The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1905-03-30
In an Opera
Box
BY Lilicn G. Pascbaf
Copyright. 1904, by Lillian C. Paschal

The great hotel facing the park was
an obelisk of light fiecls. Motor cars
came and went noisily under the wide
porte cochere.
Back of the large hostelry and across
q narrow alley Il white girlish face
banked with pillows looked out wist-
fully from the one narrow window of
third floor back at these evidences of
life and gayety. listening to tile Or
chestra.
Suddenly the music burst into wild
tropical air from Carmen" very revel
of life and youth and lusty, red blood
ed joy The invalid buried her tired
eyes in the soft pillows. and her thin
shoulders shook. Shaken by the tenn
pest of sobs, a crutch that had been
leaning against the bedside ratified to
the floor.
"Oh. can bear their old rastime
things without shiver.' she cried.
"but the opera airs-they break my
heart. And now l shall never sing
them again. know shan't!'
Tie incohcrcnt cry went straight
through the open window Ike a wing
ed arrow. across the alleyway in the
grand hotel, and lodged deep in the sick
heart of q listener there. Its note of
suffering and aching longing needed no
| interpreter That is Il universal lam
guage understood alike in palace and
| tenement.
John Wixton had been staring mood
! ily out of the darkened shadows of his
| unliGhted room into the still darker
shadows of future that looked
gloomy indeed to his usually careless,
sunny eyes. He had been hard hit
I there was no coubt of that-and the
girls refusal of him had cut deep. He
| had been SO sure of her-too sure. per-
| haps-but he had thought he could not
| be mistaken in that warm light in her
eyes that had set his heart ON fire all
| these weeks.
| 'T.e light that lies in woman's eyes
and lies - and lies : and lies!" he
sneered miserably. sitting there in the
dark Curse the whole sex. anyway.
and their deceitful wiles!" And his
clinched hands thumped the window
sill fiercely. He had mooned over her
like a maundering idiot. he told himself
hotly, and now she was engaged. SO
/ her mother had told him the last time
he called, to Billy Lunders and his mil
lions-principally the latter. he thought.
Lord! There was that beastly chan
sonnette from Carmen again-could he
never escape the thing?-the song that
breathed SO horribly of her in every
seductive note She had worn red
rose in her hair, too. that night he first
net her with the Van Lorns. He could
smell that rose now.
Tonight Carmen was on tie bill
again. He recalled duly that he had
/ the same box for this performance, in
! tending to take her and show her he
remembered that first night SO long
/ ago She had said men alwaws forgot
/ the dates woman remembered. He
had meant to tell her Of his loving lit
tie surprise that evening. Was it only a
week ago? How could he ever bear to
hear an opera again? Curse it. He
/ would get out of this sickening old New
York and go west-to Chicago-any-
| where.
''These opera airs-they break my
heart!' broke in the sobbing cry from
| the window across the alley. John
raised his head to listen. Same here,
| kid he muttered heavily. Its that
lame girl-poor little beggar! She does
have devil Of a time of it, lying there
all day with hot water bags and things
around her. It's shamer'
Il want to be back there on the
stage again." went ON the voice. "sing-
ing with the rest OF the chorus.
4 was village maiden in Carmen you
know. Mrs. Beehe." To the conscious
pride in this already well known fact
there came an indistinct murmur OF
consolation from the dark interior OF
the little room.
"And maybe some day might have
been a Sembrich Or Melba. my OWL
self-the master said so-and now my
backs hurt, and I'll never sing again
know it! If I could only so just
once and hear it all again l think
maybe l could bear it better but tt
be penned in here all the time like {
rat with the snappers of trap caught
over his back-it's too The rest wa.
. lost in the Unfolding pillow.
The man in the darkened window
across the way suddenly stood up
turned on the light and squared hi:
shoulders like a soldier ready fol
marching 'sTll do itr' he said grimly
"Fll not run away like coward. II
face this thing out. I've got to g
through it some time. and I might al
well begin now. Eli go right to tha
same box and fight it out. And. what
more. I'm going to take that chilt
along. She'll probably look fright
and people will stare, but hang th
people!'
He took his hat and overcoat an,
hurried from the room. At the ofiic
he stopped to give an order for an aut
! cab
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