Unrequited Love

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 348, 8 January 1903, Page 8

Unrequited Love

% By Guy Vamrlawquid. 2

% SauxatoßacUikbrAuis. SByitr. % ft************************* t 9teasTewnsa4Ceeatry.MwT««k. ■spstataHf •pedal PmHUdoa) THIS il th© quaint legend that I heard half-reeitedv half-chanted by an old Arab, ons sTsning when I Had joined a small group which «ur* rounded him: "It la not only the birds, hut also the flowers which have wing*. In the kingdom of the sun lived a sultan great and just, beloved of God, who bleated him in bit children, and dropped from Heaven the souls of three hourls. tha> self-same day that his favorite sultana brought into the world three daughters so alike that their ewn mother was not abla to distinguish them from each other. She placed upon their cradles three different flowers, pink "for the elder, Leila; white tor the younger, Nedjl; blue for the third, Hadje. They grew like the palm tree tall, and blossomed like the lotos. Each bad green eyes, not of a sad green like the leaves of the fig tree, but of a deep green like the waves of the sea. The leaves fell from the tree of life 17 times before they had felt the flower of love. They seemed to wait the coming of the mysterious friend, as the first star •f the evening. "One day soma unbelievers entered the country of the prophet with their chief, who was a Christian, blond and pale as the snow of his country, and with eyes the color of the sea. When tb* sisters saw him at his audience with the grand sultan, they trembled, and all three loved him, for their hearts were as on*. Love" Is fire In Asia, where perfumes change to poison, trat it is Ice In Europe, where the sky Is covered with clouds and the rose without perfume. But the avaricious Frank bad come to conquer gold, not women, and soon left, bearing away his riches—as if gold, a ray from earth, was worth more thap love, a ray from Heaves. They did not weep at his departure, but aaid: 'He Is the lover of our soul, and we must go to him.' After embracing their brother, they went fa the night from their gilded palace, alone, saying: 'We are going to the icy country to find again our master/ But it was too far from the land of the faithful to that of the accursed, and when they had walked for a long time, they stopped and aaid to each other: ** 'lt ts here that we must die!" "And they died with hands Joined, a* when they came Into the world. But an angel saw them In that hour, and cried to Mahomet: " 'All powerful master, the three hourls have died while seeking their beloved.' "The prophet felt a tear In his eyas as be looked at them, then he said: " "But they may be flowers—Leila pink, Kedje white, and Hadje blue, like the flowers of their cradle, and may have wings like the birds, that they may yet seek their beloved, as they sought bim when they were women. And the wind will be their servant; it will carry them upon Its breath ♦ach springtime, from land to land, so that they may find again the one whom they seek; they will blossom everywhere, even to the last day of the world, where they will find him. when AHab will judge all souls.' "The three flowers blossomed upon the mountain, and the word of Mahomet has been accomplished ever since. "It Is not only the birds, but the flowers also which have wings." He drew from his bosom three amall flowers as largo as violets pink, white and blue, as he had told. They were the three sisters. Then the Arabs knelt, and their prayers commenced. "If you please, sir," said a voice behind me, at the moment I was going-. I turned end found myself in the presence of an Englishman, tall, elegant, handsome and distinguished. "Sir," said he to me, with a bow, "I am Lord M . I have been listening to the Arab's story, and I noticed that you wrote down his words. We do not understand the language, and any lady, who noticed his gestures, would be most happy to have the translation. I pray you to excuse this request, which may aeem a little hold, and I count upon your charity to obtain this favor." ■

His courtesy wai too genuine to j.ermit me to hesitate, besides, hii request was for a lady. I answered that I was quite at my lady's orders, and would be charmed to render so slight a service. "Will yon, then, do us the faTor to come and take tea with us this evening-, at -the consulate where we are ataying?** That eTening, in the consulate, I v. as duly presented to Lady M—-. She appeared very pale and nervous, and had the reserved air of the women of her country, but without the affectation of prudery, which made Pyron so angry. Her eyea were iow- ♦ red without ceasing; but. this teemed natural, for she was not over IS years of age. She received me politely and let her husband remind ma of the translation promised. I reed it slowly, trying only to put into mj Toiee that kind of indefinable melancholy note which had accompanied the chant of the raconteur. When I had finished, the yotaf woman, instead of taking part in the iisu*l reflections, remained seated ae if lost in thought, a utile eaUat*

