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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1885)
THE WEST SHORE. 169 " attack of heart," to which the couutows was nuljot, aud in the middle of dinner she fainted, and had to be curried to her room, which the rustio doctor, who was haiitily fetched from a neighboring townlot, declared bIio would not be able to leave for some days. So Alexia was free to roam, unspied upon by maternal eyes. Aa a rule, he had found it dull at the Seldom; but now he felt atrangoly content Ilia eyes wandered over the groups of shrubs that, parting, showed pictures of unmowed grassy lawns with flower beds and gravelled walks. The shadows at his feet were pale; the flag hung limply on its pole above the castle tower. It would be a fit day to lounge in the Bhade at Lino's feet, as he last did five long years ago, before he went to the military school. He paused, mentally contemplating the idoa, and then walked through the open gates, loft the castlo behind him, and procoeded up the broad road leading to the vil lage. First under the trees, then iu the open, then under the high brick wall of Herr Barmauu's garden. He rang a bell, and the greeu gate opened as if by itself. He stepped down into the square garden. " Good morning." A thin, sham-eyed man of middle age, in a Schlafrock or dressing gown, a cap on his grey hair and a long pipe between his lips, came down the steps from the house door. " It is long since you have been here, Count Aloxis. You want Lino. The gnadige Frausent the Jungfer Marie" (hor maid) "to ask for Lise to go and sit with hor." How was it then that Aloxis had not met her? Oh! that was easily explained. Lise went to the oaatle through the fiolds by the path that led from thoir garden gate to the shrubberies. " I always go that way," added the in tendant, with a sharp, scrutinizing glance aaide at the young man. " But now you are hero, oome in and toll me some news of Breslau." But Alexis refused. The suspicion he had felt that " they were trying to prevent his seeing Lise" was strengthening. In the Wt field between the shrubleries around the Schloss and Hurr Barmann's house was a piece of water, bordered by a narrow copse. Here there was a boat house,' whore he aud Lise used to play at lieing ship wrecked mariners on a desert island, going to and fro to the tiny islet in the middle of the lake in the curious three-cornered punt with the swan's head. Liso must pass here, and here Alexis went and waited for her. While he was seriously ondoring, Lise was coming home through the shrubberies, accompanied by the old white St Bernard, Chance, who used to make the third young playfellow in those dear old days. Then ho was a fluffy young pup with big, awkward paws and a silly, in quisitive face; now he was a sage old dog, whose long hair flapped as lis marched sodutoly along, his dim eyes impervious to attractions Uiat to his worn sensibilities were attractions no longer. Young with Alexis and Lise, his life had boundod on while their lives had crawled, and now that theirs were unfolding into the first passion ate freshness of full noon, his was melting into the shades of fast-coming night Yet even old Chance could be roused from his steady torpor. As Lise and he n eared the oen field of the lake, he suddenly panned, sniffod, and with a short hark ruhv swny fmvn hta ml", Lise hoard a voice say, " Chanoo, dear old Chance," then back he came, leaping and fawning upon Aloxisl She shrank back, her heart seomod to stop then her life seomod smothered by nn embrace. Alexis kissed hor on Ixith cheeks, as he had kissed his mother yesterday. Anger, rulMed dignity, restorod her equilibrium. " How dare you," she said, rotreating, aud brushing her cheeks with her handkerchief. " Then you are not my sister, my darling Liso? Be cause you are growu up aud betrothed, you are going to cant mo off? You forgot your promise to love your adopted brother Alexis beet in the world as long aa you lived! Oh, Lise, you cannot mean itl Do not try to lie silly, like tho fushiouahlo young ladies in town!" His words were like a stream of sunshino. Liso for got doubts, conventionalities, and lookod up into the honest blue eyes, with their fringe of black lashes, that she know so well. "We are no longer children," alio said. "Are only children to love and to lie happy? Oh, Lise, be yourself, my sister; all those years that they have kept us apart home has not been home, it has been like a bad dream. There was no one whom my heart could speak to, so it got numb and stopped speaking tdl yesterday. Then, when I saw you again, it suddenly sprang up and soemod to warm me and bring me to oon sciousuoss again, and to-day it burns with joy as if it could fly from me and flutter to your foot, so dearly do I love my dear, long-lost sister." Their hands claaod. They felt children again, bask ing in the warmth of an innocent sympathy in which ceremony and false shame died sudden death. This sweet blushing, serene woman was to Alexis tho child Lise glorified; and Lise saw in the toll young man the liltlo brother grown toll and strong. Drawing hor hand through his arm, Alexis led hor along the path toward the boathouso. " Now that we are together again, at last," ho said, joyously, u we must go over the old ground; you will come to all the places where we woro so happy, onoo more, before we part for ever, won't you, Lise?" " Tart forever!" The words were as a oold hand laid ujxm Llse's heart, yet she knew them truo. Her life would weary itself out with dark, staid Frana Ulrich in the refined, museum-like Dresden, while Alexis would fight, or enjoy a glittering peace, in tho heart of a brill iant army. " Don't let us talk of parting, just for to-day." "They are trying to keep us aart, though, Lisa," saitl he, bonding his tall head as they passed under a tree. "These old oople can't enjoy anything, so they grudge enjoyment to us." They stood in tho boathouso. Tho wavsleta lapped the keel of the punt Lise peered into tho corners. " Our chairs aud our tables are gone," she said. M Last time I came here they were all black and rotten, so I sup. pose they have been given to Uie poor for fuel." .