The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1891-10-16

"What is it?"
She turned on the piano stool on which
she had been sitting, and began to touch
the chords of the instrument, but SO
lightly that they responded, as it were,
in whisper of melody.
81 have something to d." she replied.
II have lost three years already. 1 can
not go OH so. l must devote myself to
that only"
"To what? Cannot l help your
"You don't know what you are ask
ing, Count de Lisle," she replied, glanc-
ing at him over her shoulder. You
know have told you-that Hove some
one. l wish to devote myself to him.
How can you help me in that?"
do You mean
Il mean Keppel Darke. There is no
one else that | can love"
"Ah-Keppel Darke! You are jest
ing, after all. A sentimental memory
is not love. This is not your true rea-
son. Why do you play with me?"
"Do you think Keppel Darke is dead?'
asked Olympia, harmonizing her tones
with the notes she was drawing from
the keys. 81 thought so once, but |
have begun to feel that he is alive.
know it in my heart. l see him in
dreams. He is often near me. l am
happy in this communion with him.
Whatever disturbs it 1 wish should
cease. And nothing disturbs it 50 much
as the Count de IiSle'
Olympia, you are not speaking seri-
ously; you are smiling"
why should not smile? am happy
What am l to you:"
You are everything to mel" he said
impetuously. Il love youw
is that the first time you have said
those words to woman?" she asked, fac
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: l gave him my promise, and it
shall never be broken. Would you break
yonr promise in my place, Count dc
Lisle? Or would you wish me to beyour
wife, knowing that loved him."
Indeed | would" he exclaimed.
She shook her head. The man I
would marry must be jealous of me-"
"Jealous of Il dead MANI"
"Wny do you say Keppel Darke is
dead? Have you killed him."
Il only say marry ne, and You may
love him all you willr'
Olympia rose and closed the piano.
The count also rose, and they confronted
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.
"Olympia!" be cried, in a voice too
weighted with emotion to be loud, ''you
know me-you have made Il fool of nc
but you love me!'
His arms closed about her, and q fire
of new life seemed to flame up in his
heart as he felt her soft pressure against
him. 1t went glowing through his veins,
and images OF ecstacy trembled in his
brain. Across what gulf of darkness
had he passed since last he had held her
thus. But peace and joy were only here.
They kissed each other with slow, deep
kiss, full of memories of pain that was
past, and of a present delight so exquisite
that they half feared to move their lips,
lest all should prove a dream and they
should awake. Such happiness comes in
moments only, yet when it comes the
soul recognizes it as its true estate-a
glimpse of the eternity III which it was
meant TO dwell forever. No dream is
half so fair as this brief reality, whose
intensity makes all the rest of life seem
dreamlike. In such moment lovers
live in heaven and are the peers of
angels.
"Oh, Keppel, why have you denied
yourself SO long," sighed Olympia at
last. Il should have known you at the
first if I could have brought myself to
believe that you would hide from me so"
"a disguise like mine is something
II1OIC CIlotIl a CIOtih IlltG GILL NC thrown
off and resumed at will" he replied.
From the first | have been as strange
to myself as l have appeared to others.
But for you I should never have found
my real self again. With that change
came 50 many changes I began to forget
that l 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 aged, with no youth or
kindly associations to humanize me. If
it had not been for you l should have
lived on so, and at last died so, if u man
without Il childhood and soul can be
said to die"
Eyes, you are yourself again now!'
Olympia. 81 have felt wall
between us all this while; l knew, in
some secret place of my heart, that you
were on the other side; but yet l did not
know it until the last day or
two. 1t was like the fairy tales. when
the prince is enchanted, and the princess
cannot recognize him; but at last the
spell is dissolved, and then they know
each other. | am not afraid of you now;
l can see through your beard, and your
hair, and your eyeglasses; you are only
keppel!'' and she gave little laugh and
draw down his face and kissed him.
Il feel rs if were nothing but a mere
child ~ said he 1o,1UbinCr too ct ,,-on+