The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1878-03-02

of limes-the loveliness Of Joyous lite
where for 80 long had been the silence
loft by death. 1t was o sunny dream o. .,
home-homein fair Englsnd-into whicn
had fallen; standing there upon the
Pincian, under the deep dark blue Oh
Roman night.
Below lay the city, its narrow streets
dimIy mysterious. no light visible IN
their tall houses; the fountain murmureo
its sweet monotonous music in the flszz'
di Spsgna; the wide white marble steps
cleaned along the hillside; tall palm
trees cast weird shadows across the graV-
eled Wake; nightingales answered escn
other in low, rich thrills Of song. echoing
from tree to tree, through whispering
palms and odorous night flowers. BE-
side me, cold and silent, was the woman
whose charmful spell woke within me
this new sweet longing for Monochrome
musical with the soft rustling Of women's
garments, with the tender voices OF little
children. suppose such dream ana
such longing come to all men at some
time of their lives; it came to me that
night rs | stood above the city OF van.
pushed glories, of dead and buried
dreams.
1t did not last long. Suddenly above
the city roofs a cross of silvery light
shone out against the sky. The illumin-
alton OF st. Peters had begun. Above
the winding, narrow streets, above
palace roofs, above palm and cypress,
above triumphal arch and moulderlng
temple, over the palace of the Caesars,
over capitol and forum, the silvery cross
shone glad, triumphant; and from II the
light spread from window to window,
from pillar to pillar, till the vast pile was
one glory, changing rapidly from soft,
silvery radiance into glow of golden
fire.
at was worth coming to see; was i! not
Mary?" :,
"Mary" A strangers voice echoed
her name; and, instead of answering my
question, she sprang with loud cry
from my side and laid her head upon
strangers breast. "Did you not get my
letters2 l have been looking every
where for you," l heard lin say.
She did not answer, nor raise her
head; as if at last she had found her rest.
"You are lot alone here2" he went on.
"Who are with your
Then with culver as of pain, she
raised herself, and looked from me TO
him with beseeching eyes and trembling
clasped hands.
Before she spoke-tor even in all the
agony of my crushed-out hopes, my love
for her bore down sll othes feelings, and
tried TO save her from the pain of tell.
ing me what | already knew said:
"You have found an older friend than l
am, Mary. Shall leave him to take yoa
to Mrs. Vereker?"
"An older friend" he repeated. "By
Jove, l should think So"
Then raising his hat, he shook hands
with me as | turned away.
turned into the darkness, but not
before had seen that until now L had
never known her, my love, my promised
wife. 1 had known a beautiful statue,
not the beautiful woman, who, with eyes
appraised TO his, stood in the subdued light
looking up to Gordsn Frazier. All the
GOODNESS, all the stately calm had gone,
fallen from her as a mantle tal!s-a man.
tie which had hidden the fullness of her
loveliness, and had conces,ed from me
tender grace and beauty | had never till
now beheld. | have never seen her since.
Some time siterward | met friend
who had seen good deal OF the Frazler's.
He was loud in admiration OF Mrs. Fra
zier's beauty and her devotion to her hus-
band. "He WIS out in the Crlmea, and
was reported dead; but he was only
wounded. Some Russian family, TO
whose house he had managed TO be sent,
had tended him with kindly care after
even his own doctors had given up hope,
and had pulled him through his danger.
Mrs. Frazier told me-" continued my
friend, chow one evening, when standing
on terrace q. Genoa, she heard his
voice; and thinking 1t was reprosch
from the grave flor she was going to
marry another fellow she got brain fever
and was near dying, The fact was, the
yacht in which friend had brought
him from Constsntinople touched at
Genoa, and he had actually spent the
day doing the palaces! When she heard
his voice he WAS returning TO tho feri,
which lay about two miles from the
shore. Romantic story, isn't 1t? But
Gordon takes her devotion Coolly enough;
the love seems more on her side than on
bis. cannot understand that"
Understand it2 Yes, 1 could. Here
was one of those great souled natures who
like to give rather than to take, to pour
out all the wealth and beauty of their
belngcn the idol which they nave clothed
10 all the glory of their own imaginings.
God grant she may live on to the end,
happy in her womsnly idol worship.
As for me, the dream l dreamt upon
the Pincan hill, before the cross OF gold
en- light shone over the city roofs, was
never realized. No rust of womsn's
garments makes low music in the old
oak-psneed rooms; no children's voices
wake the echoes under the avenues OF
arching lines. The old Devon manor
house stands as yet without a mistress.