Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1894-12-14
HAPPIN ESS.
BY GUY DE MAUPAssANr.


left the sky all rosy with his passing,
as if rubbed with dust of gold; and the
Mediterranean, without one wrinkle,
without one quivcr-smooth and shin
ing under the dying light an
immeasurable sheet Of polished metal.
Far away to the right the denticu-
lated mountains outlined their dark
profile against the paling purple of the
sunset.
They were talking about love dis
things that had been told and retold
thousand times before. The sweet
melancholy Of the twilight lent lam
guor to their words filled their hearts
with vague emotion; and the old word.
Glove necessarily repeated, some
times by the deep voice of a man.,
sometimes in the lighter timbre of
woman's speech seemed to fill all the
little room to fit through it like
bird-to haunt it like a ghost.
Was it possible to love on for several
years?
YES" answered some.
NO declared others.
Then distinctions were made and
demarcations were established, and ex-
amples were gnoted and all, men and
womcn-moved by suddenly awakened
and touching souvenirs, which were
ever rising to their lips, but which they
could not utter seemed full of excite
ment, and talked, with deep emotion
and an ardent interest, of that com
monplace but all-ruling thing the ten
der and mysterious accord of two hui
man beings.
But, all at once, somebody, looking
far away, cried out:
..0h! look over there, What is
thatP''
From out the sea, at the very verge
of the horizon, lowered up a gray
shape, enormous and dim.
All the women had risen up, and
were looking, without understanding
it, al that extraordinary thing they had
never seen before.
Some one said
.sThat is Corsica, You can see it
like that just about two or three times
year-in certain exceptional condi-
tons of the atmosphere when the air
is perfectly limpid and does not con-
tain those vapory msts which veil DIS
tances"
The mountain crests could be con-
f,,c hon
could even distinguish the snow upon
the SUBMITS, and everybody felt sur
prised, affected, almost frightened by
that sudden apparition of Il worldly
that phantom which had arisen from
the sea- Perhaps visions like these
had been seen by those men who, like
Columbus, first sailed away into the
unknown seas.
Then an old gentleman, who had
not said word the whole evening, OBJ
served:
Listen! j used to know in that
very island you now perceive before
you-which seems to have arisen into
sight in order to answer our questions
itself. and has called up to me very
singular "reminiscences used to know
in that very island one remarkable ex-
ample of constant love-of unspeakable
happy love.
''Let me tell it to you. I"
Five years ago made a trip to Cor
sica. That wild island is more I'M
known and, after Il fashion. further
away from us than America, although
it may be seen from the French coast
sometimes as it is seen to-day.
Imagine a world still chaotic-a
tempest of mountains separated by mar
row ravines where torrents roll-never
a plain, but enormous pillows of gran
lite, giant undulations Of earth covered
with thcket growths or with lofty for
csts of chestnut and pine. 1t is a vir-
gin soil uncultivated, desola1e-al-
though you sometimee see a village
looking like q heap of loose rocks at the
summit of hill. No agriculture, no
industry, no art You never find such
4 thing as q piece of carved wood, bit
of cut stone-thc least souvenir of an
ttSlIdl tdSlt, cItUcl iliil VI iClillGti, lol
the graceful or the beautiful. Indeed,
this is the very fact which most inn
presses one in that superb and rugged
country, the hereditary ind ference for
that research after attractive form,
which we call art
Italy-where every palace, full of
masterpieces, is a masterpiece itself
where marble, wood, bronze. iron, all
metals and tall stones, attest the genius
OF man where the smallest antique
objects lying about the old houses re-
veal the divine seeking after grace
Italy is for us all the holy fatherland
which we love because it shows and
proves to us the effort, the grandeur,
the power and the triumph of creative
intelligence.
And face to face with her stands Cor
sica just as in the earliest ages of the
world. The man lives there in his
clumsy dwelling careless of every
thing which beers no relation TO his ex-
istence or to his family quarlels. And
he has retained all the defects and all
4 merits of unciyiized races--violent,
,4ntlictive, sangunary without COM