ished at that indifference, I approached her, and asked her opinion. Bhe slowly raised the long lashes which seemed to veil her soul, and answered in a low voice these word*: "And I, alio, have green eyes." Eight days after I counted myself as one of Lord M 's good friends, and started with himself and wife for Naples. I knew sow the secret of the phrase: "And I, also, have green eyes." They bad married my lady to a»y lerd because he was most admirably •sited to her rank, age and fortune. At k« was a man of charming eateifor and exceedingly, accomplished, the poor young girl, at the moft impressionable age, loved him with all the strength of her soul. The young man, after the months consecrated to the honeymoon, judged that to show love for his wife was almost undignified in a man destined to a certain future in the house of lords, or the Epsom races. Now, when an Englishman only suspicions a thing to be undignified, he will jump from London bridge rather than submit himself to it, if he is a true gentleman. The poor child, whose gentle heart was ill prepared for such a situation, had given herself without reserve, and suffered all the torture* of a love disdained. I alone divined her struggles: nor a word nor a look betrayed her when strangers were near, so great is the power of an aristocratic education over those wbo have been confined in its narrow limits from infaucy. I wished that, she might open her heart to me. being persuaded that a grief loses intensity aa it is told tc another; but she seemed to divire my thought, with that rare intuitior with which women are endowed. She was, perhaps, grateful to me, but, hat' I even stretched out my hand in sympathy, the sensitive one would have enclosed herself mors firmly in her reserve. r>T j » We arrived •* Naplsf, where we" remained 15 days. My lord and his young wife accompanied me in all nv excursions. A book in his hand, n\ lord commenced everything an looked at nothing; the young En<Kshwoman was attentive, but ind : .' ferent. One day, the last that v passed in Naples, our promenade It us before a statue of Sapho, ready • precipitate herself in the waves. M;" lord read in his book: "Sapho (author unknown) marble. "The famous priestess It represented n' the moment when she is prepared to pr clpitate herself lato the sea. In despair not being loved by Phaon, whom :-r adored. Her left hand throws her lyre : bind her, as if to abandon all which m her glory and her life. Very beaut: marble, found at Syracuse In an exc&\ tlon. Attributed to the sculptor, Ag! gente." "Very beautiful," said my lord, a;r passed on. The young srife paused before i' while her husband was reading 1* description in the book, and her e; were fixed upon the marble with expression of terrible grief. 'j woman who knew the flespa'r o! r« being loved spoke to her descendan I watched an instant the two srt't;;face to face, the marble statue n:.<j the statue of flesh, animated by the same grief. Artist, and almost cruel, I contemplated art and nature together, but only for an instant. I took a step forward, my lat'y saw me, recovered herself, and continued her way in the museum with a sad smile on her pale lips. The following morning- we were on shipboard returning to England. Tt was the second day of our voyage. It was midnight, and I was seated upon deck dreaming, my spirit cradled deliriously in tho mildness of the n'ghi. a night of Italy, peaceful and luminous, crowned with a clmplef of trembling stars. The melody that an Italian maestro had put to some Arab verses of winged flowers came to my memory, and almost without thought, I sung that oriental poetry, dazzling and pensive at the same time.

The young wife had joined n«e unperceived. Suddenly I noticed her white form, and, interrupting myself, rose. "Continue," said Bhe, sweetly, "continue, I pray you," and she leaiitfi 1 upon the railing. I can see bcr thorr all in white, with a Scotch plaid hah' thrown over her shoulders, !ear. : rr like a reed upon the balustrade. Her roice seemed to me so sweet and imperious, her large green eyes, always lowered, were raised, and sparkled af brilliantly that the night seemci brighter. I commenced my sontr. She listened attentively, standing in the flood of pale light which fell from the stars, and seemed to mingle and lose herself in the milky transparency of the air. I had a dream of the white lady of Walter Scott, of the fay of Lochleven astray that evening long ago on the banks of the Cumes. I sang with a strange sentiment, as one who made an invocation; then, at the moment I had finished the last Terse, I saw her bend quickly to the movement of the vesel. A voice murmured: "Adieu —Sapho," and a body fell into the water. I sprang up—the boats were launched, but the waves quickly closed over her, and the sea jealously guarded its fiancee. They wrote to her father: "Your daughter was drowned by accident in going from Naples to Civita-Vec-chia," but the next day I heard aa old Italian sailor say, in a low voice, shaking his head: "An accident! A flne story! She had eyes green like the sea; all such end their lives so; the wind always carries them away." And I thought of the story of the Arab and of the three, sisters who journeyed far. Perhaps the daughter of Albion, herself, became a flower of the sea, and travels also upon the waves in an eternal search for the lover far away.