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QUEENIE’S TERRIBLE SECRET.
lated and began to gain credence that the beautiful tragedienne
was about to enter a convent and take the veil for life. — : we
She did not deny it when people questioned her, but she would © : é
not tell the reason why she was about to take such a strange v
step. . ; :
She only smiled sadly when they remonstrated with her, but
she would never tell why she was about to immure herself, with
all her gifts of beauty, youth and genius, in a living tomb.
But there was one thing that was palpable to all who saw her
off the stage and divested of the trickery of paint and cosmetics.
La Reine Blanche was fading like the frailest summer flower.. The
lily bloomed en her cheek instead of the rose.
_ Under: her large, blue eyes lay purple shadows, darker and
deeper than those cast by the drooping lashes. _A look of patient —
suffering crept about the corners of her lips and hid in her eyes.
Her smiles were sadder and more pathetic than sighs, her form
grew slighter and more ethereal in its perfect grace, her step lost
its lightness and elasticity. Some said that the beautiful actress =
was dying of a broken heart, others said that she was falling into 4
a consumption. a
She heard these things and made no outward sign, but inward- (
ly she said to herself: . . By
‘* They are both right and wrong. Iam dying because I have
nothing left. to. live for. I have toiled and hoped for years. I |
have studied and practiced to get money to carry ine over the
' wide world in search of the one true heart that was mine only,
and now that I have found it I have had to give it-away. Ican- a
not endure it; Iam notstrong enough. There is nothing left me
but to die!” 4
She thought of some sorrowful lines she had somewhere read
and mournfully repeated them: -
‘¢ Much must be borne which is hard to bear, —
Much given away which it were sweet to keep.
God helps us all! who need indeed His care; /
And yet I know the Shepherd loves His sheep.’ sO
Those fiying rumors and reports only served to make Madame —_ |
De Lisle more popular. She was the rage. She played to densely
packed houses every night. a “sf
Flowers rained upon her. The costliest gifts of jewels and rare *
bric-a-brae were sent to her from such unknown sources that she
could neither refuse nor send them back as she would otherwise
have done. There was always a great throng of people waiting to
see her step into the carriage every night. ©
But in ail that throng La Reine Blanche never saw but one face.
There was one man who always held the same position beside her
carriage door. He never spoke to her, he never touched her, but
stood there patiently every night, thrilled to the depths of his
soul if the hem of her perfumed robe but brushed him in pass-
ing. ,
Some weird fascination utterly beyond her power of resistance
always impelled her to meet his glance, and the fire in his beauti- ers
ful, dark eyes, the passionate love, the terrible pain, the bitter ree me
proach were killing her slowly but surelv-
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