The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-11-15


recitatives of the Office. Absorbed as he was
| now In hearkening to the music lesson amongst
| the white dog-roses, he started violently
shadow fell across the threshold and a voice
called to him, Good evening. Don Gesualdow
He looked up and saw a woman whom he knew
well: a young woman scarcely indeed eighteen
| years old, very handsome, with face full Of
warmth, and color, and fire. and tenderness,
| great flashing eyes which could at times be as
| soft as dogs. and beautiful rudy mouth
with teeth as white dogs are also. She
by name Generosa Fe; she was the wife of Tasso
Tassilo the miller. In Marca most of the
woman by toll and sun were as black as berries
by the time they were twenty, and looked old
almost before they were young, with rough hair,
and loose FORMS and wrinkled SKINS and children
dragging at their breast all the year through.
Gensrosa was not like them; she did little work;
she had the form of goddess; she took care
OF her beauty and she had DO
children, though she had married at fifteen.
She was friends with Gesuado; they had both
come from the Bocca dArno. and it was a link
or common memory and mutual attachment
They liked to recall how they had each run
through the tall canes and cactus, and waded in
the surf, and slept in the hot sand, and hidden
themselves for fright when the Kings camels
had come towards them, throwing their huge
msshapen shadows over the seas of Towering
reeds and rushes.
he remembered her small child, jumping
about on the sand and laughing at him. youth,
when he was going to college to study for en-
do" she had cried. IA fine priest he will make
for us all to confess toll" And she had screamed
with mrth her handsome little face ripping all
over with eayety like the waves of the sea with
the sunshine.
He had remembered her and had been glad
when Tasso Tassilo, the miller, had gone sixty
miles away for a wife. and had brought her from
Bocca d Arno to live at the mill on the small
river which was the sole water which ran
through the village of Marca.
IaSSO IaSSllO Going on buSlueSSOnco to the sea-
coast, had CHANGED to see that handsome face of
hers. and had wooed and won her without great
dlfhcuty, for her people were poor folk, living
by cartlng sand, and she herself was tired of her
bare legs and face her robust hunger, which
made her glad to eat the fruit off the cactus
plants and her great beauty, which nobody ever
saw except the sea gulls and carters and fishers
ana cane-cutters, who were all as poor as she
was herself
Tasso Tasso, in his own person, she hated
an ugly, dry, elderly man, with his soul wrapped
up In his flour bags and his money-bags; but he
adored her, and let her spend as she chose on
ner attire and her ornaments; and the mill house
was pleasant place enough with its walls
painted on the outside in Temporal, and the will
lows dropping over its caves. and the Young men
and the mules lettering about on the Landslide
OF 1t, and the peasants coming up with to
De ground whenever there had been rain in sum-
mer, and so water enough in the river bed to
turn the mill wheels In drought the stream
was low and its stones dry, and no work could
be done by the grindstones There was then
only water enough for the ducks to paddle in
and the pretty teal to float in, which they would
always do at sunrise unless the miller let fly
charge of small shot amongst them from the
windows under the roof
Good evening. Don Gesualdo" said the mil
lers wife now, in the midst of the nightngale's
song and the orange glow from the sunset.
Gesuado rose with smile He was always
glad to see her, she had something about her for
HIM OF boyhood, of home, of the sea, and of the
careless days before he became seminarst he
ana not positively regret that he had entered the
priesthood, but he remembered the earlier life
wlstfully, and with wonder that he could ever
have been that light hearted lad who had run
through the canebrakes to plunge into the
rolling waters. with all the wide gay sunlit world
OF sea- and sky, and river. and shore before him,
behind him and above him.
What is wrong, Generosa?" ne asked her,
seeing as he looked up, that her handsome FACE
was clouded. Her days were not often TRANQUIL:
her husband was jealous, and she gave him
cause tor jealousy; the mill a favorite resort
OF all young men for thirty miles around, and
unless Tasso Tassilo had ceased to grind corn he
could not have shut his doors to them.
ut is the old story, Don Gesualdo" she an
swered, leaning against the church porch. "You
know what Tasso is, and what dogs life he
leads me-"
You are not always prudent my daughter"
said Gesualdo with faint smile.
WHO could be always prudent at my years?"
said the millers young wife. "Tasso is brute
and fool, too. One day he will drive me out of
myself tell him So"
THAT is not the way to make him better"
said Gesualdo. II am sorry you do not see it,
The man loves you. and he feels he is old, and
he knows that you do not care; there is always
like thorn in his flesh; he feels you do not
care"
How should he suppose that care?' said
Generosa, passionately. II hated him ALWAYS:
he is as old as my father; he expects me to be
shut up like nun; if he had his own way
should never stir out of the house, does one
marry for that2"
lone should marry to do ones duty" said
Gesuado timidly, for he felt the feebleness of
his cOunsels and arguments against the force and
the warmth and the self will of a woman con
sclous of her beauty and her power and her low
ers and moved oy all the instincts of vanity
and passion
1--WE had a terrible scene an hour ago." said
Generosa, passing over what she did lot choose
to answer. ut cost me much not to put knife
into him. 1t was about Falko There was moth
ing lew, but he thought there was. I fear he
will do Falko mischief one day; he threatened it:
it is not the first time"
THAT is very grave" said Gesuado, growing
paler as he heard my daughter you are more
in error than Tassilo After all. he has his
rights. Why do you not send the young man
away2 He would obey you"
He would obey me in anything else, not in
that" said the woman, with little conscious
smile of one who knows her own power. HE
would not go away Indeed why should he 60
awayl de has his employment here Whv
should he 60 away because Tasso is Jealous
foo2'
lis he such fool?" said Gesualdo. and he
raised lis eyes suddenly and looked straight into
hers. Generosa colored through her warm, pale
less skin. She was silent.
1T has not gone as far as you think" she
muttered, after pause.
But will not be accused for nothing" she
added; "Tasso shall have what he thinks he has
had. Why would he marry me9 He knew hated
him. We were all very poor down there by
Bocca dArno. but we were gay and happy. Why
did he take me away2"
The tears started to her eyes and rolled down
her hot cheeks 1t was the hundredth time that
she had told her sorrows to Gesualdo, in the con-
fessional and out of it; it was an old story. of
which she never tired of the telling. Her own
people were far away by the seashore and she
had no friends in Marca for she was thought
.fareipner heinz Of hat d. =