OCR Text |
Show a a as 3 Vork-%: bey EO * Journal sy of Current eee de sla Art and Science for the Western Household 3 aa 3 o- — Salt Lake = City, Utah, January 5, = 1880. ° $2.25 the employes of the hotel hastened to seemed to be plunged in a sea of reflec- sounded with two loudstrokes, measured receive him showed plainly that they tions. They could not have been cheer- and thoughtful, which had the effect of had discovered in him a fountain of rich ful, for his brows were closely knit and an electric shock upon the nurse. She BY WM. MORRIS. — “tips.” The driver saluted him cap in proved that some tempest was passing threw far away from ‘her some cloth hand, and in turning away discovered behind that forehead, usually calm as which she held in her hand, overturned From this dull rainy undersky and low, This murky ending of.a leaden day, to the bystanders a bright gold coin that of a child and pale as that of a dead a number of chairs and tore a curtain That never knew the sun, this half-thawed snow, nestling in the palm of his left hand. person. Andit is afact that the light that came in her way, as she rushed forThese tossing black boughs faint against the gray This was all that was necessary. of the lamp, reflected on his curly ward like a tempest to the stairs, leavOf gathering night, thou turnest, dear, away ‘The valise of the new guest was whisked golden hair, enveloped his head in fan- ing desolation and ruin behind her. Silent, but with thy scarce-seen kindly smile She seized the cord that opened the Sent through the dusk my longing to beguile. off in a trice to the most. sumptuous tastic lines of light and shade. apartment in the hotel. Seven cities of After sitting many minutes silent and door and pulled it with such force that There, the lights gleam, and all is dark without! Greece, it is said, contested the honor immovable, he struck a violent blow on the door came wide open like a flash. And in the sudden change our eyes meet dazed— O look, love, look again! the veil of doubt of being the birthplace of Homer; more the table and broke forth in these three Bertha’s father appeared in the openJust for one flash, past counting, then was raised! than seven employes of the hotel dis- exclamations: ing. He walked slowly in, leaning on his O eyes of heaven, as clear thy sweet soul blazed puted the honor of carrying the valise “Accursed riches! Hateful learning! eane like a man whose youthful fires On mine a moment! O come back again of Adrain Baker. He appeared for all Cruel experience!” Strange rest and dear amid the long dull pain ! were beginning to die out. As he enthe world like a king entering his With these words he arose and walked tered he raised his eyes toward heaven Nay, nay, gone by! though there she sitteth still, palace. around tHe room like a madman, and ex- with sad discouragement, and in doing With wide gray eyes so frank and fathomless— For several days after his arrival he claimed in smothered tones: Be patient, heart, thy days they yet shall fill so beheld the housekeeper at the top of With utter rest—Yea, now thy pain they bless, was seen alone and on foot, walking the “Maith! Faith! The doubt kills the stairs, endeavoring to say something, And feed thy last hope of the world’s redress— streets.of the city and visiting the most me.” | swaying her arms and gesticulating like |. O unseen hurrying rack! Owailing wind! _ notable sights. And afterwards, still A moment after this outburst, he the apparatus of an uptic telegraph. The What rest and where go ye this night to find ? alone but now in a cab, he was seen to shook his handsome head and broke good man understood never a word of visit the most picturesque and rural of forth in a loud laugh: this telegraphic language, and he rethe suburbs, with the combined atten“Good! I say. The proof i is terrible, ‘mained at the foot of the stairs in a vain ee [for e Western Weekly. ] tion of artist, philosopher oon poe but it is necessary. It is necessary to go desire to-read the torrent of signs which down into the grave. Well, 1 will go. the housekeeper poured upon his deThe sombre oracle of di th ‘must be wrored head. But he was not at all exn this sort of ppvectgation, and at | JANUARY. < ae A -nature,and. who knows—He has heard -young, that he was rich, that speak sometimes of mysterious fluids, traveled over half the world. Some people supposed him to subtle forces that attract or repel, magnetic wonders of overpowering influence; lish, others German, and not a lieved him to be an American; in and although he has never paid much attention to such things, yet since he place because he was