Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1900-01-04
COUNTS SAD ROMANCE
Comes to the Grave of an Old Love
In America Each Year.
Vowed Never to Wed, But Mnrries
Another Whose Consent He OBJ
tains TO Make the SORROW
full Journey.

If Guy de Maupassant had lived only
to come to New York on the same boat
with Count Dessewyn what a romance
! of love and devotion he could have
written! But he is dead now, and the
story that Count \. Dessewyn told fell
only on the ears of the ships prosaic
passengers. Though married, he comes
to visit his love of long ago, and with
his wife's entire consent.
The count is distinguished looking
nobleman from Hungary. Well dressed,
affable, of courtIy bearing and cult
waited manners, he looks the thorough
man of the world that be is. But a
romantic mission has brought him here,
mission so full of sadness and devo-
ton that it made him the most talked
of passenger aboard ship.
To those he got to know more init
mately he told his life story. Each year
he comes to this country to see the
love who still holds his heart, though
he has wife and children at home who
know all. But his loves life is devoted
to religion now, and his to the wife and
children.
ut was in my youth" exclaimed the
count, sadly. Il was cbamois hunting
in the mountains. and after the days
sport | went to the hunt ball There /
met my fate-the woman who should
be my bride. She was the beautiful
Maria Teresa Kisfauldy. We compared
notes, | found that she was the daugh-
ter of one Of my old professors at the
university.
That night felt had met the only
woman who could enter wholly into my
life. She was so beautiful, so sympa-
thetic, so spirituelle, so altogether
heavenly. fingered long in the noun
tains. We fell in love and one beau
tiful morning l offered myself to her.
For a moment she did not reply.
Then she said: 1 love you more dearly
than life itself, but | cannot marry you,
my sweetheart. have already resolved
TO devote my life to religion and to hui
manity's sufferings,' Oh, the sadness
of it! pleaded with her, offered her |
everything | had in the world, but she |
would not yield. One last kiss and !
left her, weeping softly. felt that / |
must leave those beautiful mountains |
as far behind me as / could.
II lived on in hope, though, praying |
that she might repent of her resolve.
but | knew hope was useless, when |
one day l received word from her that |
she had taken vows of perpetual cell
bacy in nunnery. She did not become
a nun; she simply wished TO devote her
self to good works wherever she found |
$50 | married an estimable woman,
who bore heirs to my titles and estates
and proved herself an admirable mis-
tress of my home. But the charm. the
spirituelle character. the soul of nv
sweetheart of long ago are not hers.
My wife knows all. With her consent
come here once every year TO visit the
woman who is now devoting herself TO
religion in America, who, as a little
Magyar girl, | loved in the mountains
Of Hungary. She lives in one of your
cities, where | am not at liberty to
tell"
Count Dessewyn told his story so
simply, so convincingly, that everybody
IN the ship pitied his lot. There are
ines Of care in his face and streals Of
silver in his hair far beyond his years.
He declined to tell where he was going.
Chicago Tribune.