The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1921-12-17
Have Always Loved You

thought: YOU, the longing for YOU oaa
picked hip handful of roses an.
IN mn my mna ave them into your on, ns said:
And L thoua you smiled and sa as..
Well dor good and faitnl
servant. Enterparadise.'
$50 l followed you to your NOM
in the Virginian cA.ntry. 1t was Sc
dream, all except taeroses, and thoss
l laid In front of the bw where | keep
your letters and a skesh l made q
you when we were YONG and glao-
when / was young and Mad. For
am an old man, Sheila, H all that
makes men old. My step is quick
still, my eye is sharp, and my bran
beats fast, but my heart is ancienf-
am an ancient of days, without hope
or pleasure, save what pleasure cOmes
in thinking of one who must ever
be worshiped from afar. l wonder
why l seem to feel you very near To-
day!
Here at my window grows wil0
aloe, and it is In flower. Once only
| in fifty years does this aloe flOwef,
| and | pick its sweet verdure now ana
| offer it to you. There it lies. beside
! this letter that l am writing. 1t y
| typical of myself, for only once has
nv heart Powered, and it will be only
once in fifty years. The perfume a
the flower is like an everlasting bud
from the last tree of Time. See. my
| Sheila, your drunken, reckless lover
pulls this sweet offering from his gar
den and offers it to you. He has 40
virtues; and yet he would have been
a thousand times worse If you had
not come into his life. He had b
him the seeds of trouble, the sprout
ings of shame, for even in the fifxt
days of his love there in Dublin u
would not restrain himself. He drank.
he played cards, he fought and went
with bad company-not women, never
that; but he kept the company of those
through whom he came at last to
punishment for manslaughter.
"Yet, without you, who can tell what
he might have been? He might have
fallen so low that not the wealth Of
ten thousand treasure-boNes could give
him even the appearance of honesty.
And now he offers you what you can
not accept-can never accept-a love
as deep as the life from which he
came; love that would throttle the
world for you, that would force the
doors of hell to bring you what you
want.
| 81 look out on q world Of summer
beauty and of heat. l see the sheep
in hundreds on the far hills of pas
turage-sheep with short hair, srnan
and sweet as any that ever came from
the South Downs. / see the natives
in their madras handkerchiefs. see
upon the road some planter In bis
ketureen-a sort of sedan chair; zee
negro funeral, with its strange cere.
mony and its gumbes of African
drums. | see 'yam-fed planters on
their horses, making for the burning,
sandy streets of the capital. I see
the Scots grass growing five and SIX
feet high, food unsurpassed for horses
all the foliage. too-beautiful trop-
zeal trees and shrubs. and here and
| there n huge breeding farm. Yet ]
know that out beyond my sight there
IS the region known as Trelawney and
rrelawney town. the headquarters OF
,be Naroons. the free ~ groes-the,
who fed after the Spanish had beer
conquered and the British came, ans
who were later freed and secured b,
the Trr,,awuey ;rea:gy ..Ho@s ira
now they are ready to rise, that the!
ore working among the slaves; and 1
they rise the danger Is great to tn
white population Of the island. VIII
GRO outnnmbered ten to one.