Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1879-10-01

lament the day she forsook the painter
of pictures for that imbecile wealth.
And all at once I turned the canvases to
the wall-my heart was breaking.
TIE Flight had been due on the mid
night tide. Of course, had Stella signi.
fed the wish, she would have been
there-would have been there even
earlier. The day drew on to nightfall.
Other sails flew budding in, pleasure
boats and stately ships ana fishing fleets
made anchor, and found haven from the
gathering storm; but there was no sign
of the Flight. The roaring east wind
came driving all the mists across the
land; the world was wrapped in rain.
All light the tempest ragged, swept across
the gardens, and beat down the blossoms
on the terraces of flowers, sent great
boughs flying through the air; all night
hearts stopped with it's every fresh gust;
all night the land shook with it's shock !;
all night the sea replied; and when at
last day dawned, great racks Of pearly
cloud lay off in the low eastern sky, a
zephyr only moved from the south, and
all the sapphire blazed above and blazed
below, as if the storm had been an evil
dream.
But it was no dream--the coast was
strewn with wrecks; more than one
corpse among the rocks and weeds looked
up with blank eyes to the morning light.
There was glorious sea on, and crowds
were out surveying its splendor. Crowds,
too, were wasting their wonder on the
Flight. Where was she? Who had
spoken her? Had she foundered and
gone down! Had she blown off the
coast? Would any one ever see her
again come sweeping into harbor with
all sail set, q tower of snow and light,
with the music and the dancing? There
were none to say. No one had spoken
her; and search the horizon with burn
ing eyes, no sign of her white sails, her
golden pennon, was to be seen.
And day followed day the same. And
thrill of horror went to more hearts
than one at the thought of the gay party
going down with flags flying, and the
world that had known them suspended
for little its festivities, or turned it's
mourning into pleasure by yachting up
and down the coast in search, putting
into harbor every shutdown. But when
ten days had passed, with most doubt
had settled into certainty, and the little
world was taking on its old ways again.
Only they missed the tawny beauty of
the Percivai girl upon the drive, the reck-
less dash of De Luyster, the solemn stiff
ness OF old Montmorenci-they missed,
indeed, that airy vision of unreal beauty
whose absence made the place desert
at least, it did to me. The Rattener
villa, dark as any Jail, no longer with
gay groups upon its lawn, seemed to
mock the blooming of the flowers that
lifted their scarlet and gold and azure
gayly as ever to the Indifferent skies from
bed and vase and urn.
"And SO they're giving up the Flight,
/ hear" said old Simpson, the lobster
man, as I wandered down the beach I
hunted all day long, and where he had
looked up at me so often with reassuring
eyes, as he mended his nets or tumbled
out his wriggling load. "Well, don't
you be any mans fool, sir, and follow
such suit" he said. "Ben Burnham
was never at her hellum for nothing.
When Ben Burnham piloted in Boston
bay, and knew he couldn't make High
land Light, he put her helm hard down
and scud for Squam. He was in blue
water before the first whisper of that
gale, sir, and he's been there before and
often in like cases; and when he is, he
heads for the Bermudies, sir. And you'll
be finding, when the Flight comes in
with all her linen stretched, that they've
been a-rambling over the Bermudies,
while you've been a-eating your heart
out, sir"
Poor fool! At that moment I stop
ped to pull bit of seaweed, ribbon of
the dulse from the wave beating at nv
feet-it was the little golden pennon of
the Flight.
There was nothing more to say.
held it up before his gaping face. The
world turned black-I reeled away and
hid myself that day. My darling! my
darlingl While l had been painting
these treacherous seas, she had been in
their deadly grasp, she had gone down
their black depths-and with him
For all eternity with himl While [
had rested in the sunshine, she had pass
ed the great agony-she so young, SO
fair, so innocent. She had died while
rage was in my heart for her sweet sake.
l held out my arms to nothingness; my
heart beat with more pangs. If I might
die myself, if I might have but one hour,
one moment Of this eternity, to beg her
to forgive me, and then to accept nihil-
ity for the all rest! All! for one word !!
Where was she? In what upper regions,
what regions of light? I opened my
eyes, as l lay there in the evening dusk
gazing up skyward, and the idle thought
came, as idle thoughts alight on one
perhaps in the very death struggle, that
at that moment there was nothing in
the universe between me and Vega Lyra.
The great blue star shone over me-
Did great blue stars have faces then
fair faces with faint rose Pushes, with
soft baby hair blowing round them, with
smiles, with tears, with eyes like stars
themselves, with lips full of warm fra
grant kisses? Did stars descend out OF
the far night sky and fashion themselves
into such creatures as this sweet and
sobbing thing that all at once held in
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