Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1894-12-14


narrow valley, which sloped down to
the sea u league away. The two steep
sides of the mountain, covered with
brush, loose rock and immense trees,
shut in this wofully dismal valley like
two dark walls.
Around the hut few vines were
growing; there was q little garden, and
some distance off were few large
chestnut trecs-just enough to live up
on, in short, but fortune in that pov-
erty stricken country.
The woman who received me was
old, austerc, and exceptionally neat.
The man, seated upon a straw chair,
rose to salute me, then sat down again,
without word His companion said
to me:
''You must excuse him; he is deaf
now; He is eigthy-two years old"
She spoke the French of France.
was surprised
l asked her:
You are not Corsican?"
que Ie'lieo'
No; we are from the Continent. But
then we have been living here for fifty
yeais'
A sensation of fear and pain came
over me at the mere thought of the
fifty years spent in that darksome nook
-so ieiii'.e NON 'lo e.''e' - ,en.
an aseo sntpieiu oai,ie 49, anu 81 s'''
uowh 20 'ne siiiSie oish "h'cn .ons'i''-
tea lhe oihiier % 'iie poor Aoihs
lii'ch soup u Pot1'oes' iaio '''iu ga =
pages.
J" heh .ne oiiei fepast was oNei
went 10 SIT ''t Ihe uoor' letting uepiess-
ed ny the IhelahcholY Oh the gloomy
landscape-and perhaps also by that
strange sense Oh distress "hicn some
times SEXES travellers on certain dismal
evenings, in certain desolate places.
1elt as II everything was ABOUT 10 emu
life and the universe itself. In such
moments one has sudden revelation
OF the holloWness OF lie, the Isolation
OF everybody, the nothlngness OF every
thlng-the black solitude OF the heart
that rocks itself TO sleep ana ever ue-
eelves itself with dreams that are only
broken by death.
The old woman soon joined me; and
tortured by that curiosity winch al
most shoulders somewhere III tiie niost
patent mind' asked me:
80 you are rom france?
"1es, ! am just on pleasure trip.
Perhaps you are from Paris.
NO, from Nancy
1t seemed to me that an extracrdn-
airy emotion passed over her. How |
saw it, or, rather, felt it, ! do not
know.
one repeated very Slowly:
80 you are IRON Nancy!
The man appeared at the door, with
his face impassiye as the faces OF deaf
men are.
She observed:
1T makes no difference; he can not
hear.
After few seconds she spoke again:
You know a great many people at
Nancyp"
"Why. yes nearly everybody"
1.-The Saint-Allaize familye'
Yes, very well indeed. They were
intimate friends of my father"
What is your name?"
l told her my name. She looked at
me fixedly, and then said in that low
voice which always accompanies rccol-
lection:
1es, yes, l remember perfectly
well. And the Brlsmares-what has
become OF them!
They are all dead.
IAN! ana the olrmohts-do you
know them?
yes. The last one is now gnner-
al.
linen, an qaiVerlng with elhot'Cn-
with anguish-Wlth l kiio" not WHAT
vague, powerful ana sacred 1eelihs-
| with Kho" now "hat aeslre 10 speak
TO ten eVefythihS' TO ave" I'LL 'nal sue
mao illiierlo iilooeii away II, 'ne seis
| pottom OF hef heart--to 'aiA Oh .nose
! whose mere name hao 50 assita'e'' ip'r'
she sad:
YES. HENRI oe oirnioh.' I hho" nun
| wen. ne IS my protlier'
Ana raised my eyes 70 her race,