Omaha daily bee., 1899-07-23

Do you remember the night you Joined the
euard-the night in the cloister OF st. An
thony? How / rembled and feared for you,
I"-she laughed again-"even wanted TO help
YOU. How absurd IL all seemed to you,
didn't 1t? l remember you we're very cool
and quiet and l suppose you thought 1t very
foolish-one of those unnecessary, extrava-
CANT emotions in which we inferior races
are apt to indulgel"
stop" Hollywood cut her short with a
~peremptory word, 81 will not allow you to
say such things Of yourself nor-ot met"
Valerie threw back her head with the
slight naughty lift he knew so well.
you are rather too certain OF your own
power" she said.
You say you remember that night?-not
50 well as l do! You think l am very sure
of myself. And yet l have been mistaken
on points that touch me close. / thought
that night when l knew l might never see
the morning. dared to fancy that we-you
and Understood each other-a little" He
waited, but Valerie had turned away her
profile looked exquisite, but cold, against
the dark shutter as she watched the driv-
ing snow. 80 l was the fool after all,
you see!" he ended lamely.
According to the immemorial fashion of
itNS NlNN uAhNA SNtNh ohA "a " NhNA
other alternately, playing high and low at
every other moment upon the wide gamut
of feeling, touching faint, sweet notes that
would echo forever,
Rallywood's self-control was giving
way a little, and she instinctively felt her
power and used it.
81 wonder what you really think OF us
behind that quiet alertness of yours" she
said tightly, 81 believe / did imagine L
understood you a little that night; but I
imagine 1t no longer! Perhaps l misjudge
you now, but 1t cannot matter; you told
me once you knew how to wait. and of
course you are certain that all unfair opin-
ions Of you must come right in the end"
But Hollywood passed over her many
sentences to seize the central idea that APP
pealed to him.
Eyes, l have learned to walt. ! told you
that everything comes TO him who waits.
Unfortunately, a proverb is true often, not
always. One thing can never come to me,
however long l wait. For ME there is no
hope"
II don't know what you hope for" replied
the girl, slowly, as If she were choosing
her words; but she hardly knew what she
said, she was lost in a multitude of dreams,
and her words but filled in the rare %crevices
between them. II thought that every man
carried his own fate in his own hand
"A man can fight the tangible, but no man
can struggle against the ordinary laws of
social life. We may laugh at conventional
methods, but even in Revonde there are
some which must be yielded to-"
81 don't think" said Valerie. I'VE yield
to many in Revonde."
Hollywood saw a group Of people advanc-
ing toward them. Valerie, with her changes
of mood and manner, distracted him, and
drove him to say what he had resolved never
to be tempted into saying.
Il am a soldier-only a soldier; l gain a
livelihood, but no more. l have no luck
and no genius. To make a fortune or a
name is beyond me. And without fortune
many desirable things are impossible.
Valerie turned upon him a bewildering
smile.
81 shall know for the future, Captain
Hollywood, what you are thinking of. You
will be thinking for all those grave eyes
Of yours of the fortune you cannot make.
mot quite that, mademoiselle," he
answered. Il shall be thinking Of the girl l
cannot win"
valerie found herself draw away from
him by the passing group. She was aware
Of a warm throb at her heart, she was
trembling a little, and the fear of the morn
ing "a VeIupOldlhy NdIlSuSu' fol III
definite reason which she could afterward
discover she felt suddenly happy. /
BY evening the tsa had blown away the
snow clouds for the time and a thin moon
cleaned fitfully over the wide expanses of
white. Remote, muffled in leagues of snow,
and alive with hungry passions and un-
scrupulous strength, the castle of Sagan did
not, on that wild January night, offer de-
sirable housing to the grand duke Of Nassau.
He had yet some thirty hours to spend as
his cousins guest before he could return to
his capital without showing suspicion or
giving offense. A hundred times he wished
himself back in his great palace by the river
bank, where the squadrons of the guard lay
within call. But he bore himself well, not
withstanding, and, although, on the plea OF
chill and fatigue, he kept to his rooms more
than usual, his short appearance in public
left in one sense nothing to be desired. He
did not carry himself as a man in mortal
anxiety, but was as dissatisfied, as dis
courteous and as disagreeable as 1t was his
custom to be.
Late lin the afternoon Nine. de Sagan re-
tired TO take some rest before dinner.
Wrapped in lace and silk. she was standing
in front of her mirror with her women about
her when the count entered. AT his first
imperious word the attendants vanished.
Isolde continued to stare into the glass
like one fascinated, for in vt she not only
saw the reflection Of her own slender white
clad figure, but over her shoulder the fierce
face she dreaded.
For a long minute husband and wife re-