Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury [Connecticut]) 1903-1917, 1903-08-29


her voice rose and fell to that weird
sweet song.
And, as he listened, over the face
of the master there came look OF rap
ture, while with the instinct of the
true musician, he accompanied the
strange air with ali it's subtle changes.
Then, as the song ended in breathing
Of heartbreak and despair, he turned
to the child, the tears streaming down
his gentle old face.
"Ah, monsieur. monsieur" he cried
sit is thesvoice of an angel"
across the sea, the mother was dying.
On a poor bed with scarcely covering
for her wasted body, she lay, claspina
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! !
hear my Leah singing"
The great auditorium was filed to
overlooking. Every seat In the vast
room was taken and the boxes were
taxed to their utmost capacity.
Never had pri1na donna sung to q
more cultured and enthusiastic audience.
Time after time, the great house had
broken out into uncomfortable ap-
plause, and now, as the performance
neared it's close, Leah, the gypsy.
again appeared, and the people once
more settled into the expectant quiet
that always accompanies the presence
of a 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.
A 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.
That she was gypsy he knew, but
where she came from or why to his
fathers house he had never learned
That father, stern, silent man, had
never courted inquiry. About year
before Leah's 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 a passing
resemblance and because of this like
ness, the boy shrewdly guessed that the
IIlittle 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-
ton and pleading she could only say:
Z, Some day, when the evil power leaves
i me, you shall claim me; till then be
content. Some day I shall be free; the
tsstars have told it. And with freedom
will come the memory of that gypsy
j song my mother taught me. Once 1t
returned and thought heard her call
ing me-but it was only fancy and the
!. song Is forgotten
And now, as he gazed 1onging1y al
+, this woman, SO strange, yet SO beautiful,
|; a woman in whose soul two spirits
seemed striving for the mastery one
good, the other evil, he noted a startled
listening expression fit across her face
Her eyes looked far beyond. She saw
not the great audience; unheeded was
the orchestral prelude.
: Her soul was far away; she saw q
gypsy camp, a circle of adn1iring faces
clustered round little child she heard
the thrum, thrum of an old guitar and
mothers voice pleading: again
Leah" Once more, as il led by a power
other than her will, the 1.-THE 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; a 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.
In the rear seat long after the audi
ence had dispersed sat a dark-faced man
] his handsome, yet wicked, gypsy face
| still turned towards the empty stage
| Quite still he sat and neither moved nor
| spoke. The man was dead.
FAILINGS OF CORRESPONDENTS
| Letters Folded Wrong and Otherwise
| Made Troublesome to BUSH
! ness Recipients.
sNot one person in ten folds letter
and puts it in the envelope right side
up" said the correspondence clerk o.