The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-08-19

scarce clothed BY yerdurc, while the
giant ~honeysucklc climbing on the house
wall exhaled delicious, sugared breaths,
and seemed to cause to hover through
the warm, clear night a %pcrfunaed soul.
He began to breathe deep, drinking
the air as d~runkards drink their wine,
and he walked slowly, being ravished,
astoundcd and almost oblivious of his
niece.
AS soon as he came into the open coun-
try he stopped to contemplate the whole
plain, SO inundated by this oaressing
radiance, so drowned in the tender and
languishing charm Of the serene nights.
At every instant the frogs threw into
space their short metallic notes, and the
distant nightingales mingled with the
seduction of the moonlight that fitful
music of theirs which brings no thoughts
but dreams, that light and vibrant melody
of theirs which is composed Of kisses.
The able continued his course, his
courage failing, he knew not why. He
felt, as it were, ~enfeebled, and suddenly
exhausted; he had a great desire to sit
down, to pause here, to praise God in all
his works.
Down there, following the bends Of
the little river, wound a great line of
poplars. On and about the banks,
wrapping all the tortuous w~atercourse
with a kind of light, transparent
wadding, hung suspended a fine mist, a
white vapor which the moen rays crossed
and silvered, and caused to CLEAN.
The priest paused, yet again penetrat-
ed to the bottom of his soul by a strong
and growing emotion.
And a doubt, a vague uneasiness,
seized on him; he perceived that one Of
those questions which he sometimes put
to himself was now being born.
Why had God done this? Since the
night is destined for sleep, for uncon-
seriousness, for repose, for f~orgetfulness
of everything, why, then, make it more
charming than the day, sweeter than
the dawns and the sunsets? And this
slow seductive star, more poetical than
the sun, and SO discreet that it seems de-
signed to light up things too delicate,
too mysterious. for the great luminary
why was it come to brighten all the
shades?
Why did not the cleverest Of all song
sters go to rest like the others? And
why did he set himself to singing in the
vaguely troubling dark?
Why this half veil ever the worldi
Why these auiverings of the heart, this
emotion Of the soul, this languor of the
body?
Why this display of seductions which
mankind never sees, being asleep in bed
For whom was intended this sublime
spectacle, this food of poetry poured
from heaven to earth?
And the able did not understand al
all.
But now, see, down there along the
edge of the field appeared two shadows
walking side by side under the arched
roof of the trees all soaked in glittering
mist.
The man was the taller and had hi
arm about his mistress neck, and from
time to time he kissed her on the fore
head, They animated suddenly the life
less landscape which enveloped then
like a divine frame made expressly fol
this. They seemed, these two, like one
being, the being for whom was destined
this calm and silent hight; and they
came up toward the priest like a living
answer, the answer youchsafed by hi
master to his question.
He stood stock still. quite oyerwhelm
ed and with a beating heart. And b
thought to see here some Bible story
like the loves of Ruth and Boaz, the ae
complishment of the will of the Lord il
one of those great seem talked Of in thu
holy books.
Through his head began to hum tn
versicles of the Song of Songs, the ar
dent cries, the calls of the body, all tn,
passionate poetry of that poem which
burns with tenderness and love.
And he said to himself, "God perhap:
has made such nights as this to cloth
with the ideal the loves Of men"
He withdrew before this couple, whc
went ever arm in arm. For all that i
was really his niece; but now he aske(
himself if he was not about to disobe,
God. And does not God indeed permi
love, since he surrounds it visibly witt
splendor such as this?
And he fed in amaze, almost ashamed
as if he had penetrated into a tempt
where he had not the right to go<