The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-08-11
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THE WAGER OF THE
! MARQUIS OF MEROSAILLES.


not love is nothing to me, and the
only soul alive l love" There he
! stopped, but his eyes, fixed on Osra S
/ face, ended the sentence for him. And
she blushed and looked away. Then,
thinking the moment had come, he
burst suddenly into a flood of protest
atoms and self reproach, cursing him
self for a fool and a presumptuous
man, pitifully craving her pardon, and
declaring that he did not deserve her
kindness, and yet that he could not
live without it, and that anyhow, he
would be dead soon and thus cease to
trouble her But she, being thus pas
sionately assailed, showed such sweet
/ tenderness and compassion and pity
that NJ. de Merosailles came very near
TO forgetting that he was playing a
comedy, and threw himself into his
part with eagerness, rebuilding his
Vehemence and feeling now full half
what he said. For the princess was
to his eyes far more beautiful in her
softer mood. Yet he remembered his
wager, and at last, when she was
nearly in tears, and ready, as it seem
ed, to do anything to give him COM
tort, he cried desperately:
An, leave me, leave me! Leave me
to die alone! For PHYS sake, before
you go, and before L die give me your
forgiveness, and let your lips touch
u.
snail die in peace"
At that the princess blushed still
more, and her eyes were dim and
shone, for she was very deeply touch
ed at his misery, and at the sad pros
pect of the death of so gallant a gem
tleman for love. Thus she could
scarcely speak for emotion; and the
marquis, seeing her emotion, was him
self much affected; and she rose from
NJ h; l,
pered comfort to him. Then she leant
down and very lightly touched his
forehead with her lips; and he felt. her
eyelaShes, that were wet with her
tears, brush the skin of his forehead:
and then she sobbed and covered her
face with her hands. Indeed, his state
seemed to her most pitiful.
Thus Nj. de MerosailleS had won one
of his three kisses; yet, strange to tell.
there was no triumph in him, but he
now perceived the baseness of his de-
vice; and the sweet kindness of the
princess, working together with the
great beauty of her Softened manner.
so affected him that he thought no
more of his wager, and could not en-
dure to carry on his deception; ana
nothing would swerve his turn but to
confess to the princess what he had
done, and humble himself in the dust
before her and entreat her to pardon
him and let him find forgiveness.
Therefore, impelled by these feelings,
after he had lain still a few moments
listening to the princess weeping, he
leapt suddenly out of the bed, showing
himself fully clothed under the bed
gown, which he now eagerly tore off
and he rubbed all the white he could
from his cheeks, and then he fell on
his knees before the princess, crying
to her that he had played the meanest
trick on her, and he was a scoundrel
and no gentleman, and yet that IN
less she fOrgave him, he should in very
truth die. Nay, he would not consent
to live unless he could win from her
pardon for his deceit. And in all this,
he was now most absolutely in earnest
wondering only how he had not been
as passiOnately enamored of her from
the first as he had feigned himself to
be. For man in love can never con-
ceive himself out of it, nor he that
is out of it in it; for if he can, he is
half way to the one or the other, how
ever little he may know it.
At first the princess sat as though
she were turned to stone; but when
he had finished his confession and she
understood the trick that had been
played upon her, and how not only her
kiss but also her tears had been won
from her by fraud, and when she
as she did, that the marquis
was playing another trick upon her,
and that there was no more truth nor
honesty in his present protestations
than in those which went before, she
fell into great shame and into a great
rage; and her eyes flashed like the
eyes of her father himself as she rose
to her feet and looked down on NJ. de
MerOsailles as he knelt imploring her
Now her face turned pale and red, and
she set her lips and she drew her gown
close round her, lest his touch should
3efile it $50 the unhappy gentleman
the gesture) and she dain-
tily picked her steps round him lest
by chance she should happen to come
in contact with so foul a thing; thus
she walked towards the door, and
having reached it she turned and said
to him: Your death may blot out the
less" and with her
head held high and her whole air full
Of scorn. she swept out of the room,