Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1883-11-09

out TO me.
But Mr.. Fernalde was in brown
study for n little. and let him stay.
lit was strange you should have
asked me that question, child. he said.
at length. Il used. at your time of
life, 10 imagine very different old age
from this, II may so call that imagina-
ton. for. in fact. old age never entered
INTO my calculations. Imagined moth
ling about the passage of time, only OF
the continuance of condition. And
that condition was IKE perpetual para
disc of Alicia's smiles.
" Resale, You mean, said 1.
IL beg your PARDON said ar.
Ferna'de, shortly. 81 mean Alicia"
"Alicia?''
"Alicia. who, when j was twenty. was
the light OF my eyes and the loadstar of
my lie. >
II don't know what you mean, sir"
"Of course you don {. of course You
don't I've half the mind to tell YOU,
though. It's long time ago-a long
time-and no harm done. One Is per-
haps n fool at seventy" said Mr.. Fer
nalde presently again, I'm not quite
eighty. One is certainly fool at
twenty. was, at any rate; but didn't
know IL, and l walked in fools para
disc. And to be fool and not know
it is there. on the whole, any farther
-paradise3 Pretty, pretty rs peachI'
he began again, after another pause.
"Ah' that sounds To us now like pro-
family. That Heavenly fair face, those
eyes like the stars in blue midnight
that smile OF exquisite Innocence and
purity! / used TO tremble before her
/ sometimes rs before some young saint
stepped from n shrine -One that / dared
to desecratc by loving. An. how 7 loved
her! The sight of certain flowers brings
her back To me nowl Nhen the apples
are in blossom. that pink and white
snow. that ineffable delicacy of per
fume, calls her before me like a revela-
uon! There are tines when this
eternal smoo;hness Of things in NV life
pals ON mc-times when can not
bear the sound Of evening bells coming
across the water. IL so renews for me
that evening-that evening when lost
her when l lost her IL L found
ROsalic!"
you lost her, thsnP" I said. TO
break the silence thai followed. II
''I will tell you. The two were an
separable. II walked or-rode or sailed
with one, the other was not far
away. Resale, wasfa little gay, tor
menting sprite; AL ella pensive saint.
IL was Alicia's home; her father was A
man of wealth, and Resale was visiting
her. ROsalie had no home, no fortune;
she had just finished school and was to
be governess, dreading II as a butter
ay might dread being broken to harness,
drcading il all the more for this glimpse
Of luxurious life in her friends home
since school. i myself had fortune in
my own right, and had been guilty of
the follies of most of the jeHneSSe doree
Of that period. which, IL comparatively
innocent. were troublesome enough to
the authorities Of my college To need
discipline. and was passing a year of
most unhappy rustication in the place
adjoining Alcia's home. Never shall I
forget the first moment i'm which I saw
Alicia running down one of the orchard
aisles with her white garments hutter-
ing about her. and her fair head bent
over the branch of apple-blossoms in
her hand. IL lightning had fallen, the
revolution that seized me could not have
come more quickly. / seemed to be
changed in a twinkling, to have been
borne into another planet. / felt as II
sunshine had pierced and penetrated
once impenetrable gloom. When fell
asleep in the grass of that orchard, and
woke with that Heavenly creature bend
ing over me, | rose only TO walk on air.
The little brown face of Rosalie, with
carnations, with the CLINT and glance of
its great brown eyes, with its food of
brown curls that had touch of gold on
them. with the glittering teeth of its
beautiful laugh, was Just over her
shoulder, but / merely know saw il bv
remembering it afterward. She was
only shadow to me in those DAYS; and
as for me, was only Alicia's shadow
myself. She lived and moved in some
exalted atmosphere, TO my perception.
She does now. Her father wore the
front OF Jovei L could not say that he
did not carry the thunders. felt nv
self mote in the broad beam of their
sunshine, as though l were something
hardly visible in their long range OF
vision, rs If it required an effort to
make myself perceived by them. 1
hesitated to make the efiort-I wor-
SHIPPED from afar. When she spoke to
me my heart beat so 1 had hardly voice
to answer; when she touched my hand
II thrilled me through and through.
And / asked no more. thought of no
more for awhile than just to continue so
for ever; TO see her from my window
walking under the long aisles of the
low-branched orchard, IKE some me-
tlirval picture; to- walk beside her
sometimes; now and then to venture
reading from the SEINE page with her;
now and then TO be her partner in the
,lance. That Rosalie should be about
with me, riding here, strolliny there,
walking TO church, reading with the
old pastor, in whose charge there was n
fiction that i was, aud SO, in a way.
studying with me-that was all mat
Ter OF commonplace; she WAS sweet, she
was fresh, she was charming. But
what was all that when an angel was in
the room?
Zone night I was on the gallery inst
outside their drawing-room. LOOKING in
Mt the long window, and Alicia WA
singing. All! how delicious was that
voicel The cherubim and seraphim
who continually 10 sing. II I ever hear
them. will not sing so sweetly. won
der TO whom that voice Is singing nowl
Beside her, that night, was this scamp
who had come 10 the place more than
once, proud. commanding fellow in.
his undress upifOrm, n man whom her
father plainly Intended she should
marry. can see the scene now-the
rich and dimly-lighted room full of
purple shadows, the air laden with the
scent of flowers; Alicia In her white
drapery, more mystical, moro beauti-
full. more holy, as she sang, than IL
revealed in the glow of her beauty;
outside the violet depths Of Htke
sky. and the moon just falling, like
some great golden lower, low in the
west; and as Alfcia's voice became
silent. a choir of hell-tones coming far
and fine and free across the water, Ike
echoes 81 her song IN Heaven. Nv
heart swelled with fuliness OF rapture;
life seemed too rich, too sweet. too