fair, and has felt himself dominated by so strange a personage, awful fancies would come and goin his brain; it had come | to the point that Adrian Baker was his fixed, his terrible thought, his constant rumination, yea, his continual nightmare. It is all very well for the housekeeper and Bertha’s father to attribute Let us bring been possible and from that together to learn let ‘But really, all that it has concerning each one form him, the Pee itl oie Sp SONG i rr ee pln mg Lae nr eae ao a So Net eat Berhad ae nbd: Ants ; er ry ern: . tas a ee aN RTE ERS slg ws pati eina o oy opinion that best suits him. Two years have scarcely elapsed since a certain passenger coach, plying be“tween the railway station and the peal he be Engfew bethe first in the spoke Span- ish as if it were his native tongue, there was a certain foreign prince.. This much is clearly true. whois this Adrian Baker? od though This savor in his accent building, venerable from its antiquity, possessed allthe majesty of a palace, and one of its angles stood opposite to Bertha’s home. Such was all the information possessed concerning Adrian Baker; we already know housekeeper neither more and nor and from it that our Satan in the darkness that followed, silence reigned unbroken. which each one interpreted according to his own taste. He appeared well satisiied, too, with the beauties of heaven, and the joys of earth, and though he _ had _ never to Adrian Baker all the marvelous facul-. told anyone whether he intended to reties that their heated imaginations might main there long, the fact remained that suggest, but we need not participate in he did not go away. Yet he must have these illusions; neither need we infer become weary of life at the hotel, for on account of them that he was beyond on a sudden he bought himself a grand the laws to which ordinary mortals are house in which he installed himself as a subject. an second, because he had of the Bertha’s father was less than this neigh- Something occurred at extraordinary Bertha’s must house, for have the housekeeper seems to be ruled by a sudden unrest that did not leave her a single moment of ease. She would come and go, run upstairs and down again, go into the house and come out, with all the excitement of one who is completely absorbed in uneasiness. It was a sort of nervous attack that had suddenly increased the domestic activity of the housekeeper. When least expected she would abruptly pause, and, placing her forefinger upon her upper lip, she would stand still, as if seeking the explanation of some mystery or the key to some enigma; she gesticulated with eloquent bye: At the last word ati turned her head.’ Adrian Baker, who had just entered, stood before her. | For her lifeshe could. not repress the cry that escaped her. It was Adrian Baker in person, paler than ever and clothed in an elegant traveling suit. His eyes shone with strange splendor and over his lips there crept an expression that was partly sad and partly roguish. “T ask a thousand pardons for this surprise,” he said. _“Unforeseen cireumstances compel me to inake ahasty voyage to New Yor! , where matters of great moment urgently call; but I shall remain away only a short time.” “T go away,” he added, “but I leave my heart here and shall return to claim it.” After saying this he embraced Bertha’s father so tenderly that the ‘food man felt himself deeply affected; and Janey now ruled by his voice and presence, hastened to wipe away the tears welling up in her eres) with the pene of | her. hata The good’man bowed submissively under | _ Bertha «came tore as meet them. Her his tripple accusation and began slowly hand sought that of Adrian Baker and to ascend the stairs. Jane awaited him, for a long. time they remained tightly and when he arrived at the top, with clasped together. Bertha at length said in a soft N neither «ompliment nor ceremony, she ‘ seized him by the hand and led him to: tremulous voice: “You will return soon?” his room as if he were a little child; and. there, after assuring herself that none could overhear, she drew near to him and “Soon,” replied he. “When?” she asked again. “Soon,” replied Adrian. Sr yOu await me, your own heart will announce ~ my return.” “T will wait for you always,” Bertha “Heis going away!’ repeated Bertha: Ss said, in smothered tones and without.a tear in her eyes. ! father, with a deep sigh. The clasped hands. fell apart; Adrian Naw we “Yes, sir,’ she answered. Baker rushed to the steps which he deshall be free.” “Free!” exclaimed Bertha’s father in scended precipitately, and in a moment his turn, the while moving his head i in- after his