The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1901-07-17

rage sacrament and left her his wife
only in name and law.
The marriage had left no chain upon
T her. it had only made her mistress Of
wide wealth of that villa on the Sicil-
ian sea, of that light. spacious palace
dwelling in Paris that bore her name.
of that majestic old castle throned orB
| brown EStrenadura crags. The DEATH
| had left no regret upon her; it only gave
| her for awhile a grayer shadow over
the brillianey Of her youth aud of her
beauty and gave her a plea for that in
| difference TO mems worship of her
| which their sex called heartlessnesss
! which her own sex thought an ultra
refined coquetry and which was in rear
| truth neither the one nor the other,
] but simply the negligence Of a woman
| very difficult to touch and. as it had
| seemed. impossible to charm. 1t was
! not ambition that had allied her on his
! deathbed with Beltram Corona DANA
que, but what it was the world could
never tell precisely. The world would
not have believed it if it had heard the
/ truth-the truth that it had been. in q.
| different fashion, a CLEAN of something
i Of the same compassion that now made
/ her MaEciful to a common trooper OF
Africa which had welded her to the
dead Spanish prince. Corona .d' Amaguea
/ had been her brothers friend, the only
one for whom he had ever sought to-
| break her unyarying Indifference to her
/ lovers but for whom even he had
! pleaded vainly until one autumn sea-
son when they had staid together at 81
1 great archducai castle in south Aus
tria. In, one of the forest glades she,
rejected for the third time the passion
/ ate supplication of the superb noble
| He rode from her in great bitterness.
in grief that NO way moved her An
i hour after he was brought past her.
/ wounded and senSelesS. He lad saved
/ her brother from imminent death at
| his own cost, and the tusks of the
!. mighty Syrian boar had plunged
through and through his frame as they
had met in the narrow woodland glade.
''He will be cripple-a paralyzed
i cripple-for life" said the one whose
4 life had been saved by his devotion to-
her that night, and his lips shook a
little under his golden beard as he
spoke. MY God. what death in lifeE
And all for my sake in my steadp'
4 She was silent several moments; thelg
she raised her face, little paler than
I it had been, but with a passionless re
solve set on it.
..Philis, we do not leave our debts un
all HI 7 he iS fn
His wife! Now? Venetia'
I. Cor she said briefly. Tell him
what say
But what sacrifice! In your beau
i ty, your youth"
He did not count cost Are we less
generous? Go; tell him."
/ He was told and was repaid. Such q
light of unutterable joy burned through
the misty agony of his eyes as never, iFa
seemed to those who saw, had beamed.
before in mortal eyes. At midnight,
4 in the great, dim magnificence of the
! state chamber where he lay and with
4 the low, soft chanting of the chapel
/ choir from afar echoing through the in
censedsair, she bent her naughty head
down oyer his couch, and the marriage,
/ benedlct1on was spoken over them.
you are my own! Death is sweeter
than life!" he said. -; 50
4 And before sunrise he died.
Il Some shadow from that fatal and
tragic midnight marriage rested on her
still. Men thought her only colder, only
prouder but they erred She was Que
of those women who, beneath the court
~ negligence of chill manner are ca
i pable Of infinite tenderness infinite no
bility and infinite self reproach. Al
4 great French painter once in Rome
looking at her from a distance, shaded
his eyes with his hand, as if her beau
ty, like the sun, dazzled him. "Exquf-
site! Superb" he muttered. "She is,
nearly perfect, your Princess Coronar'
Nearly" cried a Roman sculptor.
i What in heavens name can she
want %
"only one thing" ssss2s7a ST
"And that is asIs
ITO have loved'' 9
He had found the one faw-and, it
was still there. What he missed in her
was still wanting.