Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-01-04
CHAPTER ".

We reached Egypt in due time brown as
/ berries from sun and sand. She was in
splendid health and spirits and most eager
to go forward and get on with her greai
work. 1t was decided that we should sail
She was so eager to be gone that began to
fear the return of the old cast-off care to hel
face. Suddenly one night at Cairo. think
1t was only the third night after we got to
that city, she came hastily and excitedly
back to where sat alone on a little narrow
balcony trying to get breath of fresh air,
for it was hot and sultry night, and said
"Hushl You are not to seem to know me
herel You have never known mel You
are not to know where am, or where am
going! 1 60; that is all"
4 sprang to my feet. "Buf will 60 with
you; at least, as far as you will let me. "
She laid hand on my shoulder and bore
me back to my seat.
l had never seen her 80 excited before, and
yet she was not excited as other women be-
come excited. She was only intensified; a
little in haste; her voice little husky, that
| was about all
Leaning forward she said: "The Russian
spies are here. I am perhaps this moment q
prisoner. Alexander is assassinated."
started up once more, but she bore me
back again to my seat; not with her hand
this time but her soul.
81 must 60. You must forget that you
ever knew me-"
But l. good heavens, what am to do?"
She looked at me almost reproschfully, y,
and said slowly, emphaticallyI "What
will you do? Go build our city in the
desert, and lay for its corner stone the ser
mon on the Mount"
Aye, Madame" cried, 'I am a child
If you are not with me. I shall turn aside
and fall by the way. The work is heavy,
hard, impossible for me without you"
She stood tall and silently before me as I
burst into tears. but did not speak. Finally
l said: u am not a man. am not even
the smallest part of q man when you talk
thus"
"You will be man, and like man 70 on
with mans work; for mans sake"
And am to know you, see you no more2
Hard indeed, bitter indeed will life be to
bear. say again, what will dor"
Her perfect face and whole manner
changed, softened. She leaned over me
where I sat. Her right arm fell about my
neck and firmly fastened there. Her face
dropped forward: My lifted lips met hers;
met hers for the first time. For she and
had lived as the dead might live, if such a
thingNca be said, utterly unconscious of
sex. Ah, indeed, weighty work and mighty
thought had kept her holy and sacred. But
now my strong arms were about her. !
sprang up, put back her storm of hair, put
back her head, bent her supple body back
ward over the arm that held her, I bowed
myself abov- her heaving breast. held her
close and kissed her; kissed her and kissed
her fondly, wildly. fervidIy, passionately
till her face was hot as fame
She tore away, angered, thrusting me from
her as fire that snaps and crackles and
leaps through the topmost boughs of a forest
with 6erceness to destroy it. And then she
suddenly turned away, but swiftly 1 fol-
lowed. She turned about after few PAGES,
all calmness, and with that same stately
composure and power that had marked her
conduct from the first, she said:
"Go to the City of Mexico and work and
wait; 60 to the Hotel Iturbide there, and
wait and work. I threw out my two
hands.
"Princess. how long? How long shall I
wQGk and wait without your"
Her lifted brow darkeued. ] had said
too much-gone too far entirely with my
outstretched hands. 1 held my head and
my two hands humbly down now as she
hastily turned away. But back over her
shoulder she said coldly and bitterly:
"a thousand years, if need be. Wait and
work and work and wait thousand years,
if need be, till come"
And she was gone. Miriam. Judith.
Magdaline, all Israel indeed, all poetry and
all history sacred or profane, all nv past,
present and future seemed to go away with
her as I stood back there in the shadow that
night, not daring to take one step forward OF
daring to risk again the rebuke of her proud
and reproachful face.