The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-04-24

In very truth he knew he remembered
her; in very truth he knew he had loved
her; in very truth he knew he had mur.
dered her! But another stiI greater
truth was forcing itself upon him now
and this was that all of the old love of the
old, old days was arising within him III all
her still! F" Death? That was
name merely; there was no death-only
change into some other form OF existence
What change, what form would be ms
now? The thought startled htm-roused
hlm-and once again the low spirlt-VoQe
of his long-ago betrayed and murdered
love thrilled In his ears:
Soul of Araxes, cling to my soul!-for
this present life is swiftly passing! NO
more scorn of the Divine can stand
whittier we are speeding, for the terrible
our destinies Closed are the gates Of
heaven-open wide are the portals OF neil!
Enter with me, my lover, AraHes.-dle as
l died, unprepared and alone Die, ana
pa pass mi0gi 0gf INTO q ne" life asain-so'" i'i'
= A struggling cry escaped him,
and he stretched out his arms:
Zska! Forgive-forgive!
Then came solemn, surging
sound of great wings beating on tenn
pestuous air, and all the light of the tomb
was suddenly extinguished. one IN
stant more he stood upright in the thick
darkness; then burning knife seemed
plunged into his breast, and he reeled
forward and fell, his last hold on life be-
clasping him and drawing him away
away-he knew not whither-and that
warm lips, sweet and tender, were closely
pressed on his. And presently out OF the
heavy gloom came a voice, which said:
Peace! The old gods are best and the
law is made perfect. 4 life demands a
life. Loves debt must be paid by love!
The wonan's soul forgives, the man re-
pents-Wherefore they are both released
from bondage and the memory or SIN. Let
them so hence; the curse is lifted!
1t is to be assumed the reader will un-
derstand that in the foregoing excerpt
the French painter is reincarnation of
the homicidal Egyptian prince, and the
voluptuous Ziska a re-embodiment of the
murdered mistress who has come down
the long aisle of time for no other purpose
than to square accounts. But lest this
point should not be clear we append this
diagram, and ask, in triumph, If it isn't,
indeed, run for ones money.
1t is a pleasure to turn from rubbish like
the foregoing to a book OF honest merit,
which needs no bedaubng. In The I'M
pudent Comedian" Chicago: II. S.
Stone & Coz Mr.. f. Frankfort Moore mas
incorporated six tales that will inspire the
discriminating reader with unqualified
admiration. They are stories set in the
time and manners of the Restoration;
they concern mostly actor folk and favor
ties of the court-Nell Gwynne, Kitty
Give, the incompatible Mrs. Siddons,
Davy Garrick and others of that choice
circle that made merriment for their con-
temporares-and two or three of them
have already seen print in the Chap
Book, notably the title-piece, that won
derfully clever and artistic sketch of the
warm-hcarted wanton, Mistress Gwynne.
But whether old or new all six of them
are first-class, and the person who has
a proper eye to the artistic in fiction Will
possess the m ere another day shall dawn.
Two recent numbers in Appleton's
Town and Country library comprise per
fection City" by Mrs. Orpen. and "A
Spotless Reputation" by Dorothea Cir
ard. The former treats of commun-
istic experiment in Kansas and reveals, III
an interesting but not especially original
fashion, the essential weakness of such
attempts to revolutionize the accepted So
cial order of things. The second has for
its theme the antics of u beautiful wife
who plays the courtesan with different
men, including her husband, up to q GER
tain point, but always stops short of ac-
tual bodily deflement, out of regard for
her "spotless reputation" 1t is a strlli-
ing picture of the immortality of virtue
which rests, not on innocence and love
of righteousness but on fear. Happily
for the husband of this unapproachaOle
coquette, she dies in time to enable him to
wed a woman of decent instincts.
o
That the average American, democrat
though he be in theory takes a lively IN
terest in the ways and doings of the
quality" Is shown by the avidty with
which he reads the society news in h.e
favorite newspaper, devours the title
tattle that creeps into print about the for
eign nobility and sustains such publca-
tions as Vogue and Town Topics. We
suspect, therefore, that the average
American will be greatly interested ia a
book newly issued by the Continents
Publishing company, of New York, and
called "A Society Woman in Two Contin-
ents." Its author Mrs Sallie Brttor
Spottiswood Mackin, is the daughter OF
a former mayor of st. Louis; and the
widow of James Mackin, who was treas
urer of New York under Tilden's admin