"Until A Far To-morrow"

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 43, 3 May 1935, Page 48

"Until A Far To-morrow"

Written by . 1

Ursula

Parrott

One of the most popular of women authors, noted for her books and magazine. stories, is Ursula Parrott (right). She is a native of Brookline, Massachusetts, and attended Radcliff. Chew dogs and roses are her hobbies at her attractive home in Wilton, Connecticut. She spends winters in New York «with: her attorney husband. She likes the West Indies, bridge and fine automobiles. Her preference of her own works is "The Tiumnut and: the Shouting," w novel about three generations of Boston Irish. so .

HR breeze that rose oye Grenada towards sundown was sweet with the scent of full springtime, but . cool across her ‘still lovely face as she‘sat: waiting. by a high window in.the palace, -in a tall chair, waiting, regarding the Moorish roofs of the city. that were pink in the last night, and the high Sierras far. off that were already blue with dusk. She who had been Isabella, Queen of Castile and Leon in her own right since she was a girl in her first twenties, long Queen of Aragon by her mar- _ riage to Ferdinand, and sometimes since Queen-of.all Spain-that mattered, since he and she had driven the Moors from this same city of Grenada, was long schooled in the composure of her face, the steadiness of her hands, that were so white against the wine colour of her dress. As for the tumult in her heart, she told herself with a faint smile,-she was long used to that too. Sixteen. years since, at Cordova, in the midst..of the Moorish wars, the young man Christopher Columbus first came to her with a letter. Was it from the Duke of Medina Celi? She could not remember that, but she could remember .herself as in a portrait not much dimmed by time, a young queen in a wine-coloured dress (so had she. chosen : that -edlour to-day) and a tall young. man, and personable, . with the most eager eyes she had seen in her whole life long, talking of things far from the Moorish wars that weighed upon her spirit, talking of a round world, of a short way to the rich, Indies, of the gold and the: pearls he would bring back in her honour. Not much’ interested then, in gold and pearls for herselfi-though ‘Spain could use the gold, heaven knew, with the war costs. mounting and mounting, something reached out from her sheltered . life" then, that first day, to the ~ bronzed "boy who had ‘seen far north-., . ern seas,. and dreamed of seas beyond" thein. She svas .a: great queen, -he was just as much more than a common

sailor’ as. she chose’ to consider him, but, he made her world seem little. She wanted to help him then, to _ Send him to find his dream’s truth, ~ but ‘could. not. Duty and patriotism compelled her and Ferdinand alike to conserve Spain’s motey for the war. _ It was six years till Grenada fell (and ‘Christopher there to see that, Summoned by her), Christopher. still sure of his-dream as ever, arrogant as a boy is arrogant, but honest, as few in her life: she’d known.’ So, after the court dickering ‘for terms, she Sent him on his way. Three times he had gone, and returned, since that first day. And now to-morrow was to go for the fourth time. The first time, he had. returned to his triumphal procession in Barcelona, where the court held then. "(In the stillness.of the town at sunset, Isabella could hear the cheers of that procession. echoing in her heart.. «She had greeted him with ‘dignity, as.a queen should, but snatched odd hours afterward to talk to him, to: listen: to‘ his stories of that world so far from any "world she would ever see.) So she had loved him, he had loved her, but with honour, with honour through the years. Herself married, to a good king, Christopher married, their duty plain before them. They ‘had held to that duty.. Give that comfort to her heart that was grown tired. ' She would see him at the State banquet to-night, would see him, if she chose to rise early, riding out from Grenada to Cadiz with the dawn, but _ how in this small room, far from her own apartments, : ‘she would, see him alone, have for the last time private speech with him before he sailed. For the last time have a chance to ‘tell him. ... "His quick footsteps . echoed along the corridor, a little uneyen they were, from that old bullet wound, but light, | and she would know theni; she thought, ' should they walk over her tomb,

He stood in the doorway, bronzed, tall, lean, his bright hair a little faded by time and hot suns, his eyes as ardent as ever, : She remembered, absurdly, the month they’d quarreled over his bringing back of so many miserable slaves No man of his time could understand her odd pity for those poor wretches. But he had tried to understand, because he loved her. He closed the door, said "Your Highness," knelt and kissed her hand. There had never been any closer gesture of intimacy between them in all of their lives. She thought, "To-morrow he goes for years again, perhaps never to return. With him goes my heart. Now we grow old, perhaps I could ‘tell him that in words" She spoke quickly, "Not to-day like. all the other days, ‘your highness’ and ‘my admiral,’ -but ‘Christopher’ and ‘Isabella,’ very old friends parting. Say ‘Isabella’ to your queen. Time goes fast for us, any to-morrow: we may meet is far or never. We have just these minutes." : He said "Isabella." He said "There with the sunset colour behind your hair, there with your grace and gentleness you stand, and I shall see you so in many still nights when the dark sea’s. quiet, and the stars over Spain shine down,. I have loved you as a man may love a queen, and as a man may love.2 woman in his heart,:a love kept far from the hurry and the turmoil of living. Now that we "may not meet again, I may tell you. Since to c you I owe any small fame -I’¥e won, anything’ Tye done beyond the run of what men do, But: for ‘you, I never (Continued on next page.)

(Continued from previcus page.) had found whatever I’ve found. Isabella, do -you- think what I’ve discovered is very important?" She smiled, tenderly, as at a child. So he, too, for all his pose of. confidence, had the doubts sometimes that all people had, that she a queen had had, as to whether all that one did with life was of much worth, after all, But she. spoke surely. oy think that the land you've found, that I, a little, have helped you to find, will be more ‘important than we shall. ever know." He was comforted. The minutes were sliding past like a swift river flowing. It was time she was back in her apartment, to be dressed for the State banquet, before anyone began to search for her. All Christopher and she had ever had, snatched minutes in palaces honeycombed with eavesdroppers. And this, the -last of them, She knew it surely in that room, in the fading sunset light, with the little flower-scented wind stirring the wall tapestries. She knew she would not see him again. i -He said, "Remember how they cheered in Barcelona--and how they hissed afterward. Only you were the same. Well, one comes to the end of cheers and jeering alike. All that matters is to have gone on through both." She said, "There are no last words that need saying between us who have been close, though we were half the world distant. Only, this time, Christopher, kiss me once on the lips. Not for farewell, just until a distant tomorrow. Then go quickly, that I may steady myself." ‘His strong arms went round her. He kissed her once. He stood in the doorway and said, breathlessly, as if he were a young man speaking to his first love, "You have given me all a man needs to live by and die by, Isabella," She saw him bow, but the sight biurred by the tears she mtist not shed for him. She heard his quick, uneven footsteps. lessening down the corridor. She stood still until the sound was gone, and then went on about her expected duties.. When he came home that time, the week that she was dying at Medina del Campo, they may have told her that he was returned,- grown old, ruined in health, his adventures done, and soon himself to die. Perhaps, if they told her, she remembered what last he said to her, and knew the other things were not important. Perhaps he remembered at the last, a queen’s kiss, more vividly than he remembered far Hispaniola.