The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1882-12-14
BURIED LOVE.
rRAsLATED FROM THE GERMAN,


|
| TRAsLATED FROM THE GERMAN.
In November, 18S-, Mr.. Nay, form
erly professor of music at Toulouse, came
to settle at Mention with his son Henry.
! He rented at the further end of the
town, the ground floor of a house whose
windows looked into the street, and at
the same time on the road leading down
the mountain. It was not the beauty of
| site that had induced that choice, but the
peaceful calmness and the pure and fra
grant air which pervades that part. Hen.
| ry Nay was blind.
He was about fifteen, when his eye
| sight, until then excellent, became grad
ually weaker. A very strange dimness
fell over his eyes, and soon he had to
give up reading new music; for Henry,
young as he was, had already made his
| mark asa violnist. One morning all was
| night and darkness around him, and
when, placing himself before the sun,
he opened his eyes wide, he felt they
were paralyzed, two large tears rolled
ON his cheeks; nothing more had re-
vealed his grief
Then the father took the child by the
| hand and searched the world for an oc.
| ulist. All the celebrated specialists were
consulted and unanimously declared that
| the boy might be cured, fwilling to SUBJ
| NIT to painful and perilous operation.
| Mr.. Ney dare not take upon himself all the
| responsibility. Besides, this hesitation
could not compromise the success of the
! undertaking The precocious child was
developing rapidly, and the father re-
! solved to let him decide later on. In the
| meantime they went from place to place,
travelling almost constantly. For Henry
whose smallest wishes were never de-
MED, was led on by that feverish activ-
ity and want of change which deluded
him to hope for ray of light.
| Five years had gone by. They were
living at Mention, as everywhere else,
very secluded, and were seldom out be-
fore evening. The mornings were given
! to reading, the afternoons to music.
I The old master accompanied on the piano
as well as his stihened fingers would
| allow him to follow the brilliant improvis-
iations Of his son. It was the boys only
! Joy to give way thus, for hour at time,
| to the .fanciful strains of his imagination.
Notes sparkled like Jet of fire under
his capricious brow; then long, melan-
choly strains would follow-full of re-
| grets and tears for the lost treasure.
! One cool evening; Henry, leaning on
his father walked to the sea-shore. He
sat on the sand, and there, motionless,
his attention conferred on the dashing
waves, he was trying to perceive, dis
sounds which compose the monotonous
! harmony Of the aaa
Another day they walked to the
woods, following the road that passed
| near the house. After half an hour the
boy stopped.
| Father, you are tired?"
! ''Not in the leaA," answered the old
man.
"You could not deceive me-" resumed
the blind boy, smiling "Your cane
etumbles at each step. Fortunately,
| here we are; I hear the wind rustling
among the leaves
'Not quite yet. We are walking along
the railing Of park, whose trees pros
| ject their branches among the leaves"
Just then the silence of that calm
night was broken by few harmonious
chords from piano; then, after pause,
the invisible musician played the "song
of the Star" in Tannhauser.
Henry stopped his hand resting on
his fathers arm.
us it where the light shines2" he
asked.
eyes"
LET US listen. Do you mind?"
"With pleasure"
| After the "Song Of the Star" came
almost without interruption waltz of
Chopin, played with feverish rapidity,
as if the artist lacked time to finish it.
After the waltz q nocturne, with senti-
mental variations, expressive of grand
despair. Then. all at once, silence and
darkness resumed their sway. The
light had vanished with the last sounds.
"We have heard real artist" said
Mr.. Nay, taking his son by the arm.
Henry did not answer, but he thought,
"it was womanv'
| With the sagacity of the blind, whose
other senses are wonderfully keen and
delicate, he had recognized the woman
in the nervousness of the touch and in
the penetrating emotion of the senti-
ment. He had even OWNED that che
was sufferer, from the cratic choice of
her music, and the brusQue transition of
nerriment to sadness and the varied
shades of her play.
The next day, as he questioned the
heard that the villa belonged to Mr.. VAL
ancourt, q gentleman from Paris, who
had bought it for his daughter Madei-
cine, "a poor young lady who seemed
very ill.,"
On that evening Henry did not men,
ton that he wanted to &c again towards
the park. He only said he wished to
bring his violin in case he should take q
fancy to improvise q serenade to the
stars. That day and the following, Mr..
Nay and his son spent the whole even
ing on the beach. ,. .x
"Shall we go to the wood?" said Mr. .
Nay one morning; it is nearer, and we
shall return earlier, for the nights are
getting COOP
The young man repressed smile.
"Let us 60 to the woods" he was
seemingly Indifferent. -,
It was dusk when they reached the vii
Ia, Madeleine, alone in her room, was
at the, piano playing the "Elegy OF
| Henry seized his violin. and, stand
ing on the road, trembling with excite
ment, he repeated like an echo, the
melody he had heard.
At the first notes Madeleine, rose
suddenly and looked out wonderfully,
then closed the window.
II am watched,' she thought, and
she blushed.
The violin was silent.
A minute later the girl opened the
curtains, and tried to see through the
impenetrable darkness outside. But all
in vain: After the first feeling had
subsidized, curiosity had awakened.
"Who can it be?' she thought.
Henry Nay went home out of sorts
and we'll aware that he had disturbed
her solitude. And yet he returned
every night with his violin. One would
have thought that he endeavored, in
inspired mprovisations, to implore for
giveness and express the feelings which
were agitating him.
But the villa was buried in silence
and obscurity. This irritated him to the
last degree.
"It is all overl'' said he one day. IL
offended her. Once more I shall 70;
and then shall leave the country
How YEARLY dragged the hours. At
s,,,,,eok I,;o EokHo~ Led h:~rn ~ L..