The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1884-01-19

There are times when this eternal smooth
ness Of things in my life pals me-times
when cannot bear the sound of evening
bells coming across the water. 1t so renews
for me that evening-that evening when
lost her-when lost her il found Rosalie!n
You lost her theng' / said, to break the
silence that followed.
81 will tell you. The two were In
If / walked or rode or
sailed with one the other was not far
away. Rosalie was little gay, torlnenting
sprite Alicia was pensive saint It was
Alicia's home; her father was man of
wealth, and Rosalie was visiting her. Ros-
allie had no home, no fortune; she had just
finished school and was to be governess,
dreading 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, myself had
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 Alicia's
home. Never shall forget the first moment
in which / saw Alicia running down one of
the orchard aisies with her white garments
futtering about her, and her fair head bent
over the branch of apple blossoms in her
hand. II lightning had fallen, the revo1u-
ton that seized me could not have come more
quickly, seemed to be changed in
twfnkling, to have been borne into
another planet I felt as if sum
shine had pierced and penetrated once inn
penetrable gloom. When fell asleep in the
grass of that orchard, and woke with that
heavenly creature bending over me, I 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
food OF brown curls that had a touch of gold
Oh 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 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 myself mote
in the broad beam of their sunshine, as
though were something hardly visible in
their large range of vision, as if 1t required
an effort to make myself perceived by them.
hesftated to make the effort-I worshiped
from afar. When she spoke to me my heart
beat SO / had hardly voice 10 answer; when
she touched my hand it thrilled me through
and through. And / asked no more.
thought of no 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 Rosalie should be about with
me, riding here, strollfng there, walking to
church, reading with the old pastor, in whose
charge there was fiction that was, and SO,
in way, studying with me-that was all a
matter of commonplace; she was sweet, she
was fresh, she was charming. But what
was all that when an angel was in the rooms
Zone night was on the gallery just out
side their drawing-room, looking in at the
long window, and Alicia was singing. All,
how delicious was that voicel The cherubim
and seraphim who continually do sing, If
I ever hear them, will not sing so sweetly.
/ wonder to whom that voice is singing nowl
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. I can see the scene
now--the rich and dimly-l lighted room full
of purple shadows, the air laden with the
scent of flowers; Alicia il her whi' 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 a 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 l knew no more what was doing
than that bronze Perseus in the corner would
If he moved. 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.
Sand that was the end of all things he
resumed. sThe fellow laughed at me for a
mad boy. Her father launched one of the
thunderbe It's, and forbade me the house.
What a stricken day and night of wretched-
nessl What week of hopelessness, of anni-
hilationl But perhaps Alicia felt otherwise.
Why should not discovera Why should /
suppose she had any other sympathy with
that creature than the sympathy of the star
and the worm9 And if my glad hope peradven-
ture were true, whythen we could fly from
these places that should know us no more;
the world was before us, heavens gates were
open to u.s. And wrote, my hand trembling
at its sacrilegious daring, just dozen lines,
without address, without signature. She
would know what it meant And sent it
by the parsons boy. And I waited for her,
lying on the grass beneath the orchard trees,
In 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, kneeling and putting her arms about
me, rail- ing swift kisses on my face?-wild,
sweet kisses in that shadow; wild, passionate
whispers in that silencel And then great
pang smote me, and rose and went out with
her into the less dim darkness-and it was
Rosll:e.
'sShe never knew said Mr.. Fernalde, "she
does not know to-day that died that night
can't say how / 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
a trance of despair. Perhaps sunlight
brought some relief. The parson told
at the breakfast-table the news that Alicia
was betrothed to the army officer had seen
over the hedge. wrote q word, saying
was called away, and I was gone week OF
more. But in that blank must have some
thing to love me-to have an interest in.
Better Rosalia than the absolute negation Of
those days She thought nothing of my alb
senee after my return. She was as full Of
romance as a flower Of nectar. And, to sun
4 it up, if she was not the rose, she had livet