Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1886-07-15
HAPPINESS.
BY GUY DE MAUPAssANT.

rs If rubbed with dust OF gold; and the
Mediterranean, without one wrinkle,
without one quiver-smooth and shin
ing under the dying light-seemed an
undesirable sheet of polished metal.
Far away to the right the denticu-
lated mountains outlined their dark
profile against the paling purple of the
sunset.
They were talking about love-dis-
cussing the old, old subject-telling
things that had been told and retold a
thousand times before. The sweet
melancholy of the twilight lent lam
guor to their words-filled their hearts
with vague emotion; and the old word,
Glove" necessarily repeated, some
times by the deep voice of a man,
sometimes in the lighter timbre of a
woman's speech-seemed to fill all the
little room-to fit through it like n
bird-to haunt it like ghost
Was it possible to love on for several
years?
YES answered some.
No" declared others.
Then distinctions were made and
demarcations were established, and ex-
amples were quoted; and all, men and
women-moved by suddenly awakened
and touching souvenirs, which were
ever rising to their lips, but which they
could not utter-seemcd full of excite
pent, and talked, with deep emotion
and an ardent interest, of that COM
monplace but all-ruling thing-the ten
der and mysterious accord of two hui
man beings.
But, all at once, somebody, looking
far away, cried out:
"Oh! look over there! What is
that?"
From out the sea, at the very verge
of the horizon, lowered up gray
shape, enormous and dim.
All the women had risen up, and
were looking, without understanding
it, at that extraordinary thing they had
never seen before.
Some one said:
That is Corsica. You can see it
like that just about two or three times
a year-in certain exceptional condi-
tons of the atmosphere, when the air
is perfectly limpid and does not con-
tain those vapory mists which veil dis
tances."
The mountain crests could be con-
fusedly discerned-some thought they
could even distinguish the snow upon
the SUBMITS, and everybody felt sur
prised, affected, almost frightened by
that sudden apparition of 4 worldly
that phantom which had arisen from
the sea. Perhaps visions like these
had been seen by those men who, like
Columbus, first sailed away into the
unknown seas.
Then an old gentleman, who had
not said n word the whole evening, OBJ.
served:
Listen. | used TO know in thai
very island you now perceive before
you-which seems TO have arisen into
sight in order to answer our question.
itself, and has called up to me yer,
singular "reminiscences used to know
in that very island one remarkable ex
ample of constant lovc-of unspeakabl,
happy love.
Let me tell it to YOU
Five years ago made trip to Cor
sica. That wild island is more un
known and, after fashion. furthe
away from us than America, although
it may be seen from the French coas
sometimes as it is seen to-day.
Imagine q world still chaotic:
tempest of mountains separated by mar
row ravineS where torrents roll-neve
a plain, but enormous pillows of gran
lite, giant undulations of earth covered
with thicket growths or with lofty for
ests of chestnut and pine. 1t is viz
gin soil--uncultivated, desolatc-al
though you sometimee see villag
looking like heap of loose rocks at tn
summit of hill. No agriculture, n
industry, no art. You never find sucI
a thing as piece of carved wood, a bi
of cut stone-the least souvenir of All
cestral taste. either naif or refined, TO
the graceful or the beautiful Indeed
this is the very fact which most in
presses one in that superb and rugge
country, the hereditary indifference fo
that research after attractive form
which we call art.
ltaly-where every palace, full {
masterpieces, is masterpiece itself
where marble, wood, bronze, iron, a
metals and tall stones, attest the geniu
of man-where the smallest antiqu
objects lying about the old houses r,
veal the dime seeking after grace
Italy is for us all the holy fatherlan
which we love because it shows an
proves to us the effort, the grandeu
the power and the triumph of creati,
intelligence.
anu AesSC W inSS Win utI slduuS 70
sica-just as in the earliest ages of Il
world. The man lives there in
clumsy dwelling-carelcss of ever
thing which bears no relation to his e
istence or to his family quarrels. Al
he has retained all the defects and 6
the merits of Ancivilized races-violen
vindictive, sanguinary without col
junction; but also hospitable, generor
devoted, simple, opening his door
every passer-by, and rendering his 10y
friendship in exchange for the lei
mark of sympathy.
We'll, l had been wandering oy
the magnificent island for about
mouth-with the sensation of findi
myself at the very end of the wor
No taverns, no public houses, no roa'
One has to follow the mule paths in
der to reach those little villages viii
cling to the TANKS of the mountain
which overlook tortuous abyss
whence you hear of evenings, contil