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HomeMy WebLinkAboutExeter Advocate, 1906-12-20, Page 6 (2)' • rette.o. 4ec4e-ct°+04-Qi+o+o+o-4-04-D-+d)es+nef-Q+O+Q-4eQi-*-0-*.&'-itefe-*Q+ LIPTEP, IlLeeteantl tined). 1turgeync has cleiriereit a nano with a tioree as little lame as is ewe to be found in Florence, and in this vehicle they are presently rolling along. None of them are in very exuberant spirits. Burgoyne is as well aware as if her sen- .. • 5Itite bps had put the fact info- words, that for Elizabeth the plea:ern of the outing has evaporated with the absence of ityng, and that it is only the Son, hearted shrinking of a sweet nature from inflicting mortification on a fellow. creature that set her opposite to him in her white gown. He has never seen her dressed In white before, and says to tiderneelf that it was ter. Byngtesselientliat she has made hereelf so summer -flue. But even if it be so, it Is not. Byng who Is profiting by it. It is for him, not Byrig, that the large Italian light is glorifying its thin fabric. Lily -pure, snow -clean she looks, sitting under her tsunshede, and he. sits over against her en a stupid silence, as if, did he epeak at all, he must put into brutal words the brutal questions that, are dinging in his beaditethai, seem knocking for utterance against the gate of his set teeth. "What is the `screw loose'? How is she an 'unfortunate girl'? t Why have they 'never held up their heads since'? ince what ?" He looks in a fierce per- lexity, from one .to the other of those delicately poised heads, held aloft with euch modest 'dignity. Surely it is be- yond the betinds of possibility that aley heavily hideous shame or leaden dis- grace can ever have weighed upon them I Probably the intensity of his thought has given an intensity to his look, of which he is unaware, for 'he presently finds the soft veiled voice of . Elizabeth—Elizabeth whet' has hitherto been as mute as himself --addressing hlin ' "How very- grave you look!' I wonder „what' you are: thinking of ?" nt• • The, question, striking in so strangely pat, lkings him back with a start. For a, 80CMCI. ant almost overpowering tempta- tion assails him, to ten her what is the Object oriels thought, to answer her with that, whole and. naked truth which we cantso seldem eniploy in our intercourse with our fellow men.- But one glance at her innocent face, which has a vague trouble'in it, chases the lunatic impulse, though he dallies with the temptation to the extent of saying : . Would you really like to know? Do you really wish me to tell you?" He looks at her penetratingly at he, puts the question. Before either his eyes or his mariner she sh.rinks. " "Ok, no—no 19 she cries with trernu- iota -haste, "of course not I I was only joking: What tbusines's have I with your thoughts? I never wish to know people's thoughts; if their looks and words are kind, that is all that concerns met" • Ha ,relapses , into silence; but her words, and still More, the agitated. man- s strew weet forms les daily dining -1,01e exetipt On the happy Sunnay, to ehiele he umet look forward so warmly. °Must not he love Sunday ?" cries Elieabeth, with sparkling eyes. "Do not you long to know what, they have for dinner on Sundays? Do you think he would mind telling us?" Elizaneth's spirits are going .up like quicksilver. It Is evident, despite the delicate melancholy of her, ram, that she is naturally of an extremely joyous and enjoying nature, and gifted with a freshness of sensation which belongs ordinarily rather to the green age, at which Jim first remembers her, than to the mature one which he. know % for a certainty tiitititheneoni has reel:lean .he. is filled with such a lively and she - prised delight at all the little details of arrangement of the monastic life that he is at last impelled to say to her, some- thing wonderingly ' "But you must have eon hundreds of monasteries before?" "Not one," "But there are, or were, such swarms of them all over Italy." "I dare say. I was never In Italy be- fore." "Not realty ?" She lifts up herhand, and waves it at him with an air of hasty deprecation of furtherquestion, growing suddenly grave. • "Don't, ask me whether' I have been here or there. or whether I have ,don this or that. I have never been'any- where or done anything," Her desire for a cessation of all in- quiries a's to her .doings is obviously, so -earnest that Jim of course complies with it. Once or twice before he has been struck, by her strange want of acquain- tance with 'facts and phenomena, which would have come as a matter et course within the'range of observation of every woman of her 'age and station. Against his will, a horrid recollection flashes upon him of a novel ho had once reen in which the hero exhibits a singular ignovence of