Little Falls transcript., 1886-04-09
The bar Of dead gold had faded away;

Good night, Sald sylvia ls /
Royal fingered. This encounter to
him was like dream and had dream
like charm. 1t was the poetry, dimly
apprehended in hours of silent study,
that had taken sudden and tangible
shape. But the lights from the house
yonder showed through the gloom, and
he could tarry no longer.
| t'Good night" he said, regretfully.
You will come back?" asked Sylvia,
the softness of a woman's intonation in
her child's voice.
Yes s.-.|-
She made a parting gesture with her
hand, stepped back and abruptly seem
ed to vanish, an impalpable form, in the
shadows. 1t was as though her recent
presence had only been a vision Of his
overwrought imagination.
''Sylv,a!' he called aloud.
Yes" said her voice. and dimly
through the dusk he saw her white face
turned toward him.
'Good-night, he said again, reas-
| sured. ..., -
"Good-night," came the answer soft
| ly from the depths of the transparent
| darkness, and the last syllable seemed
to die away in tremulous vibrations into
the echoing distance.
Every night the twilight and the still
ness fell over the forest little earlier,
for the summer days were shortening
into autumn. And every night, a little
earlier than the last appointed hour,
Royal met Sylvia on the border of the
| woods.
Great friends had they grown. The
pedantic superiority, on his side, Of one
on the verge of early manhood, the
half-sayage elusiveness of the girl, only
served to keep life between them tan
talizing dissension that drew them, by
the very force of opposites, irresistibly
one toward the other
I All day Royal was about the fields
and the woods, but when evening came
2 pathway traced through the under
! growth by his feet brough him always
to the same spot
| AS he approached q curious emotion
would seize him, a mixture of Joy and
| of foreboding Ii she should not be
there!
But he always found her half con-
cealed by the tail grass, waiting for
him, silently turning her smiling face
toward the forest, and a sort of shame
would take possession of him for the
weakness of his fear And then he
would sit down beside her, and he
would talk while she listened.
For this curious girl foand few words
with which to clothe the thoughts il:
her soul. Hes eyes alone could speak
for her. And the dark velver-like soft
ness Of her g%Ie-that somehow made
HIM think Of the dusky depth of thu
forest itself, rs though she had been al
incarnation OF it--ingering on his one
night made him cXclaim:
"Do You know that love YOU
eyes?''
1t seemed TO him that the sun wa
setting later this particular evening, IL
reality, he had come earlier than eve
before. =
She smiled, though still withou
speaking.
Your eyes, and all your whole per
son. Royal went on, his eyes glidin!
over the delicate oval OF her face, he
round neck, her slim waistn .Yo'
are beautiful
at him.
| A sudden ardent desire rose, irresist
ible from Royals heart to his mouth
He bent toward the girl, but she, sta.x
ed by the xaew look in his eyes, spraps
to her feet.
you aEe not going yct?" he said
stretched idly upon the dry warn
} ground.
Come. ] have something to sho,
you"
He to<,ksup his gun and followed he,
He would shave followed her anyNsher
and everywhere.
After y minutes walk the girl sbor
ped at a rock which. abruptly, sank in
to a limpaa stream.
''See how beautiful it is,' she ssiE
p It was the first time ROYAL had eve
, been there. The cool freshness Of til
running water and the silvery HeGtlm'
of the owe:hanging willows seemed t
calm his sudden inexplicable emotion
Sylvia had thrown herself down upo
the rocsI, and he went and sat besid
her.
! A little stream of water sprang fnoy
= the stone and fell into q smaM basi
, which Nat,lre had followed for 1t bt
, tween the tree trunks. In the bottol
! ! Of this hollow We're two or three ,epe
springs which, bubbling up joyfu|lJ
;, went to feed g. dancing brook
The basin was not deep; ara
, would have stood in it no higher tina
! his knees but the ivy and other clins
, ing vines which covered the stones q
with q carpet transformed the spot il
J to a remote and sylvan seclusion
, '.Is it not ibeautifulp" repeated ky
:. via.
Snatching >some Of the ivy, in Ion
tendrils, from the rock, she wound
into two wreaths, one of which she Eai
:, upon her hair.
>, 'Look at me,'' she said, leanip
over the water.
! Royal, leaning over likewise, So
in the limpd smrror beneath thel
the girls smiling image. ".!
III .'How pretty You aren' he sait
i looking up that he might compa,
! the original withahe reflection.
/ ':No, no. she cried, pouting. "a
Il is only in the water that you nau.
= I,look at me-" .f-.4....f.es.. ..-.-
I'll And Royal woulG lean afresh ove
1.-THE crystal basin where her far
smiled back at him. 1,s. u. Z s.@ VI ~
4 AS soon as he raised his head til
S smle vanished, giving place to a Ii
B tle;air Of severity. so shat he was fsi
{ Ito turn again to the reflected vls1o
Iii m har beauty. E& &s n.
II Fascinated by hss fiasd gaze, a SUI;
$ den new emotion springing up in he
I lown heart, the girl, as though yielt
I'll ing tosthe imploring eyes down ther'
= lifted her hand SsoWly to her Liz
{ and threw q kiss to ;las nirrore