The star-independent. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1904-1917, 1915-04-14
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ILLUSTRATIONS c6Ic RAY WALTERS
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NS4II RAY WALTERS

nummlng IN an agreeaDle paryIone the
snatches of song he could remember,
La File de Madame Angot," III Tro-
vato-e;" running them into more mod
ern opera, La veuve Joyeuse." But
the lines creased in Sabron's forehead
indicated that the singer had not yet
found the music which haunted the
memory Of the sick man.
Sing" he would repeat, fixing his
hollow eyes on his companion. and
fremont complied faithfully. Finally,
his own thoughts going back to early
days, he hummed tunes that he and q
certain little girl had sung at their
games in the allees OF an old chateau
in the valley of the Indre.
"Sonnez les matines
Ding-din-don,"
and other childrens melodies.
In those nights. on that desolate
way, alone. in travelling tent. at the
side Of a man he scarcely knew, Rob-
ert de fremont learned serious les.
sons. He had been a soldier himself,
but his life had been an inconsequent
one. He had lived as he liked, behind
him always the bitterness of an early
deception. But he hadsbeen too young
to break his heart at seventeen. He
had lived through much since the day
his father exiled him to Africa.
Therese had become a dream, q
memory around which he did not al.
ways let his thoughts linger. When
he had seen her again after her hus.
bands death and found her free. he
was already absorbed in the worldly
life of an ambitious young man. He
had not known how much he loved her
until in the Villa des Bougainvilleas
he had seen and contrasted her with
Julia Redmond.
All the charm for him of the past
returned. and he realized that, as
money goes, he was poor-she was
poorer.
The difficulties of the marriage mace
him all the more secure in his deter.
mination that nothing should separate
him again from this woman.
By Sabron's he'd he hummed his
little insignificant tunes, and his heart
longed for the woman. When once or
twice on the return journey they had
been threatened by the engulfing sand
storm he had prayed not to die before
he could again clasp her in his arms.
Sweet. tantalizing, exquisite with
the passion Of young love, there came
to him the memories of the moonlight
nights on the terrace of the old cha.
teau. He saw her in the pretty girl.
ish dresses of long ago, the melan.
choly droop Of her quivering mouth,
her bare young arms, and smelled the
fragrance of her hair as he kissed
her. So humming his soothing melo.
dies to the sick man, with his voice
softened by his memories, he soothed
Sabron.
Sabron closed his eyes. the creases
In his forehead disappeared as though
brushed away by tender hand. Per.
haps the sleep was due to the fact
that, unconsciously, fremont slipped
into humming tune which Miss Red
mond had sung in the Villa des Bou.
gainvilleas, and of whose English
words De fremont was quite ignorant
will he last until Algiers, Hammet
Abou?"
What will be will be, monsieur!"
Abou replied.
"He must" De fremont answered
fiercely. HE shall"
He became serious and meditative
on those silent days, and his blue
eyes. where the very whites were
burned. began to wear the far.away
mysterious look of the traveller across
long distances. During the last sand
storm he stood, with the camels, round
Sabron's litter, a human shade and
shield, and when the storm ceased he
fell Ike one dead. and the Arabs