any events or incidents that had occurred within the ten years preceding the opening of the Story—an ignorance vehicle towards the end of the third volume was accounted for by Its transpiring that he has spend, the inter- vening period in a convict prison I Ile drives the grotesque and monstrous idea with scourges out of his mind; but it re- curs, and recurs to be displaced by another hardly ilese painful if in some degree mere probable. Can, it be possi. ble that the crushing blow, which nas fallen upon the Le Merchant family, and upon Elizabeth in particular, ,whatening the.Mother's hair, and giving that tear - washed look to the denighter's sweet eyes—can it be possible that that heavy stroke was insanity? Can Elizabeth have been out of her mind? Can she have spent in congfieement any of the past, from all allu'sion to which she hies away with a sensitiveness more brinising than that of "The tender horns of cockled He Is so much absorbed in his ter - milting speculations ebout her that for he moment he forgets her bodily Pre- sence; and -it is only her voice hertsoft ner in which they are, prenounced, make -a vague yet definite addition to the dis- quiet. of his -said. By setting off at so judiciously late 'an hour as five otplock, ehey have avoided the greeter parthef the flood of tourists, Which daily sets'towards Ceriosa, and which , they meet, tightly packed crowded vehicles, sweeping Fierence. wards in a choking cloud of white dust; so tleat on reacting the Certosa Monas- tery, sitting so grandly on its hill -top, they have the satiefaction of. finding that it is temporarily all theft, own—all their erten hut for the fe,ev white-frocked fighree and tottsured• heeds which an econornicoelernocratiti Governinetit leas left, to hint what in Its palmy. days was the state of that which is now only a Government museum. • ° A burly monk receives them. He .does not lookehtt all a prey to the Pensive sor- row one would expect at the desecra- tion of his holy things end the disper- siege of Wet fraternity. -Probably, in hii Slav peasant mind there is room for no- thing but gelf-congratulalion at hie be- ing one of the few—only fifteen in all— left to end their days en the old home. lie leads them stolidly tiarcugh and refectory—the now too rOomy Nine..- . tory, where the poor remnant of Car- thusians dine together only on Sundays —through meageely-furnished cells, In one of which he matter-of-faetly tete down the front flap of te clipboard to sane voice, that brings him back to a consciousness of it. erheye have been led into a salon, in which, tes itheir• guide tells them, the confraternity* used to re- ceive anyitheer,sonage" that came to visit them. Alas, no personage ever visits the frocned remnant now I It is a charming, lightsome room, that gives one, no monastic idea, with pretty airy fancies' of flowerewreeths and erabes- gees, and dainty dancing figures painted on wall .and ceiling and doom. One of these letter is half open, and' throegh it comes an exemislie sudden view of the hills, with Mir sharp cut shadows and their sunlit slopes; ef shining Florence at their feet, of the laugh of young ver- dure, and the wedded gloom and glory of cypress erid poplar filling the fore- ground, Upon Elizabeth's small fee., turned suddenly -towards him, seems re - fleeted some of the ineffable radiance of the Tuecan, light, .r "When next I dream of Ileaven„" she seys, in her tender vileating voice "it will be like this, Do you ever dream of Ileavea? I often do, and I always eteake crying because it is not true; but—with a joyful eliange of key ---"I will not cry any more without lecher cause. Since I 4*04:7011000.444244,04174443P04446 5 et, 42/ '44* Don't neglect yonr cough. Statiitics show tLat -in f4,Teiir York - City allone 'over '200 people die ,cvery week from consumption. t, And most of them, 05111Sliempttmnitht Je 1110iten if thoy had not ncglcted. to warn'ing ,..You know how., quickly Scott's ,Emulsion 'enables' ytu to throw off a cough or cold_. AU. 50d, ft0e; AND $04.0414)244404044010.1440104 _ . r"),TI uF,1 •,:.‘r;• %TY•_7,:(]•1,, • E. ee tee enenet ft ft, tft no feet tteeftt efeteatinette eeeite own. even 11CLitpLt42:?S'; fni-471 4n1,1140 Ulita nienieg, se eventny veciihette oni sheenet at uteen inen, uneetenhy nee he is ed:' neje aeiye, neneee you cniiie ieire?" he eneeete in a nee of detenny fratereenatien; aiK4C0 jr311 came hero?", "Ydn I/UNt not 'tette me up co sharp- y r taw (Tice in a voice of 'ttieyfel re- nionteranee, in wheal ie 4 nit of young gaiety. "I warn you that I will not be taken up co ,ellarply In I did net say ."only since I came here!' I 6aid 'eco I came here r" 04,4,==441,1444 CIIAPTER XIV. Presently they pass into the stifle cloistered • garden, in whose unmown grass -squares gray -blue flowers are plowing, beide whose walks pale pink peonies are flushing, and round whose well the gene rosemary bushes are set. Tlirough the whole plaC,"e is an atmos- phere of deep peace, .of silence, leisure, dignity. It is virtually a tete-e.