The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1903-09-25


true musician. he accompanied the
strange air with all rs subtle changes.
Then. as the song ended in a breathing
Of heartbreak and despair he turned
10 the child, the tears streaming down
his gentle old face.
"Ah. monsieur. monsieur" he cried
at is the voice Of an angel"
While her child was singing far away
across the sea, the mother was dying.
On a poor bed with scarcely covering
for her wasted body. she lay, clasping
TO her breast a little dress, old and
worn.
As her husband bent over her, trying
in his rude fashion to adjust the ragged
pillow
"Harkl" she whispered. "Listenl /
hear my Leah singing"
The great auditorium was filled TO
overlooking Every seat in the vast
room was taken and the boxes we're
taxed to their utmost capacity.
Never had a prlma donna sung to
more cultured and enthusiastic audience.
Time after time, the great house had
broken out into uncomfortable ap-
plause. 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 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 a 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 a 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 passing
resemblance and because Of this Ike
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 day, when the evil power leaves
me. you shall claim me; till then be
content. Some day | shall be free; the
stars have told it. And with freedom
will come the memory Of that gypsy
song my mother taught me. once 1t
returned and thought I heard her call
ing me-but # was only fancy the
song is forgotten"
And now, as he gazed longingly at
this woman, so strange, yet so beautiful
woman I'm 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
not the great audience; unheeded was
the orchestral prelude.
Her soul was far away; she saw
gvpsv camp. circle Of admiring faces
clustered round little child; she hear'
the thrum. thrum Of an old guitar and
a mothers voice pleading: Again
Leah" Once more, as If led by a powei
other than her will. the 1.-THE form
swaved TO that dance of long ago; ono
more was heard the song so sad an'
sweet. Again she felt the tender, Low
ing presence Of her mother; agentl'
peace stole into her heart, her sou
seemed filled with rapture; and, as he
song died away in the last weird notes
she turned to her lover, her eyes we
with the sweet due Of love, her voic
full of the tender notes Of surrender
and as he listened he knew that tn
evil mower had left her, that the beau
tiful gypsy was his forever.