River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1884-09-04

some refreshments, she saw him stand
ing at distance, watching her. And
they arrived at Mention.
The doctor paused at this stage of the
story. After few moments, he re-
sumed:
Well, one day, as was receiving eli
ents in my office, fine, tall man came
in, who said to me:
Doctor, come to ask you for news of
tho Countess Marie Baranow. anal
though she does not know me-a friend
of her husband"
/ replied:
"There is no hope for her, I regret
to say. She will never return to Rus
STA. +"
And all of sudden the man burst into
a passion of sobs; then he rose, and stag
gered from the room like drunken
man.
The same evening told the Countess
that stranger had called at my Office
to inquire about her health. She
seemed to be affected, and then told me
the whole story just as told it to you.
And she added:
"That man, whom I do not know,
now follows me everywhere, like my
own shadow. / meet him every time /
go out; he looks at me In strange way,
but never speaks"
She paused thoroughly a moment,
and then exclaimed:
"See / am 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 office sit
ting on bench of the 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 | 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
rescued animal grateful and devoted
to the death. He came every day to
see me, with the question, "How is
she -comprehending that had di-
vined his secret. And he used to weep
fearfully at 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 /
had known him for twenty years"
And whenever they met she returned
smile. / felt that she was happy, all
lonely as 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:
No, mol 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 Hereunder
her window. And when she had seen
him, always, sitting motionless on his
bench, she would go back and lie down
with q smile on her lips.
She died at last one morning about
10 o'clock As was leaving the house
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, "in 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 the strangest rail
road adventure l ever knew. And l
must say it taught me what queer fools
men can be-"
eThen woman murmured in half
audible voice:
"Those two people were not so foolish
as you thing they were-they we're"
But she cried so that she could not
speak And as they changed the sub
iect of conversation in order to calm
her, no one ever knew what she had
been trying to say.-New Orleans
Times Democrat.