-tete,' as their tonsured guide, seeing their evi- dent harmlessness, has left them to their own devices; and Mrs, elet Merchant has eat down rest upon a camp -stool which' Elliabetheia been carrying'evere since they left -the carriage. It has fidget- ed'Jim to see her -burdened with it; for let a man be. ever so little in love with a woman, his tendency always is to think her as brittle as spun glass, to believe that any weight, however light, will bruise her arm—any pebble, however tiny, wound her tender foot. - He has offered to relieve her of it—but she leas refused—playfully at drete-telling him she is sure that he wilt lose it; -end, afterwards; when he insists, more gravely, though with. gentle gratlthele, saying •that it would never do for leer no get into the habit of being waited upon, and that she always carried maanny's things. It is perhaps absurd that a woman. of six -and -twenty should' speak of her mother as ",mammy," yet the homely- and childish abbreviation seems to him to come "most fair and Ieatonsly" from her lips; t They 1 stay ,a long time in the seen- kiseed garden, eensidering that there is after all not very much to see .there. But Elizabeth's light steps, that to -day seem set to some innocent dancing - tune, are loath to leave it'; she must smell the great new peonies, monthly - rose -colored, faintly perfumed; she must 'steal a spleig of 'rosemary ."to pint 'into her coffin when she.elies," 'at 'which he catches his breath, shuddering; she must peep into the well. ' He insists on her holding his hand for safety as she leans over to do so; her little fingers gripebis tight as she cranes her neck . and bends her'- lissom body. But what a ernall litinalul they- are compared •t�. those other fingers,. those kind, useful, but un- deuhtedly send fingers, which he ha.s held perfenctoraly through many a mat- tertonfa,Ot hour. By -and -bye, they stray away together out ot the bounteous air of the hill -top into a semi -underground church, to see the fifteenth' and sixteenth century monuments, which look as fresh as if their marble' 'had left its' home. in Carrara 'but' yestercloy,. , They etand looking down at thosenthree kin who lie side, by ,side before the high attain' each. with head dropped a little sideways en the shoulder, as if overcome by sudden sleep.. They step on into the side chte p01,, ,where that yet nobler milked figure, fashioned by Doeatelers hand, stretches his prone lengtbinabove his border of fruit and flowers, among which lies a carved skull, through whose,empty eye- holes—strange and , grisly fancy cone feasting with so ,much beauty—a mock- ing ribbon runs. ' Elizabeth* is perfectly silent the whole time, but no flood- of talk coed melee Jim half so conscious of her presence,' palpitating with sym- pathy and' feeling, could glee' belt the confidence he enjoys that ehew Ill intro- duce no allusion to eithertinensal Green or Woking, - as it is but too phbehle that the excellent companion of most of : iii.s ' Florentine' rambles would have donee .1, - e ,,.. , Elizebeth has-been perfectly silent, yet 'at last she speaks. It Is in the Chapter Houee, where, as most of us have done, they, have suddenly come 'Upon another tomb, the :tomb of one lying JIM -length on the pavement before the altar, with no separating edge 'of marble or wrought -iron railing to keep him from the foot of the passed-hy. He lies there, portrayen with elude an extraordinary vividneSee of life about leis Prostrate figure mutt his severe, powerint flute, that one feels inclined to speak low, lest he should lift his white lids end look rebuke at us. In the lines about his mouth there Is a hint of.eardonic mirth. Is he-heare lug our foolish echatter--touched with a grave contemptuous =mei/tent at it? Or is he keeping in his sleep the mein - ore ' of some four hundred years' old jest? Elizabeth baa involuntarily crept close to iluegoyetes side with the ges- ture of a frighteeeel child. . ."4re you elite that he did not stir?" elm asks tremulierely under her breath. -.tier next theught is that her mother - must, see hien toe, this wonderful living dead man, and they presently set forth to return to the garden to fetch her. But apparently she has grown tired of wait. ingfor them, for, as tliey „enter the 'clois- ter, n eneeletc, they see her advancing te heel them. , "al would not be left alone with him at night for the wealth Of the Indies," Elizabeth is saying, with a half -weenie laugh --"Oh, mammy, you would never have forgiven rue if I had let you go without seeing him! "Why, what is this ?'Lwith a sudden change of key -- "what has happened?" For as they draw War to Mrs. Le Merchant they see that her walk to a eteggering one and' that aim meetly healthy, chime pallor of her face is ineehaneed for a livid white. wee. "%tenet le it, darling 1" WWI Elizabeth, in an accent Of terror. "Oh, Jim,'sire is pang to faint!" In ithe agi- tation oh the MOillent she has UrleOli* eciouoly returned to the familiaIad- h tee') which ala' used eleveren to en PloY towel -do him 11I:their boy -girl Itgirl aye. 