The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-11-09


bubbling."
"There, there, there, my dear! Don't
say another word about your Mrs.
Talliafero! Go and spend a season with
her at Saratoga. if you ever want to see
her any more. I'll 60 to Richfield.
Bubble! She'd make sulphuric acid
bubble out of the sands of the desert!
I've no doubt she worried Talliafero,
poor man, into the grave! But there,
Eve said too much, he added, directly.
81 beg your pardon, my sweet, if |
hurt your feelings about an old friend,
but really No, Resale, my love, if
you don't care to 90 over these &C
counts, our young friend WILL" And
then Mrs. Fernalde tripped off with as
light foot as a girl of seventeen, and
drew up the great folding-scnen
around our chairs, stirred the fire a
little, and took pencil and paper to add
up the figures MIR. Fernalde was to read
out to me.
But Mr.. Fernalde was in a brown
study for a little, and let him stay.
"1t was strange you should have
asked me that question, child" he said.
at length. Il used. at your time OF
life, to imagine a very different old age
from this, if / may so call that magma
ton, for, in fact, old age never entered
into my calculations. Imagined moth
ing about the passage of time, only OF
the continuance of a condition. And
that condition was the perpetual para
disc of Alicia's smiles"
"Rosalie, YOU mean" said l.
Il beg your pardon" said Mr..
Fernalde, shortly. 81 mean Alicia"
"Alicia?"
"Alicia. who, when was twenty, was
the light of my eyes and the loadstar OF
my life"
II don't know what you mean, sir.
"Of course YOU don't. of course you
don't. I've half the mind to tell you,
though. It's a long time ago-a long
time-and no harm done. One is per-
haps fool at seventy" said Mr.. Fer
nalde presently again. Pm not quite
eighty. One is certainly fool at
twenty. was, at any rate; but didn
know it, and walked in fools para
disc. And to be fool and not know
it! Is there. ON the whole, any farther
PaiaoiSS. iitets, PiStts aS a. pNfSh.
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 as before some young saint
stepped from a shrine-one that | dared
to desecrate by loving. All, how loved
her! The sight of certain flowers brings
her back to me now! When the apples
are in blossom, that pink and white
snow, that ineffable delicacy of per-
fume, calls her before me like revela-
ton! There are times when this
eternal smoothneSs of things in my life
pals on me-times when l can not
bear the sound of evening bells coming
across the water. 1t so renews for me
that evening-that evening when lost
her-when l lost her if l found
RoSalie!"
"You lost her, then9' l said, to
break the silence that followed.
81 will tell YOU. The two were in
separable. If walked or rode or sailed
with one. the other was not far
away. Resale, was little gay, tor
menting sprite; Al cia a pensive saint.
1t was Alicia's home; her father was a
man of wealth, and Rosalie was visiting
her Resale had no home. no fortune;
she had Just finished school and was to
be a governesS, dreading it as a butter
fly might dread being broken to harness,
dreading it all the more for this glimpse
of luxurious life in her friends home
since school. myself had a fortune'in
my own right. and had been guilty of
the follies of most of the jeunesSe dOree
of that period. which, if comparatively
innocent. were troublesome enough to
the authorities of my college to need
discipline, and l was passing a year of
most unhappy rustication in the place
adjoining AlIcia's home. Never shall 1
forget the first moment in which | saw
Alicia running down one of the orchard
aisleS with her white garments flutter-
ing about her, and her fair head bent
over the branch of apple-blossoms in
her hand. If lightning had fallen, the
revolution that seized me could not have
come more quickly. l seemed to be
changed in a twinkling, to have been
borne into another planet. l felt as if
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 flood of
brown curls that had touch of gold on
them. with the glittering teeth of its
beautiful laugh, was Just over her
shoulder, but l merely know saw it by
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 Jove; could not say that he
did not carry the thunders. felt my
self a mote in the broad beam of their
sunshine, as though l were something
hardly visible in their long range of
vision, as if it required an effort TO
make myself perceived by them. 1
hesitated to make the effort-I wor-
SHIPPED from afar. When she spoke to
me my heart beat so l had hardly voice
to answer; when she touched my hand
it thrilled me through and through.
And asked no more. l 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, like some me-
diaval picture; TO walk beside her
sometimes; now and then to venture
reading from the same page with her;
now and then to be her partner in the
dance. That Rosalie should be about
with me, riding here, strolling there,
walking to church, reading with the