The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1884-09-05

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they arrived q Mention.
Tho doctor paused at This staeso Ne
story. After . few moments, no 10.
sumed: :S3i
Well. ono day, q I was receiving I'll.
ents in my oeace, . fine, tall man came
in, who said 3 me: 35
Doctor, leone 10 ask you fof nevs Of
tho Countess Marie Barsnow. Iam-al-
though she does not know me-a friend
of her husband"
I replied:
"There Is NO hope tor her. I regret
to say. She will nsver return 10 Rus
STA. :"
Aud all Of sudden the man burst into
. passion Of sobs; then he rose, and stag
gered from the room like . drunken
man.
Tho same evening I told the Countess
that . stranger had called ct my Office
to inquire about her health. She
seemed to be affected, and then told me
the whole story just ~ I told il to you.
And she added:
That man, whom I do not know,
now follows mo everywhere, like my
own shadow. meet him every time I
go out; he looks st me in strange way,
but never speaks"
She paused thoroughly = moment,
and then exclaimed:
"Seel lam willing to wager that he
is this moment before the window"
She rose from her reclining chair,
went to the window, lifted the curtain
aside, and there, sure enough was the
man who had come to my ofice-sit-
ting on bench OF tile public prone.
made. with eyes fixed ON the windows Of
the residence. He observed us, rose,
and walked away without once turning
to look.
Then I became the witness Of very
astonishing thing-the mute love Of
those two beings, neither of whom knew
the other.
He loved her with the devotion of q
rescued animal-grateful and devoted
to the death. He came every day to
see me, with the question, allow is
she ?"-comprehending that I had di-
vined his secret. And he used to weep
fearfully ct seeing her passing by,
winter and weaker every day.
She would say to me:
II only spoke once to that singular
man, and it seems to me as though I
had known him for twenty years.
And whenever they met she returned
his salute with grave and tender
smile. I felt that she was happy, all
lonely Is she was, and knowing herself
doomed to die-I knew that she felt
happy just at being loved in that
strange way, with such respect and
such constancy, with such romantic ex-
aggeration, with such supreme devo-
ton. And for all that, still obstinate
in her exaltation, she persistently and
desperately refused to receive him, TO
learn his name, or to speak to him.
She would always say:
mo. no! it would spoil this strange
friendship. We must always remain
unknown to each other"
As for him, he was certainly Quixotic;
for he never tried to bring himself any
nearer to her. He had resolved to keep
to the very end the absurd promise he
had made her in the railroad car.
Very often during her long hours of
weakness, she would get up from her
reclining chair and peep through the
curtains to see If he Was theresunder
her window. And when she had seen
him, always, sitting motionless on his
bench, she would 60 back and lie down
with smile on her lips.
She died at last one morning-about
10 o'clock. As was leaving the house
I saw him Fastening to me, with agony
in his face-he already knew all.
II would like to look at her for one
second" he said, Sin your presence"
took his arm and re-entered the
house.
When he found himself beside the
death-bed he seized her hand and
kissed it with an interminable kiss, then
he rushed away like mad man.
The doctor paused again, and added:
"This is certainly tho strangest rail-
road adventure ] ever knew. And L
must say it taught me what queer fools
men can be-"
"Then woman murmured in half
audible voice:
"Those two people were not so foolish
as you thing-they were-they we're"
But she cried 30 that she could not
speak. And as they changed the SUBJ
ject of conversation in order to calm
her, no one ever knew what she had
been trying to say.-New Orleans
Times-Democrat.