'at your meld round leer on thattide / can hold her up on this, Let. us elei her !oleic to the catep-eteohn A camp-31.6ot Is ,, :rat' urn CaS7 nor a to j;n:i-A, CP*,1 Tny 7,;:"',",1 in LV-i,,LY-'Lnr; 7,(ly no, -23e0; rrzEi hoe keen, arid en' no esee tele eeentitein at eiee ee-eihee al eve Lee inetf deep - Nei en Nizeiiethhi eftght, olneethen. "Deco eiao oticu fonit? Is she ePt to t1D it t " ac -ins aiiie in n 1i:intent". tnticeete-ficeer replies the gel in a %:,1-,3:3 an her motheen white face. gelling, day. Hunt what hae happened to you?" Perhaps nit. ie through the vivifying rain of those wenn aneees, but a little color is certainly beginning to steal been into the elder Womante Owen, and she draws a long breath. "Ole, if clic could have a glass of wa- ter I" cries Elizabeth, greedily, verifying these slight signs of returning con- sciousness. "(let her a glass of water 1 Oh, please get her a glass of water -.'- quick! quick!" Burgoyne, complies, though it is not without reluctant misgivings that he draws the efficacious support of his own solid arm, eind leaves Elizabeth'poor little limb to bear the whole wnight of her mother's :nee, body. - Their guide has, as before mentioned, disappeared; and Jim has not the elighte eet idea in which direction to seek him. It is five ,good minutes before he dis- covers him, standing near the door Of the monastery, in conversation with a N.4110r•Ilyi,io appaeennyterest ix the act, departure, The stranger is in cleraeal dress; and as he twee to nod farewell to the monk, Jim reeognizes in his fea- tures those of 'the Devonshire clergy- man, whom he had last seen, and so Un- willingly heard, by the well -brim of the Dellosguarde. Villa. In a second a. light has flashed into his mind. Mrs. he Mar- chant, too, has seen that streleger—has seen him, for the first time for ten years, sine() it is evident that the recognition of Mother and daughter In the ViatTore nabuoni, to which the Moat's late rec- torhad referred, could not have been reciprocal. It is to the fact of her hav- ing been brought suddenly and unpre- paredly face to face with that mysterious past, which seems to be always block- ing his oweLpath to her friendship, that is to be attributed the poor woman's collapse. A rush of`puzzled 'commission flows over hen as he realizes the fact-, and his one impatient wish is to return with all speed he may to the forlorn couple he has left, to reassure thein as to the removal (even though it may only be a temporary one) out of their' pain of the* object of their unexplained terror, Will the mother have imparted to her•ehild the pause of her fainting, or will sten have tried to keep it free). -her? . The first glimpse be gels when, hav- ing at length procured the desired, glass of water, he comes into sight of them, answers the geestion for him. Mrs. Le Merchant is evidently recovered., Site is sitting up no longer supported by her daughter's, arm, and that daughter is lying on her knees, with her head buried In her mother's , As he nears them, he Secs the elde.. woman hurriedly pressing her daughteets arm • to warinher 4 ri Every Leaf is Full of Virtue Every Infusion is Delicious CIAL0N GREEN TEA. Has such a lino flavor that you will uso ft always after a trial. Iona packet* only. 40o, 5ilo and 600 par lb. At WI graWzra. of his approach, and Elizabeth obedient- ly lifts her face. But such a face I Ile can scarcely believe, it is the same that laid itself—hardly less bloomily fair than they—against tine faint peony buds half an hour ago; a face out of which the innocent glad shining ha e been blown by some gust of brutal wind—seared, blanched, miserable, "Oh, r.s, I am better, much better -- quite well, in fact," says Mrs. he Mer- chant, pushing away the offered glass, and speaking with a ghastly ehactow of her former even cheerfulness. "Give it, te Elizabeth, she needs it more than I dot Atotreece,- I egavenher a. terrible fright I" To be continued). 