, 1891-10-24
ABSOLUTELY PURE

life are sometimes very much in the
way. I thought it wiser, for your sake
to send some one to find out how tht
land lay"
"For my sake? For yours, 1 Think
They both laughed again.
How did you come to find me out?'
he asked. "You had accepted the Count
de Lisle so long that the last thing l ex.
pected was an inquiry for me-"
There is something mysterious about
that" replied Olympia, turning grave.
when that strange man of yours
Garcia-has put me into the magnetic
sleep, which is not a sleep at all, but a
deeper waking, that makes ordinary
waking seem sleep in comparison-in
that state, whatever it is, 1 can see my
OWL thoughts, just as one sees things
with ones bodily eyes. And l see things
that have happened to me, not as they
seemed to me at the time, but as they
really were. So / began to have i'm.
pressions of you, and at first / could not
understand them, for there was no rea-
son that l knew of why you should ap-
pear to me. But at last l noticed that
the meetings between us lin my ~visions)
were the times of my meeting the Count
de Lisle, n from that / was not long
in solving the puzzle. When the count
came this afternoon 1 was so angry with
him for having deceived me that l was
almost ready to let him go off and take
you with him! If you had not looked
through his eyes at the last moment,
and so given a new turn to things, you
would have been nicely p~unished-and /
should ave diedi"
This terrible picture called for conso-
lation on both sides, and the two lovers
administered it to zach other. They
were sitting in the embrasure of the
window, a deep, well cushioned divan,
protected from the room by the piano
and a pot of ferns, while the light of the
western sky, now golden with the set.
ting sun, came softly through the semi
transparent silken window shades. They
had put n cushion up on the window
sill, and both their heads were upon it;
Keppels arm was round Olympia's
waist, and the hand of that arm held in
it her hand. By turning his face only a
little Keppefs lips would come in con-
tact with u white and alluring region
just beneath Olympia's ear; but if she
happened to be turning toward him at
the same time, as might easily happen
in conversation, it was no longer the
place under her ear, but her mouth
that advanced into the proximity with
Keppers. This arrangement was con-
venient enough, one would think, to
satisfy even two lovers; but they had
improved even upon this by a system of
signals, which could be felt, but o seen.
AUhanauar Ka,,1 .r,.t.I n1.-.-.. L..
turn her face toward him he pressed the
hand that has already been mentioned
as held in his, and he did this so fire.
quently that it might have been regard
ed as a reflection upon Olympia's profile,
only her profile was too ravishingly
beautiful to be liable to reflection ex-
cept in a mirror. R~avishing though it
was, however, the full face was not
thereby prevented from being more
lovely still; not because it more nearly
approached classical perfection, but be-
u it carried with it the glance of her
dark, deep gazing eyes, and the full
curve of her mouth, and the faint fra
GRANGE of her breath. Either way, it
was a choice of felicities for Keppel. who
could not have been better off unless he
had had both the full face and the profile
at the anne time; and a casuist might
have called ever that in question.
But" said Keppel, after a while, "do
you remember everything that happens
to you while you are in the t%rance?"
Nothing that my body does" she
said, but l remember what my mind
does and sees. 1 see other minds, though
l don't always know whom they belong
to. Some are beautiful, like lovely land
scapes; some are dreary and barren;
some are all darkness and horror. l saw
such a one the other night-the same
night that l discovered that you and the
Count de Lisle were the same person.
There was a hidden place in it, like a
cave, with branches and thistles grow
ing before the mouth of it, and ugly
birds Tapping in and out. l knew that
there was n dead body in that cave, and
l was afraid that l should have to go il
and pull it out, but Just as l was at the
entrance it all faded away and 1 seemed
to fall through a deep space, where
everything was still and dim. When it
ended l was in my bed here at home"
1--WE will have no more of this" said
he. at is not right that you should be
hiHuo aDle W SuCu experiences. anu II
there even were need for it, it is passed
now. know all l require to know, and
now that we have met, l don't care for
anything else-not even to punish the
guilty"
Eyes, love makes up for everything,
doesn't itP' returned she, "but the guilty
punish themselves. All the vengeance
in the world could not bring us nearer
together"
There is only one thing that makes
me wish that justice might be DONE"
said Keppel, after a pause. Il have al
ways wished that the world should know
that / was innocent. Now that l am no
longer disguised from you, l wish not to
be disguised at all. And l doubt if /
can maintain my mask as easily as l
have done hitherto. l shall continually
be speaking in my old voice, and acting
in my old way. 1t has all come back to
ne SC strongly that / no longer see my
self or think of myself as the Count de
Lisle."
I'VE will not live here, said Olympia.
1--WE could go to New Zealand or Peru
or Asia, where no one knows us or can
reach ms Won are nv country the