The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-11-22


berry trees The young man did not greatly
venerate the church himself, though he showed
himself at mass and sent flowers for the feast
days because it was the custom to do SO. He
was like most young Italians who have had
smattering of education, very Indifferent on such
matters, and inclined to ridicule. He left them
for women and old men. But there was some
thing about his visitant which touched him;
simplicity, an unworldliness, sincerity which
moved his respect; and he knew in his secret
heart that the Parocco. as he called him, was
right enough in everything that he had said.
Gesualdo himself went on his solitary way,
his buckled shoes dragging YEARLY over the
dusty grass Of the wayside. He had done no
good, and he did not see what good he could do.
He felt helpless before the force and speed of an
unknown and guilty passion, as he once felt be
fore forest fire which he had seen in the Marche.
All his church books gave him homilies enough
on the sins of the flesh and the temptings of the
devil but none of these helped him before the
facts of his lawless and goddess love, which
seemed to pass high above his head like whirl-
wind. He went on slowly and duly along the
edge of the river bed; sense of something which
ne had always missed, which he would miss
eternally, was with him.
: It was now quite feght Gesualdo liked to
walk late at night. All things were so peaceful,
or at the least seemed so. You did not see the
gashes in the Topped trees, the scars in the
burned hillside. the wounds in the mules loins,
the blood-shot eyes of the working OK, the goi-
tered throat of the child rolling in the dust
Night, kindly friend of dreams, cast her soft
oil do he 6uc
as si!vered highway to a throne for God.
He went now through the balmy air. the
rustling canes, the low-hanging boughs of the
> fruit-laden peach-trees, and the sheaves of cut
corn leaning up against another under the
hives. He followed the course of the water, a
shallow thread at this season, glistening under
the moon in its bed of single and sand.
He passed the milhou perforce on
his homeward way, he saw the place of the weir
made visible even in the dark by the lanterns
which swung on cord stretched from one bank
to another to entce any such fish as there might
still be in the shadows The mill stood down
into the water, strong place built in olden
days, the great black wheels were perforce at
rest; the mules champed and chafed in their
stalls, inactive like the mill; for the next three
months there would be nothing to do unless a
storm came and brought freshet from the hills
The miller would have the more leisure to nurse
his wrongs, thought Gesualdo; and his heart was
troubled; he had never met with these woes of
the passions; they oppressed and alarmed him.
AS he passed the low mill windows, protected
from thieves by their iron gratings, he could see
the interior, lighted it was by the flames of oil
lamps, and through the open lattices the voices,
raised high in stormy quarrel, seemed to smite
the holy stiffness of the night like blow. The
figure of Generosa stood out against the light
which shone behind her; she was in paroXysm
of rage; her eyes flashed like the liehtnings of
the hills; and her beautiful arms were tossed
above her head in impassioned imprecation
Tasso Tassilo seemed for the moment TO crouch
beneath this rain Of fame-like words; his
face on which the light shone full, was deformed
with malignant and impotent fury, with covet
Gus and jealous desire; there was no need to
hear her words to know that she was taunting
him with her love for Falko Melegari Gesualdo
was weak man, and physically timid; but here
he hestated but one instant. He lifted the
latch of the house door and walked straightway
into the mill kitchen.
"ln the name of Christ be SILENT" he SAID to
them, and made the sign of the cross.
The torrent of words stopped on the lips of the
young woman; the miller scowled and shrank
from the light, and was mute.
us this how you keep your VOWS to heaven
and to each otherl' said Gesualdo
A flush of shame came over the face of the
woman; the man drew his hat further over his
eyes and went out of the kitchen silently The
yjctorv had aan STAR than thar -,op;top bod
expected. And yet of what use was it, he
thought; they were silent out of respect for him.
AS soon as the restraint of his presence should
be removed they would begin afresh. Unless he
could change their souls it was of little avail to
bride their lips for an hour
There was wild, chatting hatred on one side
and a tyrannical, covetous dissatisfied love on
the other out of such dscordant elements what
peace could comet
Gesuado shut the wooden shutters of the win
dows that others should not see, as he had seen,
into the interior; then he strove to pacfy his old
playmate, whose heaving breast and burning
cheeks and eyes which scorched up in fire their
own tears spoke of a tempest luled, not spent.
He spoke with all the wisdom with which study
and the counsels of the Fathers had supplied
him, and with what was sweeter and more like
to be effcacious, true and yearning wish to
save her from herself. She was altogether
wrong, and he strove to make her see the danger
and the error of her ways But ne strove in van
She had one of those temperaments, reckless,
vehement, pleasure-loving, ardent, and pro-
foundly selfish which sees only it's own immedi-
ate gain, its own immediate desires When he
tried to stir her conscience by speaking of the
danger she drew down On the head of the man
she protested to love, she almost laughed.
He would be poor creature" she said
proudly, IF all danger would not be dear to him
for mel"
Gesualdo looked her full in the eyes
"You know that this matter must end in the
death of one man or of the other Do you mean