The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-01-30

, OF the marvels of the South, built by An
/ gelO FiOri, with ceilings by Domenichino,
and frescoes by SimOne Papa. It's facade
/ dominated the sea: to its rear stretched
/ large and beautiful gardens. 1t was here
! that Guilderoy had first succumbed 10
+ her charms IN one soft, gay, Neapolitan
winter, which ever remained on the MEM
ories OF both Of them as the one perfect
/ page in their book of life.
/ 1t was years ago now; but every detail
/ and hour of il seemed 70 come back to
/ him as on magic glass, as he saw the
/ long white majesty of the great house
! tower above its stairs and terraces, and
mole OF marble. Every delicious and en-
+ chanted moment passed there revived in
1 his remembrance; all that their intimacy
! had had OF storm, of dispute, of doubt, OF
! jealousy, of too arrogant dominion, had
I all faded from his mind as though they
/ had never been. His memories retained
( only the glow and glory OF its noontide
/ light. He utterly forgot the thunder
clouds which had often broken over the
golden beauty of those days OF love.
When at length he reused himself from
/ the memories with which he stood on the
I strip OF shore below and gazed at the mass
| OF sculpture towering above him, and
mounted the great stairway from the sea
stlu dchtu ol lllt VI itc EehtCo II
the Duchess SOria would receive him, ne
was met by an infiexible denial. Her ex-
cellency received no one except from TO
8 o'clock every Saturday afternoon, and
again on Monday evenings from 10. 1t was
then Tuesday.
"With the crowd never" he said to
himself and turned away, with teverish
impatience and an aching heart.
He passed the day wandering beside the
sea or in the streets.
At night he wrote to her; the first letter
he had addressed to her since that in
which he had announced his marriage.
His declarations were as ardent and as
comprehensive in IL as those OF ItbUAus
: to CertRtbe in the thirteenth carmen OF
the fourth book. He received no answer;
and he was as wretched as Cerintbe's
lover.
On the third day after he had sent it,
his heart beat breathlessly at sight of
large envelope with the two gold crowns
on it. directed in the handwriting which
he had once known so well, and which
had sent him letters which at one time he
had worn in his breast and which at an
other time he had held to lighted match
and burnt.
lie opened the envelope with intense
anxiety and suspense But il was only q
card printed in gold which announced
that the Duchess SOria might be visited In
''prima sera" on Monday evenings. There
was no written word with it; only his
name filling up the blank space left for
that purpose on the card.
''Can any woman forget so utterly >" he
thought in passion and pain, oblivious
that if she had learned the lesson OF for
getting, he had been the first to teach it
to her.
His pride told him to leave Naples at
once without seeing her; he felt that there
was neither dignity nor courage in remain
ing suppliant at the gates OF one who
once had been wholly his.
The remOnstrances. OF Aubrey haunted
him with persistent reproach, and for the
first time in his life he saw his own con-
duct in its true light. But the ascendancy
which Beatrice S0ria possessed over him
was stronger even than the impulses of
pride. He could not bring himself TO
leave the scene of their former JOYS, the
place where soonest if ever, her heart
would return TO him on the impulse of
memory.
Moreover, others who admired or adorod
her, others freer than he to prove his
homage, had followed her thither also,
and an intense jealousy of all that was
possible in her future held him. There,
as of old, in those smiling seas, the syrens
had held too reckless mortals in their
power, and so hers held him now upon
these shores. He remained as though he
were boy OF twenty, spending his hours
beneath the sea-walls OF her palace, and
trusting 10 some favOring hazard TO afford
him that unwitnessed interview with her
which he sought. He did not accept her
I III II
crowd at her receptions He felt that ne
could not trust himself to see her first
again before a throng, OF which many
would be strangers and all would be Odious
to him. Every day at sunset she drove, like
other great ladies of the city and every day
at sunset he was standing or riding near
when her great bronze gates unclosed.
She gave him a salutation and a smile,
/ but never checked her horses. He saw
or imagined that he saw, in the smile a
+ triumphant mockerv of himself. He was
/ mistaken: it was merely the slight smile
/ OF courtesy which any well-bred woman
! gives to an acquaintance.
There was no movement of society at
that time in the city. The great world of
/ Naples never bestirs itself until carnival
I comes. The populace were wild and
mirthful in the streets as usual, but none
I OF the great houses were opened except
hers. She had all the customs of a wider
world than that OF the NeapOltans, and
had never been bound by their observ-
ances.
The empty and fruitless davs succeeded
one another, and brought him nothing
that he wished. At last he remembered
that golden KEY which the classic lovers
of this soil recommend to those who would
see unclose door too cruelty shut against
/ them. All things are salable still in the
! land of Ovid and Tibullus, and the hon
esty of no guardian of the idres is more
proof now than then against bribe. He
saw, and looked at enviously, in the high
wall OF the garden, the iron grating OF the
I pOstern gate, by which he had used to
have the right OF entrance at his pleasure.
/ The same creeping plants hung over it as
7 in other years; the same blackbirds
/ plucked at the blackberries OF its flower
| ing ivy; the same great magnolia trees
! shrOuded 1t in deepest shade; the same
sound Of falling water came from the
/ fountains behind il. and the same cripple
| lay on the road fronting it, stretching out
| his brown and filthy hand for aims.
/ Nothing was changed except himself,
nothing gone except his privileges. He
/ even heard the very vo ce of the same dog
as, reused by the sound of his sfootsteps, it
ran barking along the wall within.
In time and with some difiiculty-fOr
! the dependents of the S0Tia palace valued