The Fort Worth gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-189?, 1891-04-09

is certainly original, though it lacks wit
There is least wit where there is most
love. Unorna. l take no account of the
| height OF nv folly when see the depth of
| my love. which has swallowed up myself
and all my life. In the last hour / have
| known its depth and breadth and strength,
| for / have seen what it can bear. And why
should ! complain of it! Have l not many
| times said thar I would die for You will
| ingly, and is it not dying for YOU to die for
| love of you2 To prove my faith it We're too
| easy death. When look into your face l
| know that there IS in me the heart that
made true Christian MARTYRS
| Unorna laughed.
Would you be 4 MARTYR" she asked.
Not for your fai:h--but for the faith
| once had in you-and for the love that no
martyrdom could kill. Aye-to prove that
love | would die hundred deaths-and TO
gain yours I would die the death eternal. :"
And you would have deserved it. Have
! you not deserved enough already, enough of
lnartyrdom for tracking NE to-day, following
me stealthily, like thief ana 4 spy, to find
| out my ends and my doings?''
| Il love you, Unorna."
And therefore you suspect me of I'M
| imaginable evil-and therefore YOU come
| out of YOUR hiding place and accuse me of
| things ! have neither done nor thought of
doing, building up falsehood upon lie. and
| lie upon falsehood in the attempt to ruin
| ship and who is my friend. You are foolish
10 throw yourself upon my mercy, Israel
| Kafka"
Foolish? Yes, and mad, too! And my
| madness is all YOU have left me-take tit
is yours. You cannot kill my love. Deny
my words, deny your deeds. Let all be
false in you-it is but one pain more and
! my heart is not broken vet. II will bear
another. Tell me that what | saw had no
reality-that you did not make him sleep
here, on this spot, before my eyes-that
you did not pour your love into mis- sleeping
ears, that you did not command. implore, en-
treat-and fail ! What is it all to me whether
you speak the truth or not! Tel me it is
not true that ! would die thousand mar
tyrdomS for your sake, as you are. and If
YOU were thousand times worse than YOU
are. Your wrong, your right, your truth,
your falsehood. YOU yourself. are swallowed
up in the love bear you | love you al
ways, and l vii! say it, and say it again
ah your eyes. love them, 100. Take me
into them, Observation-Disclosures in hate or
lOve-but in love-yes- love-CnOrna-
golden UnoIna."
With the cry on his lips-the name he had
given her ia other days-he made one mad
step forward, throwing out his arms as
though to clasp her to hin. But 1t was too
late. Even while he had been speaking.
her mysterious influence had Overpowered
him, Us he had known that it would, when
she so pleased
She caught his two hands in the air and
pressed him back and held him against the
tall slab. The whole pitileSSneSS of her
nature cleaned like n cold light in her
white face.
There was martyr of your race once
she said in cruel tones. His name was
Simon Abeles. You talk of martyrdOm.
You shall know what it meanS-though it
be too good for YOU. who SPY upon the
woman whom you say you love-
The hectic flush of passion sank from
Israel kafkas check. Rigid. with out
stretched arms and bent head, he stood
against the ancient gravestone. Above him.
as though raised to heaven in silent suppl
cation. were the sculptured hands that
marked the last resting place of a Kohn
- You shall know now said Unorna
Z" You shall suffer indeed"
CHAPTER Nv.
UnoTna's voice sank from the tone of
anger TO a lower pitch. She spoke quietly
and very distinctly as though to impress
every word upon the ear of the man who
was in her power The Wanderer listened
too, scarcely comprehending at first, but
slowly yielding TO the influence she exerted
until the vision rose before him also with
all its moving scenes, in all its truth and in
all It's horror AS in d dream, the desolate
battle-ground was peopled with forms and
faces of other DAYS: the grayeStones rose
gloomy houses and remote courts and
dim streets and venerable churches, the
dry and twisted trees shrank down. and
broadenci and swung their branches as
arms, and drew up their roots out of the
ground as feet under them, and moved
hither and thither, and the knots and bosses
and gnarls upon them became faces, dark,
eagle-like and keen, and the creaking and
cracking of the boughs and twigs under the
piercing blast that swept by, became articu- |
late and like the voices of old men talking |
angrily together There were sudden |
changes from day to night, and from night |
TO day. In dark chambers crouching men |
feeble rays OF q Pickering lamp. In the |
the uncertain twilight of winter,
nuffied figures lurked at the corners |
OF streets. waiting for some one to pass, |
who must not escape them. AS the Wan |
dercr gazed and listened. Israel Kafka was
transformed. He no longer stood with out
stretched arms. his back against Il crum-
bling Slab. his tilmy eyes fixed on Unorma'S
face. He grew younger: his features were |
those of boy of scarcely thirteen years.
pale. earnest, and frightened by a soft
light, which followed him hither and
thither and he was not alone. He moved
with others through the old familiar streets
of the city, clothed in fashion of other
times, speaking in accents comprehensive
but unlike the speech of to-day, acting in Il
dim and far-of life that had once been.
The Wauderer looked. and, as in dreams.
he knew that what he saw was unreal,
he knew that the changing walls and
streets and houses and public places We're
built up of gravestones, which, in truth,
were deeply planted in the ground, i'm
movable and incapable of spontaneous mo-
ton; he knew that the crowds of men and
women were not human beings. but gnarled
and twisted trees rooted in the earth, and
that the hum of voices which reached his
ears was but the sound OF dried branches
bending in the wind; he knew that Israel
Kafka was not the pale-faced boy who
glided from place 10 place, followed every
where by a soft radiance; he knew that
Unorna was the source and origin Of the
vision, and that the mingling speeches of
the actors. now shrill in angry alteration.
now kissing in low. fierce whisper. were
really formed upon Unorna's lips and made
audible through her tones, as the chorus of |
indistinct speech proceeded from the sway |
ing trees. 1t was to him an illusion of !
which he understood the key and pene- |
trated the secret, but it was marvellous in |
its way, and he was held enthralled from |
the first moment when it began to unfold it.
self. He understood, further, that Israel |
lAafka was in state different from this;
that he was suffering all the reality of |
mother life, which to the Wanderer was but |