The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1907-08-16
CHAPTER XXV.-continued.

IL was love story; again that
strangely moving love of one man for
one woman, that seemed as sweet as
It was novel to her. But there was
war between the houses in the play,
and the young lover had to make a
way to see his beloved, climbing
high wall into her garden, climbing to
her very balcony by a scarf she flung
down to him. To the young woman
from AMAZON, these lovers voices
came with strang compulsion, so
that they played with her heart be-
tween them. She was in turn the
youth, pleading in voice that touched
every heartstring from low to high;
then she was the woman, soft and
timid, hesitating in moments Of de-
licious doubt, yet almost fearful of her
power to resist,-half-wish to be
persuaded, half-frightened lest she
yield.
Feverishly she followed the heart.
breaking tragedy to its close, suffer.
Ing poignantly the grief of each lover,
suffering death for each, and feeling
her life desolated when the end came.
But when the dull curtain shut her
back into her own little world, where
there was no love like that, and be-
side the little bent man she went out
into the night.
The next morning had come a
further delight, an invitation to a ball
from Brigham. Most of the day was
spent in one of the shops, choosing
a gown Of wondrous beauty, and hav-
ing it fitted to her. When she looked
into the little cracked mirror that
night, she saw strange new face and
figure; and, when she entered the ball
room, she felt that others noted the
same strangeness, for many looked at
her until she felt her cheeks burn.
Then Brigham arose from a sofa,
where he had been sitting with his
first wife and his last, and came gal
lantly toward her; Brigham, whom
she knew to be the most favored of
God on earth and the absolute ruler of
all the realm about her,-an affable,
unpretentious yet dignitied gentleman
OF 70, who took her hand warmly in
both his own, looked her over with his
kindly blue eyes, and welcomed her
to Zion in words of fatherly gentle
ness. Later, when he had danced with
some of his wives, Brigham came to
dance with her, light of foot and full
Of zest for the measure as any youth.
Others danced with her, but during
1t all she kept finding herself back be-
fore the magic square that framed the
land where man loved but one
woman. She remembered that Brig
ham had sat with four Of his wives
In one of the boxes, enthusiastically
applauding that portrayal of a single
love. AS the picture came back to
her now, there seemed to have been
something incongruous in this spec
ltacle. She observed the scanned and
hardened features of his earliest wife,
who kept to the sofa during the even
Ing beside the better favored Amelia,
whom the good man had last married,
and she thought of his score or so of
wives between them.
Then she knew that what she had
seen the night before had been the
truth; that she could love no man who
did not love her alone. She tried to
Imagine the lover in the play going
from balcony to balcony, signing the
same impassioned love-tale to woman
after woman; or to imagine him with
many wives at home, to whom would
be taken the news of his death in the
tomb of his last. So she thought of
the play and not Of the ball, stepping
the dances absently, and, when it was
all over, she fell asleep, rejoicing that
before their death, the two dear lovers
had been sealed for time and eternity,
so that they could awaken together
In the Kingdom.
They went home the next day, driv.
ing down the valley that rolled in bill.
lows of green between the broken
ranges of the Wasatch and the
oquirrh. 1t was no longer of the King
dom she thought, nor of Brigham and
his wives; only of a clean-limbed
youth in doublet and hose, a plumed
cap, and silken cloak, who, in a
voice that brought the tears back of
her eyes, told of his mdying love for
one woman-and of the soft, tender
woman in the moonlight, who had
trusted him and let herself go to him
In life and in death.
The world had not ended. She
thought that, in truth, 1t could not
have ended yet; for had she not life
to live?