Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1891-07-18

spoke to her, and when she gave an Or
der or asked question they eitheS re-
piled by signs or made no reply at all.
Whether they were actually dumb or
whether their stern master had forbid
den them to hold any communication
with her, she never, from first to last,
heard one of them utter single word.
Amid this mute train of specters one
might have thought that even the COM
panionship of her mysterious and terri
BILE husband-who atleast wore human
face and spoke with human voice.
would be kind of relief to her. But
the instructive terror which had always
underlain her girlish admiration of
Keretsenyi had now filed her mind so
completely as to leave no space for any
other feeling. She could not forget how.
when they stood together before the
altar, the consecrated tapers that burned
on it suddenly went out. Though not a
breath of air was stirring), and how her
old nurse had solemnly declared that a
glance from the fiery eyes of the terrible
bridegroom had made these weaker
flames tremble and expire. Nor had she
forgotten how Keretsenyi, when excited
by an argument with one of her fathers
military guests, had darted at his adver-
sary look beneath which Col. De Malst
"a strong and courageous man in the
prime of hfe--seemed to shrink and
wither like paper shriveling in the fire.
What could he be. this man to whom
she had bound herself forever This
man with the beauty of god and the
glance of demon, accomplished as
hero of romance, yet savage as wolf of
the forest That some fearful tragedy
lay behind the impenetrable mystery
that wrapped him like pail she felt
only too sure, and this suspicion was
vaguely but terribly confirmed on the
very day after their arrival at Janosz
castle.
The two earlier meals having been
taken in their own room, the evening re-
past was the princess first introduction
to the great dining hall, which, having
been built to hold scores of armed men,
looked indescribably dreary and desolate
when tenanted only by their two selves;
for the silent, spectral retainers, who
came and went like shadows in their
black, funereal dress, only intensified
the crushing sense of loneliness instead
of relieving it. The brides eyes wan
dered with secret terror over the huge
bare walls, the massive pillars festooned
with torn and dusty banners, the vault
ed roof with its mighty cross beams of
solid oak, the pine torches that famed
and cracked in their iron stands over
head, and the vast antique fireplace,
with its fantastic carvings, till her timid
gaze rested at length upon another OBJ
ject more strange and startling than all.
Just behind her husbands tall oaken
chair stood life size wax figure (or what
appeared to be such) holding small sill
yer lamp in its outstretched hand 1t
represented young man OF marvellous
beauty picturesquely set off by the
snowy uniform of Honved hussar; but
the face, instead of wearing the fixed,
unmeaning stare common to such fig
ures, was writhed and distorted as if by
q spasm of mortal agony, which looked
SO horribly real in the fitful glare of the
torchlight that Madeleine fairly started.
She was just about to ask some question
respecting this weird ornament, when
Keretsenyi, catching her inquiring
glance, replied to it with a smile more
fierce and cruel and terrible than his
blackest frown, which froze the half
formed words on her lips.
So far as she herself was concerned,
however, the first few weeks gave Made
leine no valid reason for her unconquer-
able terror of her husband. To her he
was always attentive and affectionate,
though his affection resembled rather
the watchful care of kind guardian
than the passionate tenderness of bride
groom in his honeymoon. He did his
utmost In various ways to make the
grim isolation of this strange life more
endurable to her. Horses of that match
less Hungarian breed which he had hith-
erto known only through books of travel
were always at her disposal, and her
morning gallops over the hills by her
husbands side, with the sun shining in
q cloudless sky and the fragrance of the
pine woods filling the whole air, were
almost the only brightspots in her dreary
existence.
Keretsenyi, too, seemed to feel their
influence as well as herself. and to
shake off for moment ON such occa-
sions the mysterious gloom which at all
other times weighed him down like
nightmare. AS his horse hoofs ratified
along the steep rocky ledge paths and
the mountain breeze whistled through
his long hair he seemed almost happy,
but the moment they re-entered the dark
walls of the grim old castle the gloomy
spell was upon him once more and upon
his bride likewise.
When they were together in the even
ing Keretsenyi would often tell her ex-
citing stories of the strange people and
wonderful sights that he had seen in his
travels. which appeared to have extend
ed over every part of the earth, and
which he described with such startling
power and vividness that Madeleine al
most forgot her terror of him in the in
terest with which she listened. But
then all at once he would stop short. as
II. i. L L.