carriage drove rapidly away. Bertha looked at her father with a credulously. Then he asked: gentle smile and then fled away to her |. “And where is he going?” “Very far away,” replied the nurse, room. When the rumble of the carriage died “very far; I know not where, only that it is to the uttermost parts of the earth. away in the distance, like the roll of / in mysterious voice and with every appearance of the most secret Comme eS she said: “He is going away!” It is a sudden journey.” to expressiveness, being able to, speak her | The good gentleman began again with sad discouragement; thoughts only by signs. But the cause of all the agitation we looked at him with wonder, at the speak of should be no cause of alarm, for time saying: in the midst of it something like joy was _ “Anyone would Helieve that I to be discerned, a concentrated joy, that brought you bad news just now. despite her efforts was clearly evident in this man have bewitched you?” the midst of her restlessness and grimaces. tranquility as if nothing had happened. Bah! She will need no cordial to support her Da shs comes to bid him good- thunder that grows more and more faint, sigh Jane same had Can “Yes,” answered he,‘‘because if he goes the housekeeper said: “He cressed 7 has gone—we may herself and now breathe |} again.” It appeared. that Jane was. well acquainted with the heart of woman, or at least Bertha’s heart, for three vont had gone by since Adrian Baker left for New York and she had not discerned a single tear in the eye of the girl to ; whom so long she had been as a mother. Bertha was apparently quite indifferent to sorrow on account of Adrian’s ab- In this poor human nature of ours joy away he willcarry Bertha away with him, and sorrow is oftentimes confounded in and then what will become of us! bor in person. “Nothing of the sort,” replied Jane. One night after making his daily visit, the same outward manifestations; one city, was hastening at full speed to meet the incoming train. On its return from to Bertha, he-returned to his own home weeps for joy as wellas for pain and “He will go alone, solitary as a mushnews overwhelms a person the room.” room. A good the station the arrogance with which the and shut himself up inhis “Worse and worse,” replied the father; driver made his horses gallop was clear little later on, grating ‘harshly on its same as bad news does. Be that as it may, the fact nevertheless for what is going tobecome of Bertha sence. evidence of the haste or impatience of hinges, the great door of the palace was closed; the lights went out one after an- is, that the housekeeper seemed to be then?” It is true that. during these three . the passengers within. — “What must always happen!’ ex- months’ absence, however, a letter was. -The carriage entered the town and other, and everything was soon buried moved by the inward workings of some Yet Adrian Baker did constantly recurring thought; she ap- claimed the nurse. “Out of sight out of received from'the absent one. It was a finally drew up at the door of the most in deep silence. peared to be awaiting something with mind—when he goes away she will for- simple-hearted letter, loving and ear-. luxurious hotel in the city. Here the not sleep. In the privacy of his own room, il- impatience, for occasionally she would get him, and when he dies she will bury nest. One would scarcely believe that | one passenger alighted, and—it was He was muffled up in a lumined by the pale light of one lamp, stop, put out her head and listen with him; .that is the way of .the world. ‘it was written three thousand miles Adrian Baker. Bertha knows all; she has said that much away. that ; at the other side of great traveling overcoat, lined with the his elbows resting on a mahogany table rapt attention. Suddenly the bell of the front door re- to me and with as much coolness and great ocean where the deepest and most (Fy finest furs. The solicitude with which and his face buried in his hands, he (344 Qe of | | etyaeapenr reiterate ye , . xt ge onc! aka od ; eee co nought apioh Baker be the devil incarnate or not, or have been the ett of 1g | ee she regarded him as possessing to have won his heart. But “Adrian Be ‘the secret of some infernal spell. It Baker kept himself aloof from all ina the scans of this: htante Tides of matters not either whether Bertha’s timacies of friendship as well as of love, light and darkness, the flame | went out father encountered in him a mind of so much so that no more than three as if obedient to an invisible breath, and subduing power, a being of miraculous things were known of him: that he was +i ~ Per. Year: ee |