The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-11-04
r EZA.NIO V'
By GERTRUDE ATHERTON.
copyright 1906 ~ Gertrude Atherton Ali Rights Ressrved
XXI.-Continued.

XXI.-Continued. -
sh en suppo wed,o like v all the Argueilos
and Moragas; but hidden in her I'M
spotted soul would be the flame of eter-
nal youth, fed by an ideal and men,
ory that would outlive her weary in
significant body. And in it she would
find her courage and her inspiration as
well as an unwasting sympathy for
those she taught.
Then had come the sudden and pas
ideals and aspirations had fed. She
had alternated between the tragic ex-
tremes of bliss and despair. So COM
pletely did the ardor of her nature re-
sppnd to his, so fierce and primitive
was the cry of her ego sfor its mate,
that she cared nothing for the distress
Of her parents nor the fate of Califor-
MIA. There is no love complete with
out this early and absolute selfshness,
which is merely the furious determina-
tion Of the race to accomplish its OBJ
ject before the spirit awakens and the
passions cool.
Last night life had seemed less SER
ious; she had been girlishly, romantic
ally happy. 1t is true that her heart
had thumped against the wall as he
kissed her, and that she had been full
of wild desire to sing, altho she
could hardly shape and utter the words
that danced in her throbbing brain.
But she had been conscious thru it all
of the romantic circumstance, of the
lonely beauty of the night, of the de-
hghtful wickedness of meeting her low
er in the silence and the dark, even
them. For the wall, indeed, she had
haan non p,Iae61xy anI Ia1ioior,cl1rn TO-
full.
And this was what mans love came
to: ardors by night and expedience by
day! Or was it merely that Rezanov
was the man of affairs always, the
lover incidentally9 But how could a
man who had seemed the very epitome
OF all the lovers of all the world but a
few hours before, contemplate, far less
accept, separation Of years. Poor
ceptable fact of life the whole, lit by
love it's chief incident; and had fleet
ing vision Of the waste lands in the
lives Of women occupied only with mat
rimony. But she dropped her lashes
upon this unalluring vision. and as she
did so. inevitably she began to excuse
the man.
None. knew better than she every
side of the great question that was
fornia itself. Appeal from the dictum
of state and clergy would be mere
waste of time. The only alternative
was flight. That would mean the wreck
Of Rezanov's avowed purposes in COM
Ing to this quarter of new Spain, and
perhaps of others she dimly suspected.
It would mean the very acme Of misery
for his Sitkans, and an indefensible
blow to the company. It might even
Ina 90 of 4oIr - I,
for which his enemies were ever on the
alert. He was not communicative about
himself except when he had an object
in view, but he had told her something
Of his life, and his officers and Langs-
dorff had told more. He was no silly
caballero warbling and drumming at
her grating. when she longed for sleep,
but man in his forties whose passions
were in the leash of remarkably acute
with pride in his strength, for she knew
how he loved her; and ,altho his part
was action, her stimulated instincts
taught her that she would rarely be
long from his mind. And what was she
to seek to roll stumbling blocks into
the career Of a man like thata In this
very garden, for four long days, she
had dreamed exalted dreams of the
manifold gifts she should develop both
for his solace at home and his worldly
advancement: She had once felt all
girls impatience when her, mother
tears made her fathers departure on
some distant mission more difficult than
need be, and altho she knew now that
her capacity for tenderness was as great
she resolved to mould herself in larg-
or shape than that
But she sighed and dropped little.
The burde en- of woman g waiting seemed
already to have descended upon her
Tw9 years . were long1nlong:: There
i'll; he had been i'll before in that bar
barous Russian north. And in all
that time it was doubtful if she re-
ceived a line from him, hint of his
welfare. The Boston and British
shippers came no more, and 1t was GER
tain that no Russian ship would visit
California again until the treaty was
signed and official news of it had made
it's slow way to these uttermost shores.
ton and indocility, the chance that had
stranded her, equipped for civilization,
on this rim Of the world, but never so
much as in that moment, when she sat
with arrested breath and realized to the
full the primitive conditions Of coun-
try thousands Of miles from the very
outposts Of Europe, and with never the
slght or letter that did not come from
Spain or one Of her colonies.
"Would that we lived generation
later she thought with a heavy sigh.
"Progress is almost automatic, and to
a land as fertile and desirable as this
the stream must turn in due course. But
not in my time. Not in my time.O
She rose and leaned her elbows in the
embrasure Of the grille, where Santiago
had restored the bars, and looked out
over the fields Of grain planted by the
padres, the immense sand dunes beyond,
that shut the lovely bay from sight;
the hills embracing the primitive scene
in a frowning arc. With all her i'm
agination it was long before she could
picture great city covering that i'm
mense and almost desert space. A pueb-
10 in time, perhaps, for Rezanov had
awakened her mind to the Importance
Of the harbor as port Of call. Many
more adobe homes where the sand was