Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-11-29


when | cannot bear the sound of evening
bells coming across the water 1t so renews
for me that evening-that evening when
lost har-when l lost her if I found Rosalie!n
"You lost her then!' l said, to break the
silence that followed
II will tell you. The two were in
separable. If walked or rode or
| sailed with one, the other was not far
| away. Rosalie was little gay, tormenting
spi1te. Alicia was a penSive saint 1t was
Alicia's home; her father was a man of
wealth, and Rosalie was visiting her. Ros-
ale had no home, no fortune; she had just
finished school and was to be governess,
creading it as a butterfly might dread being
broken to harness. dreading it all the more
for this glimpse of luxurious life in her
friends home since school. l myself had a
fortune in my own right, and had been
guilty of the follies of most of the ieunesse
doree of that period, which, if comparatively
Innocent, were troublesome enough to the
authorities Of my college to need discipline,
and was passing year of most unhappy
rustication in the place adjoining Alicias
home. Never shall forget the first moment
IN which | saw Alicia running down one of
the orchard aisles with her white garments
fiuttering about her, and her fair head bent
over the branch of apple blossoms in her
hand. If lightning had fallen, the revolu-
ton that seized me could not have come more
quickly. l seemed to be changed in
twinkling, to have been borne into
another planet. I felt as if sun
shine had pierced and penetrated once i'm
penetrable gloom. When fell asleep in the
grass of that orchard, and woke with that
heavenly creature bending over me, rose
only to walk on air. The little brown face
of Rosalie, with its 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 merely know saw it by remembering
it afterward She was only a shadow to me
In those days; and as for me, l was only
Aicia'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. l felt myself mote
in the broad beam of their sunshine, as
though l were something hardly visible in
their large range Of vision, as if it required
an effort to make myself perceived by them.
1 hesitated to make the effort-I worshiped
from afar When she spoke to me my heart
beat so had hardly voice to answer; when
she touched my hand it thrilled me through
and through. And I asked no more [
thought of 10 more for while than just to
continue so forever; to see her from my win
dow walking under the long aisles
Of the low-branched orchard like
some medieval picture; to walk
besides 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 Resale should be about with
me, riding here, strolling there, walking to
church, reading with the old pastor, in whose
charge there was fiction that | was, and so,
IL way, studying With me that was all
lnatCer 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 was on the gallery just out
side their drawing groom, looking in at the
long window, and Alicia was singing. All,
how delicious was that voicei The cherubim
and serapbim who continually do sing, il
l ever hear them, will not sing 50 sweetiy
l wonder to whom that voice is singing nowi
Besides her, that night, was this scamp who
had come to the place more than once a
proud commanding fellow in his undress uni
form, man whom her father plainly in
tended she should marry. / can see the scene
now-the rich and diruly-hghted room full
of purple shadows, the air laden with the
scent of flowers; Alicia in her white drapery.
more mystical, more beautiful more
holy, as she sang, than if revealed in the
glow of her beauty; outside the violet depths
OF the sky, and the moon just falling, like
some great golden flower, low in the west:
and as Alicia's voice became silent choir Of
bell tones coming far and fine and free across
the water, like echoes of her song in heaven
My heart Swelled with fullness of rapture:
life seemed too rich, too sweet, too sacred;
and then [ saw that man stoop and kiss her
brow The action turned me to stone for a
moment till he came sauntering to the win
dow, and knew no more what | was doing
than that bronze Perseus in the corner would
if he moved. l lifted the hand that had
seemed stone, and as he passed me | struck
him on the mouth the mouth that had done
the proclamation
And Mr.. Fernalde was quiet little while.
And that was the end of all things he
resumed. The fellow laughed at me for a
mad hoy Her father launched one Of the
thunderbolts, and forbade me the house.
What a stricken day and night of vratched-
nessl What n week Of hopelessuess. of ami
hilationl But perhaps Alicia felt otherwise.
Why should ] not discover? Why should 1
suppose she had any other sympathy with
that creature than the sympathy Of tie star
and the woyn, And if my glad hope peradven.
ture were true, why then we could fly from
these places that should know us no more:
The world was before us, heavens gates we're
open to Us And I wrote, my hand trembling
at It's sacrilegious daring, just 2. dozen lines,
without address, without signature. She
would know what it meant And I sent it
by the parsons boy. And 1 waited for her.
lying on the grass beneath the orchard trees,
III the deep gloom just gilded by the influence
of the unseen moon. There came the rust
ling Of garments, the tripping of foot; my
heart beat, my eyes grew dim. Was it she
coming up behind me, as lay lifted on my
elbow, ineeling and putting her arms about
me, raining swift kisses on my face-wild
sweet kisses in that shadow; wild, passionate
whispers i'll that silence! And then a great
pang srnote me, and rose and went out with
her into the less dim darkneSs-and it was
Resale
''She never knew" said Mr. Fernalde, "she
does not know to-day that l died that night
Ican't say how I lived through those mo-
ments even. They were but moments she
had stolen away. She had to return at once.
We parted at the foot of the mock-orange
walk, and went to my bed and lay there in
trance of despair. Perhaps sunlight
brought some relief. The parson told