The Iola register., 1901-12-27

acute perfume of intoxicating virgini-
ty. And 1t Is then that, conquered by
the charm Of that face, so delicate and
proud amid It's large, pallid curls, by
the splendor of those blue eyes, the
elderly bridegroom bends over her to
kiss her.
Dear me, dear mep'
And to see the tranquility with which
those finely cut, rose colored lips return
the kisses through the veil, the ques-
ton arises whether 1t is the bridegroom
that she kisses or the Mechlln lace, at
900 the meter.
All, there are adorers around that
beautiful Signora Marchis, so lovely
and so young, married to an old mani
1t was expected that this fortress
would be an easy one to conquer. Pre-
cisely on her wedding day Vico Molise.
the most elegant and skeptical Of the
journalists Of upper Italy, had pro-
pounded to his friends this theorism:
"Given n beautiful girl, very poor;
given that she marries n rich old man;
divide the number OF his years by that
Of the hundreds of thousands OF lire OF
which she becomes mistress, and you
will have the number OF months neces-
sary for her to take lover"
And as soon as he could he began,
with many others, to attempt the DEM
onstration of that theorem.
Well this time the impeccable psy-
Geological diagnosis Of Vico Molise had
been found to fail. Not only, after
some months, the beautiful Signora
Marchis had no lover, but it appeared
also that she never was to have one.
Always dressed with an adorable ele-
gance, with luxury full of good taste,
the beautiful Gemma loved to amuse
herself, moving freely in that society
new for Der, finding herself in her right
place as n marvellous plant in a vase of
valuable porcelain. developing itself in
all its splendor. She went to dances, to
the theater, enjoying the plcblscite of
admiration provided by her beauty, CO.
quoting a little with her adorcrs, fut-
terng about the fire in order to make
them sparkle, her wings of golden
butterfly, but never letting herself be
burned.
In the very moment of n declaration,
In the midst of one OF those waltzes
whose notes seem made on purpose to
stile expiring virtue in their serpentine
spirals, she cut short her adorer by
turning her angelic head and saying
serenely:
Il don't see my husband. Look n
little where my husband is If you will
be so kind"
And it was known that her greatest
delight was to relate precisely to her
husband the declarations which she
had received. When she came home
with him from a ball, all wrapped in
the white silken folds of her sortie du
bal, with her pure throat, her snowy
shoulders that blossomed still more
fair from her swansdown boa: when
in the evening she met him in the din
ing room, still In visiting costume, with
her slim waist tightly compressed by
an cXquisitely elegant gown, with her
face animated by the slight excitement
which elegant conversation always pro-
duces in a young woman, she amused
herself immensely in addressing to her
husband some OF these provoking and
roguish phrases:
You know | was at Countess Fo-
schis'. Noise was there, you know
always faithful and always in despair
And also Comelli, he that has such
lugubrious gailantry-he has promised
TO kill himself for my sake within a
month. We shall see. All, ah!"
And, sitting opposite to him in a
rustic Of satin and Jet, making shine
like two stars the brillants, large as
hazelnuts, which adorned her small
ears, she continued TO laugh, with her
elastic laughter, full Of mischief and
full of tenderness.
All. indeed old Marchis could call
himself a fortunate mani
Fortunatef Yes, he ought TO have
considered himself so. When he set
himself TO reason about 1t, to describe
mentally his conjugal situation, he had
to. conclude that he would have done
wrong TO complain OF his destiny. And
yet
What Of the terribly unexpected had
pure sapphire of Gemma's eyes? Was
there arisen in his soul the doubt that
that faithfulness against every trial,
that coldness toward her admirers,
was nothing but the wish TO preserve
intact a position acquired with diff
Guilty and that precisely to that posi-.
ton was directed all the tenderness
shown toward himself? l do not know,
but the vivid and impetuous joy of the
wedding was no longer in him, al
though his love remained the same, and
a painful doubt thrilled in his voice
when he replied to the playful conf
dence Of Gemma, forcing himself to
laugh too:
"Take care, now, take care-the ven
geance of the tyrant hangs over YOU
All, the poor tyrant! How he loved
her! How she had known how to bind
him with her little hands, white and
perfumed as two lilies! For nothing in
the world would he have discovered the