Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1897-11-04
9 The Prisoner Of Zendaa.
The Dolly Dialogues Etc.


him look on her face, for the brightness
Of her eyes, he said, might cure even
what it had caused.
Deceived by this appeal, Princess Os-
ra agreed to go. Moved by some strange
impulse, she put on her loveliest gown,
dressed her hair most splendidly and
came into his chamber looking like a
goddess. There lay the marquis, white
as ghost and languid, on his pillows,
and they were left, as they thought,
alone. Then Osra sat down and began
to talk very gently and kindly to him,
glancing only at the madness which
brought him to his sad state, and i'm
ploring him to summon his resolution
and conquer his sickness for his friends
sake at home in France and for the
sake of her brother, who loved him.
"There is nobody who loves me-"
said the marquis petulantly, and when
Osra cried out at this he went on, "For
the love of those whom do not love is
nothing to me, and the only soul alive
I 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 mo-
ment had come, he burst suddenly into
food of protestations and self reproach,
cursing himself for a fool and a pre-
sumptuous 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 any
how he would be dead soon and thus
cease to trouble her. But she, being
thus passionately assailed, showed such
sweet tenderness and compassion and
pity that M. de Merosailles came very
near to forgetting that he was playing
a comedy and threw himself into his
part with eagerness, redoubling his We
hemence and feeling now full half of
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 seemed, to do
anything to give him comfort, he cried
desperately:
"Ah, leave me, leave me! Leave me
to die alone. For pity S sake, before you
go, and before die, give me your for
giveness and let your lips touc'- my
forehead in token of it, arr then l
shall die in peace ',seg -,
AT that issg ss blushed still
more az were dim and shone,
for 81 10y deeply touched at his
- d at the sad prospect Of the
10 gallant gentleman for love.
could scarcely speak for emo
/ the marquis, seeing her: emo
himself much affected, and she
left nv chair and bent over him
go and hunt for f iass. to him. Then
! she leaaneA-s-of course, as ngntiy
touched his forenea~ ,a,joolner lips and
he felt her eyelashes, That were wet
with her tears, brush the skin Of his
forehead, and then she sobbed and COW
cred her face with her hands. Indeed
his state seemed to her most pitiful.
Thus M. 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 endure to
carry on his deception, and nothing
would serve 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, i'm
PEELED by these feelings, after he had
lain still few moments listening tc
the princess weeping he leaped sudden
| ly out of the bed, showing himself fully
clothed under the bedgown which he
now eagerly tore off, and he rubbed all
the white he could from his cheeks, anG
then he fell on his knees before the prin
cess, crying to her that he had played
the meanest trick on her and he was {
scoundrel and no gentleman and ye
that unless she forgave him he should
in very truth die. Nay, he would mo-
consent to live unless he could wiz
from her pardon for his deceit. And il
all this he was now most absolutely il
earnest, wondering only how he hat
not been as passionately enamored O
her from the first as he had feignet
himself to be, for man in love car
never conceive himself out of it nor hi
that is out Of it in it, for if he can hi
is half way to the one or the other
however little he may know it.
il At first the princess sat as though sh'
were turned to stone, but when he hat
finished his confession and she under
stood the trick that had been played up
on her. and how not only her kiss, bu
also her tears, had been won from hel
by fraud, and when she thought, as she
did, that the marquis was playing an
other trick upon her and that there was
no more truth or honesty in his pres
ent protestations than in those which
went before, she fell into great shame
and into a great rage, and her eyes flash
! ed like the eyes of her father himsel1
as she rose to her feet and looked dow
on M. de Merosailles as be knelt implor
ing her. Now her face turned pale from
|. red, and she set her lips and she drew
her gown close round her, lest his touch
, should defile it ESQ the unhappy gentle
man understood the gesture), and She
daintily picked her steps round him les
by chance she should happen to com,
In contact with SO foul a thing. Thu