The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1899-07-20
"MANNA."

VI Sui PRISE, lAS HAL AdhuSo bASM W
him.
Outside the business house he
looked at the key-tags and found that
the nearest residence was within
walking distance. Slowly he mean
dered in its direction, musing the
while.
That the confirmed bachelor"
should purchase a home surprises
them. Let them laugh at me. / will
buy the h~andsomest edifice I can OBJ
tain and will endeavor to make her
life as much of a as mine was
Tor that brief time. / ought to be hap
by, | suppose. She Is a charming
creature, and more than all, by her
sweet womanliness, has caused my
dolorous past to be almost forgotten.
But was 1t other than delightful?
Yes, if three years in the presence OF
a woman whose beauty Of face was re-
fected in every feature of her char
acter, can be thus. Were 1, after these
years of anguish, to be given the priv
ilege of again turning those leaves OF
life's mystery, could 1 refrain?
Looking back at those evidences OF
misplaced affection, from b emil
hence upon which fame has beer
pleased to place me, I wonder II
ever revelled in the sweet companion
ship of my souls false star. seem
so admirably fitted for the reticent life
I since have led.
BY no circumstance here am l re-
minded Of my transient Joy, or the
subsequent, enduring heart-break.
This lovely girl has chosen to bestow
upon me her preference. For my dull
appreciation she lavishes smiles which
would fill the hearts of other men
with bliss supreme.
Do not imagine-sprites of my old
self-that there is aught less modest
in her department than that of her
whose queenly sway enslaved you in
those happy ~lotus-eating days.
AS l look into the waters of the
fountain, l see hair sprinkled with
sorrows SHOWS. It was not so when
together we gazed upon the placid face
of the pool which she christened
"Resurgam." The name was typical,
she said. Would that it were! She
was fond of my curls. She would run
her fexile fingers through them and
say: "It is delightful for you to have
hair so much more beautiful than that
of any other man. It is hlacker than
the plumes of my big G-ainesborough
hat"
Those hats were worn then, and no
Partisan had thought of creating an
ordinance for their removal at the
theater. The whole house turned to
look at her as we entered our box.
The stage beauties were madly jeal-
Gus of her. She was wonderfully beau
tiful, like a stainless lily. Her face,
always pallfd, had the spiritual CLEAN
sometimes seen In the luminous coun-
tenance of a dark-haired woman Her
lips glowed like the azaleas she al
ways wore on her breast. They were
odorless, and hence commended them
selves to her. Perfumes were often
sive to her, yet, as l remember, her
approach was ever preceded by an in
tangible sweetness, as of the faintest
breath from fragrant flowers confined
in some secret receptacle. The refined
perfume was Incompatible. l never
detect it now. A mark of individual
ity, it left me as did she.
Then the shock of finding her gone,
when l recovered from the long fever.
One woman called her a thanAless and
bloodthirsty vampire. I was reminded
of her hideous remark when I say
today the new poem of Kipling's by
that title. And that odious painting
by his cousin, Burne-Jones. How ]
hate them all!
Had she but told me that she was
a creature Of the SUM- child of Paris
her life and affection changing as
the seasons; I could have better borne
her unceremonious fitting. But to en-
dure the dread uncertainty which has
encountered my soul through these
interminably weary years!
America, though, is vastly different
from Paris. In this arctic atmosphere
my grief has grown less poignant, my
ardent temperament would now be
called phlegmatic. No one dreams Of
my brief enchantment-I am consid-
ered d DdcHelOt-lmpreSndDle I'LL Lols
entranced me. Little they wreck Of
those days of welded bliss! l won
der If we shall live with our first OF
second wife in the world to come
Perhaps we shall all be judged as
polygamists if we have married more
than once
It is curious that for the first time
in a long while, thoughts of Zonits
Ohtrudo themselves when am in