The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1896-01-30

life are sometimes very much in the
/ way I thought it wiser, for your sake
to send some one to find out how the
land lay"
''For my sake? For yours, thinkv
They both laughed again.
"How did you come to find me out?
he asked. "You had accepted the Count
de Lisle so long that the last thing ex-
pected was an inquiry for me-"
"There is something mysterious about
that" replied Olympia, turning grave.
"When that strange man of yours
Garcia-has put me into the magnetic
sleep, which is not sleep at all, but a
deeper waking, that makes ordinary
waking seem sleep in comparison-in
that state, whatever it is, can see my
own thoughts, just as one sees things
with ones bodily eyes. And see things
that have happened to me, not as they
seemed to me at the time, but as they
really were. So / began to have i'm
pressions of you, and at first l could not
understand them, for there was no rea-
son that knew of why you should ap-
pear to me- But at last / noticed that
the meetings between us Gin my Visions
were the times of my meeting the Count
de Lisle, and from that l was not long
in solving the puzzle. When the count
came this afternoon was so angry with
him for having deceived me that I was
almost ready to let him go off and take
you with him! If you had not looked
through his eyes at the last moment,
and so given new turn to things, you
would have been nicely punished-and
should have died!"
This terrible picture called for conso-
lation on both sides, and the two lovers
administered it to each other. They
were sitting in the enbrasure of the
window, a deep, well cushioned divan,
protected from the room by the piano
and pot of ferns, while the light of the
western sky, now golden with the set
ting sun, came softly through the semi
transparent silken window shades. They
had put one cushion up on the window
sill, and both their heads were upon it.
KeppeTs arm was round Olympia's
waist, and the hand Of that arm held in
it her hand. By turning his face only a
little Keppel's lips would come in con-
tact with white and alluring region
just beneath Olympia's ear; but if she
happened to be turning toward him al
the same time, as might easily happen
in conversation, it was no longer the
place under her ear, but her mouth
that advanced into the proximity with
KeppePs. This arrangement was con.
venient enough, one would think, tx
satisfy even two lovers; but they had
improved even upon this by system OF
signals, which could be felt, but not seen
Whenever Keppel wanted Olympia te
turn her face toward him he pressed the
hand that has already been mentioned
as held in his, and he did this 80 fre
quently that it might have been regard.
ed as a reflection upon Olympia's profile
only her profile was too ravishingly
beautiful to be liable to reflection ex,
cept in a mirror. Ravishing though il
was, however, the full face was not
thereby prevented from being more
lovely still; not because it more nearly
approached classical perfection, but be-
cause it carried with it the glance Of hen
dark, deep gazing eyes, and the full
curve of her mouth, and the faint fra
GRANGE of her breath. Either way, ii
was a choice of felicities for Keppel, who
could not have been better off unless he
had had both the full face and the profile
at the same time; and casuist might
have called even that in question.
But" said Keppel, after while, edo
you remember everything that happens
to you while you are in the trance?"
Nothing that my body does" she
said, "but remember what my mind
does and sees. I see other minds, though
l don't always know whom they belong
to. Some are beautiful, like lovely land
scapes; some are dreary and barren;
some are all darkness and horror. saw
such a one the other night-the same
night that discovered that you and the
Count de Lisle were the same person.
There was a hidden place in it, like a
cave, with branches and thistles grow
ing before the mouth of it, and ugly
birds Tapping in and out. I knew that
there was dead body in that cave, and
I was afraid that should have to go in
and pull it out, but just as I was at the
entrance it all faded away and I seemed
to fall through deep space. where
everything was still and dim. When it
ended was in my bed here at home"
eve will have no more of this" said
he. ''It is not right that you should be
made liable to such experiences. And if
there even were need for it, it is passed
now. know all require to know, and
now that we have met, don't care for
anything else-not even to punish the
guilty"
eyes, love makes up for everything,
doesn't it?' returned she, ''but the guilty
punish themselves All the vengeance
in the world could not bring us nearer
| together"
"There is only one thing that makes
me wish that justice might be done,"
said Keppel, after pause. 81 have al
ways wished that the world should know
that was innocent. Now that am no
longer disguised from you, wish not to
be disguised at all. And I doubt if I
can maintain my mask as easily as
have done hitherto. I shall continually
be speaking in my old voice. and acting
in my old way. 1t has all come back to
me so strongly that no longer see my
self or think OF myself as the Count de
Lisle."
1--WE will not live here" said Olympia.
'We could go to New Zealand or Peru
or Asia, where no one knows us or can
reach US. You are my country, the
only one care to live in. Let us disap-
pear, like the fairies!"
"Riches can buy most things, but the
more riches you have the less can you
buv seclusion We can't escape that