The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-01-23
A LIGHTNING BUG.

and above them the branches formed dark
Ealls and thick arches, through which
penetrated the rays of the golden eyes of
the stars or light breeze of the evening,
bringing with it the sweet aroma of jas
mine and lilies.
They were walking silently, with the
slow and lazy step Of the enamored, who
would like to have the promenade in the
pleasant summer night prolonged indeh-
niteIy. Their thoughts, without words,
met each other inyoluntarily, accom-
plished by warm pressing of hands.
Suddenly in the thiekets among the
fragrant jasmines a vibrating light ap-
peared, followed by another, then by a
third, still clearer, and finally winged,
greenish swarms of sparks surrounded
them.
"Look! The lightning bugsI'
GLOW pretty, mysterious and lightP'
"They are vibrating as an inexplicable
word of love, and they are burning as
passion breaking it's ties.''
Look! This one is hanging upon your
forehead; that one is your guiding STAR
"And the other above shines greenish,
like your eyes when you are cross.
would like, my only one, to make of these
stars an aureole about your light head
A silvery laugh spread itself in the Sc
Guided path.
"And it seems to me it is the third act
Of Robert tho Devil The penitent souls
are burning. We are walking in the GEM
etery."
NO; this is not cemetery. It is the
summit of life and earthly happiness.
love you'll" And be stopped in order that
in the dark he might read from the light
of her shining eyes a cordial answer.
They were much in love with each 9TH
er, faithfully and sincerely. Their young
hearts and desiring mouths were joined
together, not merely by momentary ex-
element of passion or by hallucination of
feverish imagination. She, in order to
come down to him, overoame a great many
prejudices and the judgment of caste; he
captured her by strong and persevering
will; she endeared his ideals; he made
known to her all his beliefs, and while
she, from his eyes and mouth, guessed
and became acquainted with the truth of
life, he, following on her face the effects
and emotions, became closely united to her
in thought and feeling, and gently whis-
pered:
"You are minei"
Both were young yet and had gone
through a fierce trial of separation and
pain, she loving with that full, sweet hui
mility Of a woman who would bury her
self in ashes under the feet of her lover,
be with heart OVERLOOKING with manly pride
| that in this passionately desired being he
found thought and soul entirely in SYM
pathy with his own.
They went farther, silently, in the mys-
terious shadows of the walk, but involun-
tarily the memory of the cemetery, it
were, caused between them a shadow of
sorrow and thought, the cloud which, even
under the melting influence of the words,
81 love you,'' did not want to disappear.
Death is stronger than love- and loneli-
ness deeper than happiness. They went
farther, looking at the phosphoric sparks
The girl suddenly lifted her head and
whispered softly:
"Do you know that this moment the
"Reminiscences of a woman whom you have
loved once stands between US? Is it not
true?"
She OWNED. She was accustomed to
thinking and feeling in harmony with
him. At once by intuition, she came up
OH the face OF q person unknown to her, a
stranger of rival thought. He shivered,
embraced her more tightly and stood still
for awhile.
f'Lets go farther" she said.
''Listen. 1 will tell you all"
''Why, love you and believe"
Listen. Between US there is this ono
last secret troubling, annoying my mind
as nightmare, and shall not rid myself
of this pale ghost Of the faraway past IN
less tell you ALL
"Did you love her?'' she asked, with a
nervous vibration of voice.
"She was handsome as a Greek cameo
and always smiling as goddess of happi-
ness She was curious, proud, passionate,
OF an artistic nature. She fascinated me,
drew me to her, intoxicated me. When
she took in her white, cold hands my head,
my temples burned, and when she sang
! in the voice of a siren 1 felt that my win
and strength were failing"
Ibid you love her?" asked the girl nerv-
ously.
sit seemed to me that her love must be
kIa borarirozc on Garth and that
1 would then give my life to guess the
| conundrufn of her deep, black eyes"
Look said he, after awhile, as If
| gathering his thoughts and showing her
the lighted, shining and moving mass in
| tho thicket, land listen to the reminis-
cences of the long gone years of my child
hood. ! was for the first time In the
country, and for the first time, on warm
evening, 1 saw lightning bugs shining
with sharp, greenish light in the dark
thicket of the park. Child of the city, ex-
cited by unaccustomed sight, I chased the
moving light and wished to possess such a
star to look at it while it was near and
to take it for my own. A chase was made,
| and one of the handsomest bugs was
tightly shut in glass. Charmed, 1 took
my treasure, placed it in my room near
my bed, and in the night 1 dreamed Of a
gigantic sun throwing light on all the
paths and thickets of the garden.
"In the morning I was awakened by
the first rays of dawn. looked at once in
the direction of the glass palace; but, in
stead of the imprisoned star, there appear
ed to me-only a miserable, black
"But she, the woman whom you lovedP'
asked the girl impatiently.
''She was an enchantress, with the voice
of siren, an artist by blood and flesh, g
dark eyed and tempting problem, but only
In the twilight of our mysterious love, in
the overheated, sick and languid iInagi
nation of mind. Her Greek profile and
smile of a sphinx needed an unnatural
light and sparkling animation, an artih