1 heard no longer the steady,
maddening thud of hoof-beats, the roll
of wheels, nor the hard drawn breath
of gallOping horses. There was q pause
in the journey, gush of balmy wind,
cool with dew and delicious with the
perfume OF flowers, swept over me. I
heard the murmur of voices, and peep
ing cautiously through the curtains Of a
closed carriage where I found myself
alone, saw through the dusty, yellow
haze of dawn, the dismal, iron-barred
portals of a mad.house. On..the dark,
mouldy steps of the entrance stood
Count Beresford in confidential con-
ference with a strange man, whose vis-
age of stone and smirk of cunning
seemed to chill my blood to ice. They
turned and came toward the carriage
There was a cruel laugh on the lips of
my husband and on the bestial front of
his companion savage seeming of graf
If1aofiOn ord nf -
If had heard their words could not
have known more fully the import of
those whispered sounds. NV hand.
some, dark haired husband was tired of
his unrecognized wife, but coward to
the core of his false, black heart, he
dared not take the life of the bride he
despised, and SO had determined to con-
sign her to the keeping of the demon
visaged master of the gibbering wretch
es whose shrieks and curses could hear
within those iron walls. Purposely I
lay like one dead as they approached.
They bore me within the portals and
laid me upon the damp, icy floor of the
hall, until the two-the lackey of crime
and the lackey of the criminal-should
drink to my destruction In an ante
room near where was lying. 1 could
see the glitter of crystal and the gleam
OF amber wine; and as the up-Iifted
glasses clinked rim to rim, sprang
noiselessly to my feet, and fled through
the yellow dusk of the dawn. Perhaps
it was instinct that guided and guarded
me on the long and tortuous way back
to this place. I reached the house aud
his room on another such night and
hour as this. The same old moon hung
glittering over the purple mountain
peaks. Just the same lustre of pink
and rose and gold and sea-foam white
lay on garden and field. At that win
dow by the pier-glass yonder looked
in and saw my husband sitting where
you sit now, and embraced on the false
bosom he held his new wife-a brown
eyed, red-lipped girl whom he had
brought with him from over the sea. 7
watched them until my eyes were Scared
by the sight Of her sweet trust and his
diabolical treachery. She slept at last
the soundlesss, unbroken sleep of limo
cence and joy. Then I called his name.
He pushed the window sash aiar. and
came to my side where stood among
the roses. Even at that moment / loved
| him. T loved him oxyo, .,,L... 4. =.