Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1906-08-13

moonlight, Olivia was full OF admir-
alton for this man whom the gods
had lowered with so many gifts. He
his life for Bessie, his face was
handsome enough to haunt the
dreams of a sculptor, and tonight ne
had exercised power of imaglna-
ton and voice and influence that had
moved a crowded audience.
Think of it! An impressionable
girl, full of poetry, and ready as
wax to receive an impression, and
wonder not that as she walked be-
side him she felt magnetized, attract
ed, fascinated.
She was pale still, still slightly
tremulous, and her breath came slow
ly and heavily. Lines of the ex-
quisite poem into which he had
breathed life and reality still rang in
her ears. She could find nothing
to say that would not have sounded
to her ears hideously commonplace,
And it was he who first spoke.
miss Vanley,' he said, Il have an
uncomfortable feeling of guilt
She looked up at him instantly,
with that look which woman
turns upon the man on whom her
mind is fixed
Guilt" she echoed.
She looked up al him instantly,
with that look which woman turns
upon the man on whom her mind is
fixed.
Guilt" she echoed.
He smiled at the almost tragic
tones of her voice.
Yes, l have an uneasy feeling
that 1 have made you uncomfortable
with my uncanny performance"
NO." she said, slowly, mot un-
comfortable.
''It was a stupid thing to do" he
went on. Stupid and unsuitable to
the bulk of the audience; but my
excuse-well, my only excuse is that
knew no other piece, and was too
well, too lazy to learn any other.
will never recite it again"
MOI" she breathed. Don't say
that 1t would be q waste. 1t was
beautiful-beautiful- yet SO sad.
/" She paused. Il have read
the poem-everybody has but l did
not know it was so dreadful until to-
night"
Because l give it with all the
usual tricks" he said, half-contempt-
uously. THAT is why. But it is a
great piece of yerse-and dreadful"
My sympathies are all with
Eugene Aram,'' she said, dreamily.
ct is wrong, l know"
He looked at her for a moment in
silence.
yes, it is wrong," he said. One
should not sympathize with the man
who commits a crime; but l under
stand. His sufferings were almost
an expiation.'
Shes huddered slightly.
Yes, and he was sOrely tempted.
But do you think that it is-natural?
That an educated man should com
nit such a crime"
Education he said, slowly; and
in the after-time which cast such an
awful shadow over her life, she re-
called his words. Has that anything
to do with it? Education teaches? us
to conceal our passions; it does not,
cannot destroy them. No, under The
thin veneer which civilization plas-
ters over us, lie the old savage in
stincts, and if you scratch your man
of refinement deep enough you will
find the passions of the barbarian
still existing. Given a temptation
fiery enough, and your man of rank,
position, education will fall"
That is terrible" she breathed;
and you think that anyone-anyone
could be tempted to commit-mur
der?"
His dark eyes rested on her.
1T depends on the temptation" he
said, as if rather communing with
himself than answering her Some
men could not be induced to commit
even an indiscretion for the sake of
all the mines in Peru, but for an
other mOtive-the one motive-lust
of power, ambition. revenge, love"
he paused, and the word rang in her
brain-"he would descend to any
crime-aye, even murder" :.
The faint shudder ran through her
again, and he seemed to know it, for
he said in a lighter tone:
But this kind of morbid talk is
shamed by such a night. What a
lovely moon! II reminds me OF
those lines of Heine:
" Goddess of our sleeping hours
When silver tints the dropping flow
ers,
and he repeated in low, musical
voice, that seemed to sing the words,
the whole of The short poem: surely
one of the sweetest in the German
tongue.
Olivia unconsciously drew nearer
to him, and the words, the voice dis
PEELED the faint terror that had
throbbed through her.
Il don't know it." she said, almost