Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1898-12-22


ruined race
In the life OF the elder sister, AS
sunta, there had been a tragedy. She
had fJeen beautiful in her youth, with
the dark picturesque beauty of Vene-
tian women; and her lover, who held
an appointment under the Venetian
government as it existed then, had
gone to England on political business,
and there had been foully and treach-
erously murdered. For this, Assunba
hated the English and England with a
deadly hatred. She prayed morning
and night for vengeance upon the
perfdious and accursed country; she
would have seen an Enghshman die
of hunger at her feet rather than have
relieved him with even a crust of
bread. She was twenty years older
than Giulia, and, every year, grew
bitterer. Their parents had died when
she was twenty-siX and the little
golden haired Giulia only six. They
had but little money; the gloomy old
palace-with its faded hangings, its
worm-eaten furniture, its air of decay
was theirs, but the income left them
was but scanty. Assunta brought up
her little sister to hate England.
pray, child" she would say, that
heaven may Bless every land except
England. Pray that the sun may shine
and the dew fall on every land ex-
cept that. 1t is accursed, for innocent
blood was shed there"
But Giulia could not learn to hate;
when she had finished her prayers
she would say in a low voice that
Assunta could not hear:
Heaven bless England too"
Assunta watched the little Giulia
grow until she became one of the
loveliest maidens in Venice; but when
Jasper Brandon came from the land
which she held accursed and asked
for her treasure she would not give
her to him. She drove him away with
stern, cruel words; she told him she
would rather that her beautiful Giulia
lay drowned and dead in the waters
of the canal than that she became his
wife.
He had met her only five or six
times when he asked her to be his
wife-he had not written home about
her His whole life had been abb
sorbed in his love. He had forgot
ten his country, parents, friends; the
swift, keen, sudden passion had taken
possession of him; he had no life out
side of it, and he came from race
that never hesitated in love nor fall
tered in war When Assunta drove
him from the threshold with bitter
words, he made up his mind what to
| do. Looking into the face of the
girl he loved, he said:
Il cannot live without you. Send me
away if you will will not live.
Come with me and I will make this
world heaven for us BOTH"
She assented He married her I'M
known to every one, and took her
away to little place on the Mediter-
ranean.
| Assunta redoubled her prayers. Evil
! should, evil must, come to the country
which called such monsters sons. She
vowed solemnly never in life to see or
speak to Giulia again-and she kept
her word
On those sweet southern shores Jas
per and Giulia dwelt for one year
They lived on love one entire happy
year. There were times when Jasper
reused himself to wonder what his
parents would say when he took his
young bride home He had no time
| to ask for their consent to his mar
riage, and when he was married he
had many misgivings.
He knew that they had great hopes
as to his marriage, that they wished
him to marry Lady Marie Valdoraine;
so he felt that perhaps it would be
| better if he said nothing about it I'M
til he took his young wife home. Then
when they saw her, when their eyes
dwelt on the beauty of her most fail
| face, they would forgive him and
| love her.
| So for this one happy year they
lived on beauty and love, on sunshine
and flowers. And they were so unut-
terably happy that it seemed as though
the ordinary doom of man was not tt
| fall on them.
| There has never been a love sc
strong, so beautiful as ours" {
| would say to her.
| So amid the olives and the vines
amid the gorgeous flowers and the
starry blossoms, on the shores of the
sapphire sea, under the light of the
golden sun and shining stars, amid
the music of birds and the laughter
of sweet blossoms, they lived an(
| loved. Only one year, and then the
little child whose coming was TO have
| crowned their happiness was born
BUT its birth cost its mother her life
and the same day on which the little
Veronica opened her eyes, her mother
the beautiful golden-haired Giulia
closed her own forever.
Swift to love and swift to hate
| were the Brandons of Queens Chace
He had loved the young mother with
keen, intense passion; he hated the
child with swift, keen hatred.
Take i. from my sight" he sale
to the weeping women. Let me never
see it. It has cost its mother hel
life" And they carried it away
weeping womanly tears of compass
sion.
He could not forgive the child be-
cause of its mothers death-he coulf
not look at it. The nurses said IT,.
babe had its mothers eyes; and h.,
thought to himself that to see Giulia
eyes in another's face would kill him.
He was more than half distraugh