Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1903-12-24


ing few steps they found themselves
In long corridor out of which opened
several small rooms some Is by Is feet
In dimensions-throne rooms, so to
speak, of the defunct and sublimnted
bulls. In the center of the room stood
the sarcophagus, hewn from single
block of granite or sandstone the mass
i've shell Unfolding the remains Of the
regal bovine which so many centuries
ago had housed the masquerading Osi-
ris.
More than a thousand years before
the last OF them had passed out Of the
life of Egypt, and not her own short
lifetime back, a Frenchman Of Bon-
logne, Mariette Pasha, had unearthed
their tombs, long lost in the irreverent
enshrouding sand. Yet the solemnity
of 1t all, II any there was, did not
check the scornful quiver Of her lip as
Clarice reflected that her heart asked
not for Crisis, but for one friendly
touch to save 1t from an aridity like
that of the surrounding desert. Alas,
cowed by her oppressed feelings, intol-
erantly resentful OF Lucien Bonvale's
degrading Jealousy, scarce daring to
call her soul her own, she appealed
silently to the whole world for SYM
pathy, and there was none to heed her
and bring peace to her soul.
With quick sigh and passing
tremor of her sensitive lips she averted
her dark, brilliant eyes from the sar-
cophagus standing grimly forth in the
fare of the torches and without
thought or intention turned them full
upon those of an attendant.
He was young, handsome, pure type
Arab, with clear pale skin, clean cut
features, tall, sinewy, silent, gentle,
mysterious, suggesting an intensity of
repressed passion. In that hickering
light, down in the gaunt chamber of
death, his soul looked straight through
the glowing eyes which cleaned be-
meath his straight black brows and
grasped that of the girl with sense of
its desolation and hunger 1t was
river Of cool refreshment to her parch-
ed being. Life thrilled through her
The shackles, whose tightening con-
strictions numbed her by their viselike
grip, fell off. She breathed with the
joy of a released prisoner.
Her soul in that first impulsive mo-
ment spoke back with all the eloquence
which can be uttered by the eye 1t
was heart answering heart. Time is
measured by intensity, not mere dura-
ton. The whole length of that encoun-
ter-percCption, bestowal, acceptance
and grateful relief - could not have
been a full minute. But it was Il mile
stone from which life was to be meas
ured. When Carice Bonvale left the
tombs of the Apis bulls and returned 10
Cairo she was not an allen woman
alone in Egypt. \ friend was with
her, a kinsman Of her hcart-hcr proud,
hungry young heart. The memory of
him in the long wanderings up the Nile
was-a tiny, bubbling spring in her be-
ing from which Wellcd solacc and
strength. The rancor of loneliness had
departed, the wasting touch Of aridity
was gone, the eager stretching forth
for something on which to lean felt
prop and support. The image of that
Arab youth, the strong gcntleness of
the passionate grasp he had laid upon
her, haunted her with n soothing sweet
ness.
She seemed to feel it especially at
Philn. The soft charm of the little Is
land and the graceful peace that brood
ed over it-she felt her new kinsman
more in them. With a smile it oc-
CURED to her that here was where Osi-
ris the Beneficent was laid to his rest>
that TO the old Egyptian there was no
mightier oath than that sworn by
him who sleeps at PhilI." 1t was at
the solemn tomb that guarded the
stately bull which he had possessed to
be again with his adorers that she had
met the one who had led her out of
Egypt the dark land Of her heart long
ing that could find no rest. When
Id she see him next? Would she
er see him again? And, if she did,
ould he say more than he had said In
that first, quick, close, magnetic fusion
of their souls? Well, Osiris the Beneh-
cent, the struggler against evil, had
been good to her. 1t was enough.
They were returning after their long
lcdBueS up lllc ME. AT luSL lllelr rect
were set homeward There was not so
much charm in that as that they were
leaving Egypt, the place where she had
for the first time realized Lucien Bon
vale.
One night at Luxor she stood OH the
wharf, waiting to embark on the litt'~
steamer which puffed with impudent
impotence to be gone. Bonvale had left
her for a few moments on one Of his
fussy, suddenly thought of quests.
Around her was motley crowd, with
sprinklings of many nations in It's NOV
ing mass. In the noise and confusion
and small babel of jarring elements
strong fingers suddenly slipped smooth
ly, possessively, into the hand which
hung listlessiy at her side. A nutter
ran through her. Her own fingers.
with an instinct Of sympathy, closed
upon those which had been 80 gently
pushed into her warm palm. She
looked up with soft welcoming Of