Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1898-08-20

ana p1tlful message 20 the, princess. IN
which he spoke of himself as near TO
death, limited at the cruel cause of his
condition and prayed her of her COM
passion to visit him in his chamber and
speak word of comfort, or at least let
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 J
impulse, she put ON her loveliest gown, /
dressed her hair most splendidly and |
came into his chamber looking like |
goddess. There lay the marquis, white |
as a ghost and languid, on his pillows, |
aud 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 inn
ploring him TO sumn@n 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 1 do not love is
nothing to me. and the only soul alive
1 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
a flood of protestations and self reproach,
cursing himself for a fool and 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 mel Leave me
( 90, and before j die, give me your for
! giveness and let your lips touch my
forehead in token of it, and then 1
shall die in peace"
At that the princess blushed still
more and her eyes were dim and shone,
for she was very deeply touched at his
misery and ut the sad prospect of the
death of so gallant gentleman for love.
Thus she could scarcely speak for emo
tion, and the marquis, seeing her emo
ton, was himself much affected, and she
rose from her chair and bent over him
and whispered comfort to him. Then
she leaned down and very lightly
touched his forehead with her 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 NJ. 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 tc
the princess what he had done and
J humble himself in the dust before hel
and entreat her to pardon him and LET
! him find forgiveness. Therefore, i'm
: PEELED by these feelings, after he hao
lain still a few moments listening tx
, the princess weeping he leaped sudden
/ ly out of the bed, showing himself fully
clothed under the bedgown which ht
Z now eagerly tore off, and he rubbed al
, the white he could from his cheeks, anC
then he fell ON his knees before the prin
I cess, crying to her that he had playeS
0 the meanest trick ON her and he was
Q scoundrel and no gentleman and ye
D that unless she forgave him he shoult
in very truth die. Nay, he would no
: consent to live unless he could VIII
8 from her pardon for his deceit. And il
Q all this he was now most absolutely IL
: earnest, wondering only how he ha,
t not been as passionately enamored @
t her from the first as he had feigne'
himself to be, for a man IN love cal
r never conceive himself out of it nor h
y that is out of it in it, for if he can h
v is half way to the one or the other
q however little he may know it.
% At first the princess sat as though sh
o were turned TO stone, but when he ha
finished his confession and she under
}, stood the trick that had been played uI
k on her, and how not only her kiss, bu
= also her tears, had been won from he
d by fraud, and when she thought, as sh
II did, that the marquis =as playing an
It other trick upon her and that there wa
!, no more truth or honesty in his pres
g emit protestations than in those whic
ID went before, she fell into great sham
N aud into great rage, and her eyes flash
IS ed like the eyes of her father himsel
le IS she rose to her feet and looked dow
t. on M. de Merosailles as he melt implol
I'd ing her. Now her face turned pale froI
10 red, and she set her lips and she dre'
"a her gown close round her, lest his touc
al, fex~> !.