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