The Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1903-1909, 1908-04-18

| Rhdetidfl music"
meadow flowers, rich as the deep notes
of a nightingale in his passion for the
moon And, for the song, 1t was the
heartbreaking cry of young Rhaetian
peasant who, lying near death in a
strange land, longs for one ray of sun
rise light on the bare mountain tops Of
the homeland more earnestly than for
his first sight of an unknown heaven.
The man outside the door did not
move until the voice was still. He
knew we'll, though he could not see,
who the singer had been. 1t was i'm
possible for the plump lady at the
window or the thin lady with the
glasses to own voice like that. 1t
was the girls. She only Of the trio
could so exhale her soul In the very
perfume of sound, for to his fancy 1t
was like hearing the fragrance of a
rose breathed aloud 81 have heard an
angel" he said to himself. but In
reality he had heard Princess Vir-
ginia of Baumenburg- Drippe showing
off her very prettiest accomplishment
In the childish hope that the man she
loved might hear.
Leopold of Rhaetia had heard many
golden voices-golden In more senses
of the word than one-but never be-
fore, 1t seemed to him, voice which
so stirred hts spirit with pain that
was bittersweet, pleasure as binding
as pain and vague yearning for
something beautiful which he had new
er known.
If he had been asked what that
something was he could not, If he
would, have told, for man cannot ex-
plain that part Of himself which he
has never even tried to understand.
Before he had moved many PAGES
from the door the lovely voice, no
longer plaintive, but swelling to bril-
liant triumph, broke into the national
anthem of Rhaetia-w arlike, inspiring
as the "Marseillaise," but wider, call
ing her sons to face death singing in
the defense
She's an English girl, yet she sings
our Rhaetian music as no Rhaetian
woman ] have ever heard can sing
It," he told himself, slowly passing
on to his own door. "She is a new
type to me. don't think there can be
many like her. A pity that she is not
princess or else-that Leopold, the
emperor, and Leo, the chamois hunter,
are not two men. Still, the channels
hunter of Rhaetia would be no match
for Miss Mowbray of London, so the
weights would balance In the scales
as unevenly as now"
He gave a sigh and smile that
lifted his eyebrows. Then he opened
the door of his sitting room to forget
among certain documents which urged
the Importance of an immediate return
to duty the difference between Leo
pold and Leo, the difference between
women and a woman.
"Goodby to our mountains tomorrow
morning." he said to his three chosen
companions. Hey for work and Kron-
burgw
She was going to Kronburg In few
days. according to Frau Yorvan. But
Kronburg was not Alleheiligen, and
Leopold, the emperor, was not at his
palace In the way of meeting tourists
or even explorers"
"She'll never know to whom she
gave her ring" he thought, with the
dense innocence of man who has
studied all books save women's looks.
"And I'll never know who rives her
plain gold one for the finger on which
she once wore this"
But In the next room, divided from
him by single wall, sat Princess Vir-
ginia of Baumenburg- Drippe.
when we meet again at Kronburg
be mustn't dream that knew all the
time,' she was saying to herself. THAT
would spoil everything-just at first.
Yet oh, some day how | should love
to confess all-alll Only couldn't pos
sibly confess except to a man who