Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1891-06-28

w ny cuOulu uot rii4ii'' "N- N-''fE'
What am / to your
"YOu are everything 10 me" he sald
impetuously. 81 love you!"
as that the first time you have said
those words to woman" she asked, lac
ing him.
The question embarrassed him, and
he hesitated. She laughed.
Il will not take you at your word,
she said. 'Keppel Darke loved no one
but me: ] gave him my promise, and 1t
shall never be broken. Would you
break your promise in my place, Count
de LSle? Or would you wish me TO be
your wife, knowing that | loved him.
Indeed l wouldr' ne exclaimed.
She shook her head. The man
would marry must be jealous OF me-"
jealous of dead MANI?
"Why do you say Keppel Darke Is
dead? Have you killed him?"
81 only say marry me, and You may
love HIM all you will"
Olympia rose aud closed the piano.
The count also rose, and they con-
fronted each other for moment.
IL will marry you" she said at length,
'when you bring Keppel Darke here
and he bids me do So"
He bent forward and looked in her
eyes. There must have been in them
some speaking light, revealing what
her woman's tongue refused to tell.
"Olympian he cried, in voice too
weighted with emotion to be loud, you
know me-you have made fool OF me
but you love me?"
His arms closed aoout her, and lire
OF new life seemed to fame up IN his
heart a. he felt her SOFT pressure against
him. Il went glu&ing through his
veins. and images Of ecSCacy Jremoled In
ais brain. Across what gulf o. dark
ness had he passed since last ne mad
held her thus. But peace aud JOY were
only here. They kissed each Other "!th
A slow, deep kiss, full Of memories ot
/ pain that was pass, and OF present de-
/ light so exquisite that they half feared
to move their lips, lest all should prove
dream and they should awake. Such
happiness comes In moments only, yet
wnen il comes the soul recognizes 1t as
its true estate-a glimpse OF the eter-
nifty in which it was meant 10 dwell for
ever. No dream is half so fair az this
brief reality, whose intensity makes all
the rest Of life seem dreamlike. In such
a moment lovers live in heaven and are
the peers of angels.
"Oh, Keppel, why have you denied
yourself so iong?" sighed Olympia at
last. II should have known you at the
first if / could have brought myself TO
l., lf Ia n
"a disguise like mine is something
more than cloak that can be thrown
off and resumed at will" he replied.
'.From the first have been as strange
10 myself as have appeared TO others.
But for you should never have found
my real self again. With that change
came so many changes | began to for
get that | had ever been Keppel Darke,
and all my youth and what belonged TO
it seemed never to have been; but was
as if born middle-Gged, with no youth
or kindly associations 10 humanize me.
If it had not been for you / should have
lived on so, and at last died SO, if man
without childhood and soul can be
said to die"
Eyes, you are yourself again now."
murmured Olympia. II have felta wall
between us all this while; | knew, in
some secret place of my heart, that you
were on the other side; but yet did not
outwardly know it until the last day or
two. 1t was like the fairy tales, when
the prince is enchanted, and the prin-
cess cannot recognize him; but at last
the spell is dissolved, and then they
know each other. / am not afraid of
you now; / can see through your beard,
and your hair, and your eyeglasses;
you are only Keppel!' and she gave a
little laugh and drew down his face and
kissed him.
81 feel as If l were nothing but a
mere child" said he, laughing, too. 81
want to do nothing but sit here with
YOU and love you, and talk to you and
hear YOU talk and be sillY-that is, really
wise. My heart feels so light! Does
yours?"
'My heart sings like bird-and lam
the song. And the song says: Il love
Keppel Darkel l am glad he is alive,
and that the Count de Lisle has van
ishedn"
81 hate that stiff, conventional phan-
tom, too. But he has his uses, and We
will make him be useful TO us. He IS
rich, and he is devoted to you,"
'Do you wish to give me up to him,
sir?"
"Ah! He wants to marry you, | am
told"
"And you will let him marry me if
only | promise to love you? But tell
me, KeppeI, why were you such fool,
dear? Why didn't you come TO me at
once? The next time you delay so /
sha.n't wait for your
How could | know that you would
want me? Dead people coming back TO
life are sometimes very much in the
way. thought it wiser, for your sake,
to send some one to find out how the
land lay"
"For my sake? For yours, think
They both laughed again.
"How did you come to find me out?'
he asked, "You had accepted the Count
de Lise so long that the last thing |
expected was an inquiry for me-"
There is something mysterious
about that" replied Olympia, turning
grave. "When that strange man Of
yours-Garcia-ha put me into the
magnetic sleep, which is not sleep at
all, but deeper waking. that makes or
binary waking seem sleep in COMPARE
son-in that state, whatever it is, | can
see my own thoughts, just as one sees
things with ones bodily eyes. And !
see things that have happened to me,