44. OLDEST DIAMOND FIELDS. • Kohinoor Probably. Caine From Them Abotit Years Ago, In a recent report ofgeological survey of India, there is an interesting account of the Panne diamond fields of Central India. Historically this cowl - try, is believed- to be the original home of the diamond, and from them it is sup- posed that the famous Kohinoor was extracted some three and a. half centuri- es ago; the earikest diamonds dating some twenty-five years previously. Of late years India has quite retired - from the flea as a precious stone pro- ducer to an, extent or value.,, but from' the account given it should be • worth, the while. of a small syndicate to take up these diamonds„ says the Pioneer, and work them sy,sternancally, though it is said that neither in lustre nor price ,do the stones found compare with the yield of the South African fields. The methods, however, now in vogue tmean merely- superficial treatment, fol- lowing the lines which have been in • vogue for oenturies, with the probable result that the strata containing the most valuable deposits of stones are not reached.. From a ,geological point Of viewthere are said, to be diamond bear- ing conglomerates over several areas, which would admit of deep shaft sink. beg, and systematic mining under corn- tietent eotitrel being carried on profitab- ly. ' STORIES ABOUT WORDS'. C.'urious Origin of 'Words nd Phrase Commonly Used. According to etymologY a -"retail grocer" as it used to he spelt, is really a trader "in gross" --that is to say, in large quantities, wholesale, English- men of other days spoke of "grossers ol fish" and "grossers of wine," and an act, of Edward III., expressly inentione that "grassers" dealt in all manner el goods. In those days "spicera was Me word for "grocer" in the modern sense, !ant hanneeen drat- the,,Geocerie Corn. puny; funded in the 'fourteenth cen- tury, specialized in spicery, and so "gro- cer" gradually took the place of "spleen" "Blatherskite is generally recognized as an American word, -but its origin is Scotch, really the old "Inetherekete," from "blether," to talk nomsense (old 'Norse "blddlit," nonsense) and "skate," a term of opprobrium. In the song, "Maggie Lauder," written about 1650, Occur Ap,e words, "Jog on your gait, ye bletherskateh and this song was a very popular one in the Ameripan camp dur. in the war of independence. Hence the vogue of the expressive word„ "in Its Americanized roan. "Bletherumskite," was the Irish version eatly in the nine. teenth century. "Etiquette" is a French word which originally meant a label indicating the price or quality the English "ticket"— and in old French was usually' special- ized to inclan soldier's billet. The phrase "that's the fticket" stows the change of the present meaeing of Mane ners according to code, Iltirke solemn- ly explained' that "etiquette had its orb' ginal application to those ceremonies and formal observances practiced at courts. The term came afterward .to signify certain formal Methods used in the- transaetions between sovereign • States." • Sergeant-letajort "Now, Private Smith you know. very, 'well none but officer and non-commissioned officers are al. lowed to walk across this grass." Pre vale Smith:. "But, SergeanfeMajort e Captain Graham's verbal betters toe- Sergeanttletajor : • "None. ot that, eft' Silleovo%estlitneteo n, tievecsito aipits ain':Verbal orders I $ • • Are you interestea in Forth Machinery? If so, the above Illustration must appeal to you. It shows the, fine new plant of The Frost Si Wood CornpanY, Limited, at Smith's Fans, Ontario, In which' the famous Quality Line Of Agricultural Implements is built. ' About a year ago, tire destroyed our Manufacturing Plant and these are the buildings we have erected to re- place it. The demand from all pats -of the Dominion for our machinery was so urgent that we have erected, a plant of • Double the Capacity of our former one That means that' -you are assured of the highest grade 14 achinery and * Prompt , Delivery: Everything about our plant is new and right, up .to date. A bettor and more -nreis, tnpk‘ aotneiloi watudlnb usiopom able experience in the construction of Agricultural Imple- merits, Will enable us to -put into your hand. Machines of the highest grade. FR'OST & WOOD Machinery is used by Canada's best and most proeperetle farmers—you Cannot do better than follow their example. They Are Getting 5atisfaction And So Can You. We have the „goods, and If you will give us an opportunity, we will prove, that they cannot iso surpassed by any on tilt market, Every machine that leaves our factory Isa tiaimanteed —we never ask a, man to keep anything that is not so ; factory. , .'. • , Our agents are in every 'seetion of the country and flu Information they and our travellers can givi:!. you, Wifi proin useful, whether You want maeleinery now or not. We am always glad to anewer que,itione about any of our eeiela Get Jni tench with us—our experieece may prove. valua-04 to n. . prop us a card ctskino for catalogue "It"--vve will also send you one of our handsome 1907 calendarS. ni3arlot