The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1895-07-11

hower, and she opened her petals to re-
keive IL. But so secretly, always so secret
ly. Surely no one ever knew. Outside the
garden room in the dusk he came when all
was quiet. The jailer was away. He came
and came again, and he taught her to sec
the stars through the grating Of her cell,
and he told her of the rising of the moon.
And when he came 1t seemed TO her that
the nightingales were always singing.
| And now the jailer had gone away for
ever. The prison doors were open. She
stepped out into the starlight and the
moonlight. He lay dead in the room be-
| low her. She had not seen him dead. She
must go down into that silent place where
he lay in silence. She thought only of him.
Her small face was very white rs she
walked softly down the stairs. She saw
the merry notes dancing in the cloud OF
gold dust that the sun shed obliquely
through the loaded lattices of the hall, and
We turned her eyes away from them and
wished the sun would go down. With the
darkness, her strange constraint Of calm
might fade away She longed to feel more
natural. She passed through the door very
quietly and closed it behind her and locked
Il. He had been laid upon the wide couch
where she sat sometimes at eventide alone.
A white covering shrouded the great form
that her girls flesh had shuddered at, had
shrunk from so often. A ray of dying
light glinted where the head was. When
she drew back the covering, the ray shone
upon the gray, swollen face, into which
abe gazed for long while. The upper lip
was drawn back from the strong white
teeth. The mouth seemed to grin callous-
ly. She could fancy that the flown soul of
the dead man was laughing somewhere far
of, and that the body which, in life, had
so often obeyed the spirit with the weak
ness of custom still mechanically bowed 70
its will still revealed outwardly that which
was no longer prisoned within it. Yes, as
she looked at the mouth, she felt that the
dead mans soul was laughing.
She wondered why, and as she stood
wondering over the smooth shaved lawn,
past the sun dial and the leaping silver Of
the fountain, one came to the garden room
the man who understood her and had
striven to comfort her.
He did not know yet. He stole so softly
because he believed her husband was liv-
ing and not because he knew he was dead.
He stood at the window and whispered
her name, and, as he spoke, rush of joy
swelled through her heart. She left the
dead face uncovered and crossed to him.
"Is he gomez" he asked.
"He is gone, " she answered. "Kiss me-"
He Caught her passionately and pressed
his lips on hers.
"How love youp' he murmured.
"How love your
AS he said the words she turned round
FROM him and looked back into the slowly
darkening room.
A strange, horrible fancy seized her.
ha ha he
laugh.
"When will you give yourself to meY"
her lover whispered. "I have waited so
long Come, leave your prison house. Let
the jailer find the cell door open when IL
returns, the prisoner escaped"
She answered him:
"He will never return to find me-"
He held her closer against his heart.
"You ha' resolved to dare all, then;
to dare all for my sakeY''
A wild triumph shone in her white
girls face, wild triumph thrilled in her
sweet girls voice, as she replied:
"The prison house has crumbled to the
dust. The prisoner is free"
He strained her yielding body In his
arms.
"You mean that you will come, that
you will leave him to long for your You
will forsake himP love you'll"
But she shrank from him again and
trembled. She looked behind her into that
STILL shadowy room. The warm blood in
her young body seemed to freeze. Surely
she heard the dead man laugh again in the
gathering darknessl
"You will leave himH You will conner"
"There is no need, she said.
He kept her in his arms. His kisses
never left her face. He whispered:
"Why?"
"He is dead"
He loosened his arms from about her.
His mouth left hers.
She pointed backward into the room
which was now quite dark. "He is there,
lying dead. And you love me, and 1 am
free"
She lifted her face to his, and her eyes
were full Of happy tears. But he looked
ut her and muttered a curse between his
teeth. The love died from his face and left
1t hard, and wild with impotent disap-
pointment and despair.
Then he turned away. He turned away
and went out into the twilight, across the
smooth shaved lawn, past the sundial and
the leaping silver of the fountain and be-
yond--into the night.
He had been the dead mans lifelong
enemy. He had been close upon his re-
venge, and now the soul he hated had
passed beyond his power to hurt. He could
never wrong him through all the years
Why should he stayP
She sank down by the window without
q cry. She could not understand.
And in the silence and the close dark
ness the dead man laughed. Sketch.