The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-07-04
In The Cloisters.

IN me OiOlSl6fS,
The musical festival, which had caused
the whole city TO hum with unwonted
NE and gayety, was over; but the mar
row streets, usually so dull and sleepy
were fuller of carriages than on the
opening day, and the pavements were
crowded with wel-dresssd people. Groups
OF clerics from far and near. county
folk. clusters of ladies in fashionable
people, with all that was best In the
musical world, were shaking hands at
street corners. flocking into shops, or
dispensing 10 their homes
The cathedral was about to close its
doors. few strangers still fingered in
the nave gazing stolidiy about them. The
FerSer was locking up noiSly as warn
ing 10 loiterers that the church was
closing, and half-a-dozen choir-boys,
slad to be off to play, scampered out
sun few fingered. a clergyman, OBJ
viously e stranger, came from the am
oulatory, and turning vi h leisurely
step, passed through a narrow doorway
out OF the cathedral into the cloisters.
He was curate at one of the out
lying churches in the diocese, a man of
athletic build, with a face keen and
strong. and though young, known al
ready for his scholarship, his zeal, and
his Diety
After facing the cloisters more than
once, he sat on the broad stone sill of
one Of the arches and looked up at the
sunit spire, his eyes lingering on the
Late Norman tracery in the tower, his
hands clasped in the attitude of a man
deep in reverie
But few persons were In the cloisters
A child with her elder sister tripped CAV
" through. A group Of country folk
looked in, stared about uncomfortable.
and went out again. The curate stiIl
sat there gazing meditatively at the
greensward. until he became aware OF
another presence In the open arches
opposite him he discerned a figure
through the antique mulions, clad in a
fashionable dress. Her face was up,
raised in prolonged appreciation Of
the grandeur Of architecture which is
nowhere more picturesque than in the
view obtainable through the silence and
gloom of the cloisters .
But ne was intent on the architecture
no longer, the strains of Mendelssohn
ceased to haunt his ears; all he was
aware of now was keenly human ard
strangely unaccountable interest in the
solitary lady whose face was framed un-
der the trefoils and quatrefoils of the
old incrusted tracery. It was her face
with the stern shadows and
dark molding that now made those hoary
flowers OF blackened stone blossom into
new life.
Although unconscious OF the interest
he took in her. his eyes instinctively fol-
lowed her as she passed along the clois-
ters from arch to arch, pausing now and
again to contemplate through the lace
work of Gothic stone some weather
worn cross or the grotesque fancy which
some monkish sculptor had wrought in
gargoyle or final. He watched her pass
TO the door of the transept. It was lock-
ID. He heard her endeavors upon the
elanking iron. heard her light football
rs she again descended into the cloister
and saw her approaching the arcade,
where he sat obscure in the shadow.
He rose and went toward her.
THE door by which I entered is lock- |
3D." she said. "Will you tell me the |
way out?'
Through the south gate" he replied.
studying her face attentively. 81 will |
show you. Come
He took hold Of the heavy ring han |
lie and tried to turn the lock. "The |
,ate is closed" he said, ''and the other, |
90. Then, 1 fear
I've are not locked imp she exclaimed I
lnxiously.
II don't know. I have never been in |
he cathedral before. l came here to the |
estivaI"
oh" she rejoined. "has It not been
lorious--superb-magniicent?
Superb. you say. Yes. and magnif-
ent. Never have heard Mendelssohn's !
Mymn of Praise so finely rendered But
me thing was lacking"
What was that?"
Devotion, religion, the sense Of sac
ifice. the presence of the spirit of God"
81 know your meaning" she responded
arnestly. 1.-The monks Of old, when
hey chanted early mass, while the COM
non workday people knelt on the bare
tone, remained to pray and to pen
nee, or went to fast
True! And where have all these
icket-holders gone?--to dance and to !
inc" His lip curled contemptuously.
"Yet, after all, we would not wish the
middle ages back again. she reflected
The superstition-the iniquity-''
81 hear her" he continued. incense
uently vet continuing the same thought
n another line. THAT beautiful So
rano, Her voice was like an angels"
She blushed and, looking round, moved
neasilv.
Can we not get out?" she asked.
1--WE must find a door," he stammered.
Excuse my-Tny abrupt confidence In
ruth. I am under a spell. But listen
know my folly. Whose is this voice?
Ter name was in the program-Luin
was Luini singer. probably at the
pera: a certain draw with the aid.
erhaps, OF ballet. AS likely as not
ne plays the heroine in Don Clio
anna"
She does nothing OF the kind" says