Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1906-09-07
THE SPIRIT or THE -EAG00N.

By JUN NJ. KNIGHT.

1t was q wonderful night, white,
magical, uansfgured as the creation
of some poets fancy; such a night as
could only come to this siren OF the
sea, fair Venice, under the throbbing
light, the languorous warmth of mid
summer moon. For hours they had
been drifting about, through gltmmer
and gloom, stars above and stars be-
low, in the graceful write curtained
gondola, that rocked on the silver
dimpling tide like some seabird alrly
poised for flight.
At last they could not speak for
looking, but sat hand clasped in hand,
drinking it all in; the splendor of sea
and sky, the fair foreign scene tnat
rose mirage like before their vision.
Stately dome, airy minaret and palace
tower, etched against the soft sum-
mer skies, moon flooded plazzas, arch
ed bridges, and darkling water ways,
shimmering tracts of light across by
the ghostly shapes of passing gondolas
in their noiseless fight.
To the girl, mere slip OF thing
in diaphanous white, of a delicate
f1ower-like loneliness, it presented all
the charm of novelty; to the man,
revisiting of former scenes under the
spell of her girlish presence, the won
ders of the old world, the illusions OF
his youth, seen once again through
the light of her happy eyes; and in all
Europe what sort so fitting as Venice
for a pair of married lovers under the
first glamor of the honeymoon?
Suddenly, without warning, through
the stiffness of the summer night, a
watt of music was borne to them,
gush of melody, so wild, sweet and
strange, that it thrilled their hearts
with its swift appeal; it was the last
touch to the picture.
From whence did it spring? Where
lurked the unknown singer who could
work such spells? Not glimmer OF
light or any token of human pres
ence in the palace walls that rose sheer
before them from the ripping tide, the
fragrant solitude of the old garden,
half-glimpsed through its broken water
gate
1t was not the ringing refrain of the
gondolier's song echoing across the Ia
goons at intervals, or the richer har-
monies of some passing music boat,
softened by distance There was some
thing fitful, fairylike, unreal in the
mysterious music, which seemed to
surround them like the silvery atmos-
phere of the night; now soaring up
ward on the path of the moonbeams
from the darkness of the deserted
palace. now yelling forth from the
blossomy tangle of the shadowy gar
den. like the sorrowful plant OF an
ecstatic nightingale Then as they
held their breath to listen, a single
voice rose. in bold, beautiful melody,
almost human and articulate ia its
passionate meaning; then duo, ten
der, melting, caressing. with love for
its theme; and ere the exquisite ca
dences had faded away, a burst of
moeking laughter, strange, eerie, in
describable in effect, rang forth and
startled all. the echoes Of the lonely
place.
Beppo, leaning on his oar in careless,
ease, picturesque figure in the moon
light, with his 1.-THE grace and rich
Italian beauty, shuddered and crossed.
himself as before the powers Of dark
ness; the girl crept nearer to herrcom-
panion, as If for protection, her face
touched with sudden pallor; while
the man, a musician in his way. and
a connoisseur of the highest In art
drew a deep breath of infinite salts
faction.
'Oh Hareldi" cried the girl in low