Santa Fe daily New Mexican., 1897-11-06


needless of din or traffic or the direction
to be pursued Her words of anger and
opposition had invested the ring he had
almost grown to regard with the unthink-
ing gaze of custom with new and startling
significance. 1t simply riveted him to the
past. He might discard it, still holding
its purpose in his heart, but the thought
was base one. He knew that his dead
wife would have borne such vow to the
gates of heaven, and that no sacrifice
would have abated the strength and en-
durance of the love which he dared not
weigh with Cynthias impulsive passion.
He had hardly dwelt on it since she had
been taken from him--at first because it
meant hopeless heartache, latterly because
it seemed disloyal to his betrothed, but
now at this turning point he realized his
loss afresh and wondered that the remem-
brance had faded ever so little in the radi-
ance of Cynthia smiles.
Yet allegiance to the beloved dead meant
the facing of the old homeless life, the re-
turn of that morbid depression which Gym
thia's infectious gayety and pretty, petu-
liant ways alone had power to dspel
He had walked on, dreaming, far beyond
his original destination-the cozy set of
rooms presided over by his faithful valet
Suddenly he stopped with an involuntary
exclamation, for he stood at the very
threshold of his old home. What impulse
had led his unconscious footsteps along the
often traversed road he knew not or how
he came to look upon the house he Stunned
since the day of mourning, but having
come he was glad, for the wrench of part
ing was not the present pain. He was able
to recall the grim old mansions joyful
as well as sorrowful associations. For the
first time since his bereavement he felt the
desire and strength to see the room within
that had been hers, unaltered as she had
left it, till Cynthia, resolute in her Danish
ment of rivaling recollection, should care
lessly scatter and rearrange.
The old housekeeper started from her
lethargy Of idle caretaking, answered his
summons with clumsy alacrity and soon
he stood at the bedside where some years
ago he had flung himself in an agony of
grief and sobbed out a last farewell.
A melancholy light struggled through
the curtained window The knickknacks
they had purchased together in odd corners
Of the world, the pictures she had chosen,
she had lain to please him, with thought
OF recovery, he saw through a mist of
tears, for gnawing hunger had crept into
his heart in the chill and utter loneliness
of the room once frightened by her dear
presence. How happy they had been!
There was no death for such love as
theirs. 1t walked and throbbed in him
again in this room, where she had brcathed
out her blalneless life, and what had come
between them seemed to him like dream
Cynthia was right. He must always be
making useless comparisons, for something
must ever be wanting ih his life, some
thing that never could be replaced
His brimming eyes sought the spot
where the coffin rested He could see her
now, lying there, as she had looked for tho
last time, white and serene, her folded
hands full of flowers, the eyes that had re-
f1ected his loving gaze pitilessly sealed a
strange smile on the lips that often met
his in yielding sweetness. All, if he might
hear that low and gentle voice again, if he
might pillow that weary, golden head on
his breast, and, asking forgiveness for a
fleeting fancy, repeat his vow with all the
fervor Of the past
He sat down, hiding his face in his
hands. With the reopening of this un-
healed wound came revulsion of feeling,
reproach for the self sought forgetfulness
his want of fortitude had made desirable.
remorse for the shrinking from pain that
made him swerve from so dear a memory
and for the wrong he did Cynthia in
clinging to it.
But he hesitated no longer. The silent
hour Of retrospect had brought him very
near to his first love, and with the bitter
ache of longing came strange sense of
security and rest.
Unchanged she awaited him, fair and
lovely as he had known her, this dear
angel, speaking through the silence of
heaven, to hold him to his VOW.
For Cynthia he had no fears. That she
had been able to make their engagement
conditional on this breach of trust led him
to hope its dissolution would cause her lit, |
tie suffering.
A parting pang assailed him as he pen.
ned the brief message Of farewell, dread
of the creeping, gloomy years beyond
which his brightest hope beckoned, but he
lifted the talisman that welded him to his
dead bride, pressing it softly to his lips,
and the shadow fled
Cynthia crushed the note in her hand. |
She was hurt. She was indignant Sho
was scornful. A hundred sensations,
with no thoughts of surrender,
for mastery in her breast.
But the faint, unconfessed regret that
beneath the angry tumult, tho
feeling that lies so deep in some souls that |
only agony may wiring it forth, the dead.
ened wailing Of love that will not be stilled
these were among the bitterest tears she
she'd -Hilda Newman in Madame.