The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1896-01-30
IMPERIAL MILLIONS
By JULIAN HAWTHORNE.

tion.l
"Why must we part?" he demanded
"Give me reason. What has happened
to change you since saw you last?"
"Can you give me a reason why we
should not part?' she returned.
eyes, canr' said he, ga personal rea
son."
"Ah!" she said quickly, 81 have per.
sonal reason on the other side"
"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 sc
lightly that they responded, as it were
in a whisper~of melody.
81 have something to do" she replied
81 have lost three years already. can
not go on so. must devote myself to
that only"
''To what? Cannot help you?"
"You don't know what you are ask
ing, Count de Lisle," she replied, glanc
ing at him over her shoulder. "You
know-I have told you-that 1 love some
one. I wish to devote myself to him
How can you help me in that?"
"Do you mean
81 mean Keppel Darke. There is nc
one else that can love-"
"Ah-Keppel Darkel You are jest.
ing, after all. A sentiments 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, har1nonizing 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. 1 see him in
dreams. He is often near me. 1 am
happy in this communion with him.
Whatever disturbs it l wish should
cease. And nothing disturbs it so much
as the Count de Lisle.'
"Olympia, you are not speaking seri
ously; you are smiling"
"Why should not smile? am happy
What am to you?"
"You are everything to mer' he said
impetuously. 81 love you!"
sis 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; gave him my promise, and ii
shall never be broken. Would you break
your promise in my place, Count dc
Lisle? Or would you wish me to be youl
wife, knowing that l loved him."
"Indeed wouldr' he exclaimed.
She shook her head. "The man
would marry must be jealous of me-"
"Jealous of dead man?"
"Why do you say Keppel Darke is
dead? Have you killed him?'
81 only say marry me, 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.
81 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 he1
eyes. There must have been in them
some speaking light, revealing what her
woman's tongue refused to tell.
Olympia" he cried, in a voice too
weighted with emotion to be loud, ''you
know me-you have made a fool of me
but you love mer'
His arms closed about her, and fire
of new life seemed to fame up in his
heart as he felt her soft pressure against
him. 1t went glowing through hisveins,
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 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 in 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 a moment lovers
live in heaven and are the peers of
angels.
"Oh, Keppel, why have you denied
yourself so long?" sighed Olympia at
last. 81 should have known you at the
first if could have brought myself to
believe that you would hide from me so."
ga disguise like miae is something
more than cloak that can be thrown
off and resumed at WILL" he replied
"From the first have been as strange
to myself as I have appeared to others.
But for you I should never have found
my real self again. With that change
came so many changes began to forget
that I had ever been Keppel Darke, and
all my youth and what belonged to 1t
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 man
without a childhood and soul can be
said to die"
eyes, you are yourself again nowr'
Olympia. 81 have felt wall
between us all this while; knew, in
some secret place of my heart, that you
were on the other side; but yet did not
know it until the last day or
two. It 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;
can see through your beard, and your
hair, and your eyeglasses; you are only
Keppel!" and she gave little laugh and
drew down his face and kissed him.
81 feel as if were nothing but mere
child" said he, laughing, too. Il want
to do nothing but sit here with you and
love YOU. and talk to YOU and hear Won