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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 19, 1916)
CTHE SUNDAY FICTION MAGAZINE, NOVEMBER 19, 1916 ft- - this battle, thla slaughter and stress Is life, why hare wm this eravlns ft pleas ure and beauty? If. there is no refuse, it t3ere is no place or peace and if all our dreams of .quiet places are a folly sad snare, why havs- we- such dreams? SureFy, ft wa w fjgswhf crwvfn&v n latum fvteathm had brought ua to Oris; it was lore- bad isolated urn Lev had . etnae to ste wlt& her eyes and robed fs ber beiwt more- gloridu ha air eiav ha life to thm very shape- and coior e nfesnd sutmiwned me away. I had sftaBeaef sjB the- volee, X had answered alT tle questions' IT hud come to- ken,.. And suddenly tbm waa nothing" but war ami death. I had aa tnspfra-tloK. "After all," X aid; "ft eenld hav been only dream. mA dreamt'' he cried; ftamffrg- vpoa m A dream wften even not For the first tta "And she had been, shot through - the heart A faint flush crept ato Ma cbeafc. B raised hia open, hand and clenchad it dropped; it to bis knee. He spoke, look Ins, away from - me, and; for an the rest of the tims ha looked away. . "We are- but 'phantoms," ha said, "and the- phantom of phantoms, desires like cloud shadows and wills of straw that "" eddy -in ths wind; the day pass, ns and. wont carry ns through a a traiav awadow . . r5Lk ' - " . . . . - -. iV ' --V- - -.-.''" -M, ' "canfee & 1U lights be it But oaa thing la seal . and certain, owe thins; Is, aw .. dream stuff, hut eternal aad enduring It Is the center of say life,, aad all other things about it are subordinate or altogether vain. I loved her, that woman, of a dream. Aad : aha and I are dead together! , . - "A Xreamt . How can it be a dream' .when it drenched a living Ufa with nn ; appeasable sorrow, when it makes all that I have lived for and cared for worthless and unmeaning? "Until that very moment that she was kffled I believed we still had a chance of - setting, away; he said. "AH throush the night and morning; . thatWev sailed across the sea from Capri to ' Salerno we talked of escape. We were full of hope, and It clung. about ua to the entfTEope for the -life together we should lead, out ' , of it all, out of the battle and struggle, the wild and, empty passions, the empty, J arbitrary thou shalC and thou shalt nor of the world. We were uplifted, as though our quest was a holy thing; as though love for one another was a mission. -' "Even when from our boat we saw the fair face, of that great rock Capri already scarred and gashed by the gun emplacements and . hiding places .that were to maksJLt a fastness wa reckoned nothing of the Imminent slaughter, though, the fury of preparation hung about in p,uns-and clouds -of dust. at a hundred points amidst the gray; but. In deed. I made a text of that and talked. There, you:- know, - was the , rock, still 1 beautiful for an its scars, will. Its count less windows and arches and: ways, tier upon tfcar, for a, thousand feet, a vast carving of gray, broken by vlae-clad ter races and lemon and oranga groves and ' masses of agave and prickly pear and puffs of almond blossom. And out under the archway that is built over the Pis- Ing befbra tha-wind toward tho south west, in a Utile while a multitude bad -corns out. tha remoter Just like little specks f ultramarine la the. shadow of the eastward cliff. " It U love and reason, r said, Heelng from all this madness of war. ; ,' ' "And theegh we presently - saw a squadron of aeroplanes flying across the southern skyr we did not heed ft There It was a line of QtUe dots m the' sky aoo then more, dotting the southeastern horizon, and then stm. more, nhta an cola, XTarlna other boats were coming: , that quarter of tha sky was stippled: with sndsas we cams around the cape and ' blue specks. Now. they were all thin lit within sight of the mainland another lit- tie strokes of blue, and now one and now thy string of boats came Into- view, drir- (Cmttnuei on Fpge SJ