San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-12-27
CHAPTER xxx.
or four charcoal

1VHREE or four charcoal burn
ers, unkempt as bears, theil
brows shaded by monkisf
hoods, caught hint of blue anG
silver through the thinning wells OF
gold. They stood at gaze, staring
as rough, bovine animals might
The dog that was with them did
not bark; it also looked. The fig
ure of blue and silver, half glade
away, came into clearer view. A
pale profile, steadfast and unearth-
ly, was vaguely seen. There
were no small sounds as of a NOV
ing creature. The figure passed
on into the closer places of the
trees, and was as a wisp of smoke
that is and then is not.
"What woman was that?" said
one.
"She was fairy"
"Perhaps she was saint"
"There are no such folk in the
forest. 1t was a fairy that passed."
An increasing gloom encom-
passed Sidonia. Evergreens multi
piled; the underfoot became
harsher, and there were outcrop-
pings of lichenous rock. The slope
of the ground was downward, and
she followed it, knowing what she
should find. She had eaten moth
ing since the previous evening, and
had suffered love, desperation,
despair, and the deadening calm
that lies beyond these things. Now
she began to be aware of company.
Little men, active as ants, scurried
without noise among the stones
and the writhed tree-roots.. They
were russet-red and had white
boards and pointed ears. There
were STRINGS and movements in
the evergreens-a sense of name
less life.
Live! Liver said an eager,
throaty whisper at the girls ear.
"Seize love-you have it! Enjoy
it to the utmost and | will enjoy it
with you. Why do you starve
yourself and me? Remember the
sweet sitting of your heart. Are
you going to forget that weight of
for ever? Return to
him; he is yours to use as you will.
Sister, sister,"
She knew that this was the pas
sionate and love-abused young
woman who had committed suicide,
and a wave of sympathetic feeling
swept over her. 1t was honeyed,
muscle-relaxing, imperative. AS
one who has been earnestly spoken
to pauses to consider the matter,
her feet were stayed, and she stood
still upon little slope of rock, the
dying fern close about her, the
green-black of the evergreens wall
ing her in, and one silver-birch
;apling like motionless fountain
;pray of scattered gold. Love.
The half-formed, glowing thoughts
hat swan into her mind were like
4 feast of Injuries outspread be-
fore famine. and she was aware
If her starvation of the heart and
If the senses. She shivered, press
ng her crossed hands against her
BOSOM. The dark tree-masses like
cavern walls, the fern,
he rusty briers, the moist, low
lung, sunless, MINDLESS sky-it was
shaggy solitude, damp-smelling,
trewn with thorns and the blunt
eeth of stones. Yet for the girl
t crept and stirred and whispered
Nth life. Shadowy figures of
yOmen ventured forward, were
alf met by hairy, goat-legged
zen, who skipped and pranced ST.
antly, retreated, were pursued,
nd the shrubs shook with rustlings.
Everywhere, like a vague tremor,
here seemed to be the movement
{ love.
Give, Live! Take him into
our arms and bind him to you as
18th letters. | starve if you
.arve. Sister, sister,"
Sidonia covered her face with
err hands and dropped to her
nees upon the shelving rock. She
rOuchcd lower until she was bent
pom herself like a creature in an
;stasy Of grief.
Il want him! I want him,
we him. her heart walled. And
] the blood in her body clamored
it'll a desperate incohercnce as
omen 0abble upon the rack.
lamored to live, to love.
81 will go back! l want him!
want lover
She could go back. They would
)t burn her if she found her way
him first and the arm of the
,ung lords protection was
rown about her as his priest
edded wife. He would wed her
"a witch-because he had been
spelled by a philtre and spoken
arms and the power of the Mas
r. No! MOI The price was too
gh--his soul and all the pride
at had carried her through her
e and was the very energy that
rived her love Xet her epir;,