Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1905-1906, 1906-02-10

am nCoI- gazing, SIC S1Ia-
Let me sigh for ii with you. Per-
haps together we may bring it down"
There was something very pleasing in
the quality of his tone.
"Ab. IL is you, Count? ! could not
see. But let us not sigh for the moon;
it would be useless. Does any one get
his own wish-moon? Does it not al
ways hang so high. so far away?"
The music has affected you?"
''As 1t always does. When | hear a
voice like madam's, / grow sad. and a
pity for the great world surges over
me"
PITY is the invisible embrace which
enfolds all animate things. There is
pity for the wretched, for the fool, for
the innocent knave, for those who are
criminals by their own folly; pity for
those who love without reward; pity
that embraces even me-"
Silence.
Has it ever occurred to you that
there are two beings in each Of US;
that between these two there is con-
tinual conflict. and that the victor
mus luC NlSlOiy oli lAlC toSC.
For what lines and haggards a mans
face but the victory of the evil that
is in him? For what makes aged rud
dy and smooth of face and clear of
eye but the victory of the good that
is in him? 1t is so. / still love you;
] still have the courage to ask you to
be my wife. Shall there be faces hag-
gard or rudy, lined or SMOOTH"
She stepped inside She did not COM
prehend all he said, and his face was
in the shadow-that is to say, unread
able
Il am sorry, very, very sorry"
How easily you say that"
mo. not easily; if only you knew
how hard it comes, for l know that it
inflicts a hurt, "-gently. "Ah, Count.
why indeed do l not love ?'-im-
pulsively, for at that time she held
him in genuine regard You repre-
sent all that a woman could desire in o
man"
You could learn, with an eager
step toward her
You do not believe that; you know
that you do not Love has nothing to
learn; the heart speaks, and that is
all. My heart does not speak when l
see you. and l shall never marry a
man to whom it does not. You ask
for something which I can not give,
and each time you ask only adds to the
pain
This is finality?"
at isl
"Eh, well; then I must continue on
to the end"
She interpreted this as a plant Of
his coming loneliness.
"Here." she said She held in her
hands two red roses. She thrust one
toward him. THAT is all l may give
you"
For moment he hesitated. There
were thorns, invisible and singing.
Take it,"
He accepted it, kissed it gravely, and
hid it.
This is the bitterest moment in my
life, and doubly because l love YOU"
When the portiere fell behind him,
she locked her hands, grieving that all
she could give him was an ephemeral
flower. How many men had turned
from her in this wise. even as she be-
gan to depend upon them for their
friendships! The dark room oppressed
her and she stepped out once more in
to the silver of moonshine. Have you
ever beheld lovely woman fondle
lovely rose? She drew it, pendent on
its slender stem, slowly across her lips,
her eyes shining mistily with waking
dreams. She breathed in the perfume,
then cupped the flower in the palm of
her hand and pressed it again and
again to her lips. A long white arm
stretched forward and upward toward
the moon, and when it withdrew the
hand was empty.
Warburton, hidden behind the vines,
waited until she was gone, and then
hunted in the grass for the precious
flower. On his hands and knees he
CROPPED. The dew did not matter. And
when at last he found it, not all the
treasures of the tabled Ophir would
have tempted him to part with it. 1t
would be souvenir for his later days.
AS he rose from his knees he was
confronted by broad shouldered,
elderly man in evening clothes. The
end Of a cigar burned brightly between
his teeth.
"I1l take that flower, young man,
il you please.
Warburton's surprise was too great
for sudden recovery.
1T is mine, Colonel" he stammered
The colonel filliped away his cigar
and caught my butler roughly by the
arm
"Warburton. what the devil does
this mean-a lieutenant of mine ped
ding soup around gentleman 3
table?'