Los Angeles herald., 1906-04-08
STOLEN u AY &G
A2 4

most closed, the dark lashes shading her cheek.
Go on. More than ever l wanted anything in
my life, | want to hear your voice"
The man had a voice deep and rich and beau
tiful. He did not know what tones of added
beauty it took on as he murmured almost inco-
herenty
81 want to touch your hand, my Lady of the
| Sweetest Eyes! | want to feel if your pulses will
beat just little more swiftly and whether there
will come flush to your cheek as the blood
takes a quickened leap"
The lashes quivered under his burning glance
II want to kiss your eyes" went on the inn
passioned tone; II don't think ever cared to
kiss the eyes of any other woman | do not
think any other woman has such white lids, with
the blue veins running like lace into the shad-
ow of her hair"
He leaned closer, and some of the curling ten
drills brushed his face. ''My Cod" he exclaimed
"what have you done to me? l feel as if the
old legend of Lith were indeed true, and that
about my heart single hair is Tightening to
check the tide of life And only this morning"
he assevered to the blighted tree outside the
window, Il did not know this woman lived"
"You late in coming" she said "and
then to have YOU but little day-and to think
you did not know mel
''Know you! When? where?" he demanded
wildly.
Il do not remember" she answered in a weary
tone. "T have not time to remember but
think it was in some other star | knew you as
as I you this morning, but you were
long in coming to me-"
But | thought-you do not look like a wo-
man to whom a stranger might speak," he said
eagerly.
"And you do not look like a man who would
intrude upon a stranger" she replied; ''and yet
you had to speak to me, you couldn't help it. |
tell You I am not to be thwartedl' and she
changed her position to look more directly into
his face.
81 have this one day, and it is mine by right.
have been in prison for thirty Years, and my
sentence may possibly if not probably. be thirty
years longer. Then | shall be an old woman. Oh,
yes, | shall live to be very old. We do that,
and | have never been i'll in my life. Nothing
hurts me, or should have been dead these ten
years. But | shall be old woman, and there
will be dark eyes on earth to speak to mine
as yours speak now. When / am sixty YOU will
not see me in the throng, and you will not care
whether my pulses leap at your words This is
my day. All the other days have been like that
dreary stretch OF snowy landscape, with its brok-
en- bridges and ruin on every side
But OH he interrupted surely YOU will
not slip away from at this journeys end
where I may not You ever again? There are
many days before you are sixty-for you and
for | do not mean to lose you now-that
swear!' triumphnt ring in his tones.
"And I swear she said solemnly and rever
emily. an uplifted hand staying his impetuous
words, that this is only day-yours and
mine. Do you suppose" she asked with sudden
ferceness, that ! should have mpered all flu
ture bliss if there had been future for you and
me? Do you fancy for a moment that I should
have encouraged a stranger to come to me and
should have permitted him to say what YOU have
said if there were to he a tomorrow? All, no.
realize too well what such a man as you-a
man who has surely been beloved by many wo-
MOI Ot1ld of tba
they were TO exist for lis. 1t is because | shall
step out of your existence when this day is done
that | am coming into it 1t is because |
shall never hear them again that I long to hear
your words now. To you it is but an incident
to me it is a rosary of memory whose beads | !
shall count through all my lonely to-morrows"
Then she turned her face away and said plead
ingly:
Speak to me again. Say something that l
may thread on my rosary"
"Oh.' he cried, "the thread of your rosary is
drawing closer and closer about my heart and
you hold it in your grasp. See, lifting his
hand. strong and fine, with sensitive fnger-tips-
"see the veins swelling like whip-cords. You do
not know what chaos your words produce in the
mind of a man who is so much alive as | am"
A flush rose to his brow. 'I am filled with
Just one big longing he exclaimed-''to have
You in my arms to lay your head against nv
breast! I WONDER" he said, bending to look
QeCp uIO neT eyes. II YOU WOulO ever come to
touch lightly with your hand, to pass it over
my brow where pulse throbs fast just now
alb"
Would I mott" she broke in. ooh, I could
be sweet to you-s gentle. so tender! but it
is not permitted this our day. All we can do
is to look out Of the window and speak about
the tanglo Of telegraph wires yonder across the
river. How like Opheha's hair they are-poor.
dlshevellcd wires! and the stranded engine on
the bit Of track whose beginning and ending is
the torrent-how forlornly majestic it seems in
its hclplcssncss! You can speak to me and tell
me thoughts which thrill my very soul but, ah,
my friend, whose name 7 do not even know. it
is not written that I shall ever be enfolded in
any mans embrace"
The train started with many noisy protests
and moved laboriously up the heavy grade
"Ah, if it would but go more slowly" she
sighed, and he blessed her ardently for the
words
As the moments passed she made him sit lit