Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1915-09-24

thC t&oh
Il ask your pardon If iostled you In
the tumbrel," the old comtesse had
said to her companion on the way to
the guillotine. The springs OF the cart
are poor and she went up smiling.
In the companionship of the Ameri-
can girl, Therese de la Maine had
thrown OF restraint. If the Marquiss
dEsclignac had felt Julias influence.
Therese de la Maine. being near her
own age, echoed Julia's very feeling.
Except for their dragoman and their
servants, the two women were alone
in the desert.
Smiling at Julia, Madame de la
Maine said: Il haven't been so far
from the Rue de la Paix in my life"
How can you speak of the Rue de
la Paix, Therese?"
"Only to show you how completely l
have left It behind
julius eyes were fixed upon the rfps-
itless sands, a sea where a faint line
lost itself in the red west and the horf-
zon shut from her sight everything
that she believed to be her lie.
This is the seventh day, Theresel"
Already you are as brown as an
Arab, Juliai"
you as well, ma chere amiel"
Robert does not like dark women"
said the Comtesse de la Maine, and
rubbed her cheek. Il must wear tive
wells"
Look, Theresei"
Across the face of the desert the
glow began to withdraw its curtain.
The sands suEused an ineffable hue, a
shell-like pink took possession, and the
desert melted and then grew colder-it
waned before their eyes, withered like
tea-rose.
Like rosel" Julia murmursd,
smell it's perfumel" She lifted her
head, drinking in with delight the
fragrance of the sands.
ma chere Julia" gently protested
the comtesse, lifting her head, per
fume, Julial" But she breathed with
her friend, while a sweetly subtle, in
toxicating odor, as of millions and mil
lions of roses, gathered, warmed, kept
then scattered on the airs of heaven,
intoxicating her.
To the left we're the huddled tents oil
their attendants. No sooner had the
sun gone down than the Arabs con-
menced to sing-a song that Julia had
especially liked
Love is like a sweet perfume,
1t comes. 1t escapes.
When it's present. il intoxicatea;
| When it's a memory. II brings tearA
| Love is like sweet breath,
| 1t comes and II escapes.
The weird music filled the silence o.
the silent place. 1t had the evanescsnt
quality of the wind that brought the
breath of the sand-fiowers. The voices
of the Arabs not unmusical, though
hoarse and appealing, cried cut thcil
love-song, and then the music turnes
to invocation and to prayer
The two women listened silently Al
the night fell, their figures sharply
outlined in the beautiful clarity OF tn,
eastern night
Julia stood upright In her 8 RI
riding dress. she was as slender - |
boy. She remained looking toward thu
horizon, immovable, patient, a silen
watcher over the uncommunicativ,
waste.
Perhaps" she thought, there 4
nothing really beyond that line, so fas
plotting itsof into highland yet
seem to see them comet"
Madame de la Maine, in the doc
of her tent. i:nmcyable. her hand
claspod around her Knees, look affes
tionately at the young girl before hsr
Julia was a delight to her. She wa
carried away by her, by her frank sim
plicity, and drawn to her warm an,
generous hcSrt. Madame de la Main,
had her own story She wondere,
whether ever, for any period OF he
conventional life, she could hav'
thrown everything aside and stood on
with the man she loved
Julia, standing before her. a darl
slim figure in the night-isolated an,
alone-recalled the fgurehead OF
ship, its face toward heaven. pioneer
ing the open seas
Julia watched, indeed. On the deser
there is the brilliant day. psssionst
glow, and the nightfall. They passes
the nights sometimes listening fer
cry that should hail an apprcachiA,
caravan, sometimes hearing the will
cry of the hyenas, or Of passing wi
ture on his horrid fight. Otherwise
until the camp stirred with the dawl
and the early prayer-call sounded "A
lahl Allah Akbarl" into the still
ness, they we're wrapped in conplst
silence.
(TO BE CONTINUED.)