The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1881-10-23

Il
passion
"Captaln Delacourt, / think you forget
yourself; you have no right to say such
thngsW
.Can YOU say they are not trueW he
asks, his eyes on my face. ono; l see
you cannot. You may look as proud and
passionate as you please 1t enhances your
beauty, perhaps, but 1t does not deceive
me-"
There is pause; the tumult Of feeling
ends, and mist rises in my eyes. l look
at him with trembling lips.
"lIaye | panied your" he asks gently.
.Can we not be frank with each other, in
stead of keeping up this miserable farce Of
indifference You are unhappy; you can
not deny it,"
81 do not deny it," say In low voice
and my heart swells ut the truth of the
whispered words,
| do not look at him, but down at the
brown earth at my feet, neryously twist
ing my fingers together, more agitated
than care to show for why should this
man become acquainted with the misery
of our homer
A startled exclamation bursts from me.
Idly slipping my rings up and down as |
used to do when the first gold band fretted
so sorely, they have dropped of my finger
amongst the grass / see CLEAN of gold,
flash Of diamonds, and then, alarmed, |
look up quickly.
"My ring-my, wedding ringl l have
droppcditW
He Immediately goes down upon his
knees TO search amongst the yellow corn.
T., IL Ia. N
finger. A strange foreboding makes my
heart beat quickly.
Cant you find it? Oh, search well,
please! 1t cannot have rolled far" say,
with increasing anxiety, watching him
crushing back the corn and peoples with
his hands.
"llere is your guard-ring," he says at
last, in strange mutlled voice; "but can
not find the other"
"You must" | cry, with tremulous
eagcmess, going down upon the ground
myself, and searching with trembling
hands,
But no CLEAN of gold do | see, no flash
Of yellow light; and | look up with a
blank, quiyering face. My wedding-ring
is gone.
Gone | look at my bare hand, and
then search desperately; but the ring has
rolled away into some hollow where our
eyes can not discover it, search as we
may.
My fingers are suddenly grasped
look up with start, to see Captain Della
court gazing, with strange expression
on his face, at the hand he is holding-my
lett hand, where no wedding.ring gleams
now.
"What a difference it would have made
if it had never been therew The words
drop from his lips with a strange hoarse
utterance, and he tightens his clasp on
my fingers. "Poor little hand, it might
have been mineW
Is he madam | mad-that he should
thus look into my face, with an awful
gathering passion in his eyesf / snatch
away my hand, while the hot blood burns
my face.
"Look for my wedding-ringw gasp
You must lind it--you mustw
"What do you take me for" he says
ga stone? DO you think l have no feeling,
that you look at me like that, and bid me
and the ring, the bit of gold that separates
you from meY should be something more
or less than a man to do SOP His face is
dusky red as he speaks, his voice rising 70
. passionate Yehemence.
rise to my feet and gaze down at him
with gathering horror.
"What do you mean" comes faltering
at last from my lips,
Il is the most unwise thing could say;
but, IN my ignorance Of the world, know
not what he means, and stand before him
with growing fear and wonder He Is so
close to me that hear his quick, hurried
breathing.
"What do mean" he cries, in a low
passionate voice. 'You ask me that,
when you have stolen everything from me,
when my life has been spoilt because Of
you"
"What have | to do with your lifeP |
say YEARLY, for | am thinking more of my
lost ring, that mystic golden band, than of
the wild words that fall from his lips;
they convey only u dim, terrifying won
der to me. "Take me TO my husband"
Isay next, trembling from head TO foot;
for there is something dawning and gath
ering IN Give Delucourt's face which
frightens me, and ! instinCtiVely shrink
away from him.
"YOur husbandW he cries vehemently.
"Oh, what hypocrites you women are !
You lead on a man, and steal away his
heart, his very life out of him, and then
your prudence takes fright! Yes, you
may stand there looking at me with those
eyes Of yours-child's eyes, innocent as
Heaven--but you are a woman, and you
cannot pretend you do not know that as
never did love woman before, 30 now do
love youW
lie stops, and like a flame the blood
rushes to my face as our eyes meet; and
read In his look that have seen in my
husbands IN the days when Humphrey
loved me, 4-,.....a 49,.
For a moment the corn-feld and the
passionate eyes looking into mine become
blurred and indistinct and then | turn
white and cold, and answer steadily
enough
'liow dare you speak Of such things to
me--a married womanW Oh, the shame,
tho agony of It, that he should speak of
love 10 me, tho wife Of another man!
look at him with an awful dawning Of the
worlds iniqulty IN my heaat. "Uaptain
Delacourt, pray Heaven to forgive you
Such words as you have spoken are an In.
suit TO me-"
lie answers not; he Is evidently moved,