The Western news., 1903-10-28

willful. yet beautiful gypsy face,
Wnlrled away into another dance.
AS one watched her he noted the
/. grace and fire of every motion. She
seemed creature of air, so light was
she. With perfect ease and abandon,
she followed every change of the mu-
SIC, seeming never to tire.
AS the players fingers wandered off
into some sweet minor chords there
came startled look into her face. Then,
as the music continued in the plaintive
straln, she yielded to the spell. Once
more her body swayed to that fantas-
tlc dance OF her childhood, once more
her voice rose and fell to that weird
sweet song
And, as he listened, over the face
or the master there came look of rap
ture, while with the instinct Of the
true musician. he accompanied the
strange air with all its subtle changes.
Then, as the song ended in a breathing
I OF heartbreak and despair, he turned
to the child. the tears streaming down
his gentle old face.
"Ah, monsieur, monsieur!" he cried,
1T is the voice of an ANGEL"
While her child was singing far away
across the sea, the mother was dying.
On poor bed with scarcely covering
Tor her wasted body, she lay, clasping
to her breast little dress, old and
worn.
AS her husband bent over her, trying
In his rude fashion to adjust the ragged
pillow
'Hark!" she whispered Listen! I
hear my Leah singing"
The great auditorium was filled to
overfiowing. Every seat in the vast
room was taken and the boxes were
taxed to their utmost capacity
Never had prima donna sung to a
more cultured and enthusiastic audience
Time after time, the great house had
broken out into uncomfortable ap-
pause, and now, as the performance
neared Its close, Leah, the gypsy"
again appeared, and the people once
more settled into the expectant quiet
that always accompanies the presence
of star.
A perfect type of gypsy beauty was
she; hair the blackness Of night, eyes
where hid that dangerous blending of
love and fire, cheeks through whose
olive the tint of carmine cleaned, lips
OF the rich red that belongs to all tropi-
cal natures.
moment she stood gazing out over
that vast sea of faces.
One among them she knew was there
watching her with eyes full OF question
and longing.
So she had met his gaze for years, al
most since the morning he first saw her
a little child asleep in his fathers Ii
brary. a..s
That she was a psy he knew, but
where she came MN or why to his
fathers house he had never learned
That father, a stern, silent man, had
never courted inquiry. About a year
before Leahs coming to their home the
light of the place had gone out with
the death of an only daughter, the idol
of the widowed father. To that lost
darling Leah bore more than passing
resemblance and because of this like
ness. the boy shrewdly guessed that the
little girl had come to take the dead
child's place.
Though he loved Leah, to him she had
always been an enigma. Together they
had grown to manhood and woman
hood. and as yet he could not fathom
her dual nature
Nor could she help him. To his ques-
tion and pleading she could only say:
Some da-, when the evil pcwer leaves |
me, you shall claim me; tifl thon ho |
content. Some day | shall be free: the
stars have told it. And with freedoms
will come the memory of that gypsy
returned and l thought heard her call |
ing me-but it was only fancy-and the
song is forgotten"
And now. as he gazed longingly at
this woman, so strange, yet so beautiful,
woman in whose soul two spirits
seemed striving for the mastery, one
good. the other evil, he noted startled
listening expression fit across her face.
Her eyes looked far beyond She saw
the orchestral prelude.
Her soul was Tar away; she saw a |
gypsy camp, circle of admiring faces
clustered round little child; she heard
the thrum. thrum of an old gut'nr and
a mothers voice pleading: cain.
Leah" Once more, as if led h, power
other than her will, the Ii form
swayed to that dance of long ago; once
more was heard the song so sad and
sweet. Again she felt the tender, low
ing presence of her mother; gentle
peace stole into her heart, her soul
seemed filled with rapture; and, as her |
song died away in the last weird notes, |
she turned to her lover, her eyes wet |
with the sweet due of love, her voice
full of the tender notes of surrender,
and as he listened he knew that the
evil power had left her, that the beau
tiful gypsy was his forever.