Copyright, 1891.
BY
CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY.
All rights reserved.
THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS,
RAHWAY, N. J.
THE
SWAN OF VILAMORTA.
I.
Behind the pine grove the setting sun had lefta zone of fire against which the trunks of the pinetrees stood out like bronze columns. The path wasrugged and uneven, giving evidence of the ravageswrought by the winter rains; at intervals loose stones,looking like teeth detached from the gum, renderedit still more impracticable. The melancholy shadesof twilight were beginning to envelop the landscape;little by little the sunset glow faded away and themoon, round and silvery, mounted in the heavens,where the evening star was already shining. Thedismal croaking of the frogs fell sharply on the ear;a fresh breeze stirred the dry plants and the dustybrambles that grew by the roadside; and the trunksof the pine trees grew momentarily blacker, standingout like inky bars against the pale green of thehorizon.
[pg 002]A man was descending the path slowly, bent, apparently,on enjoying the poetry and the peace ofthe scene and the hour. He carried a stout walking-stick,and as far as one could judge in the fading light,he was young and not ill-looking.
He paused frequently, casting glances to the rightand to the left as if in search of some familiar landmark.Finally he stood still and looked around him.At his back was a hill crowned with chestnut trees;on his left was the pine grove; on his right a smallchurch with a mean belfry; before him the outlyinghouses of the town. He turned, walked back someten steps, stopped, fronting the portico of thechurch, examined its walls, and, satisfied at last thathe had found the right place, raised his hands to hismouth and forming with them a sort of speakingtrumpet, cried, in a clear youthful voice:
"Echo, let us talk together!"
From the angle formed by the walls, there cameback instantly another voice, deeper and less distinct,strangely grave and sonorous, which repeated withemphasis, linking the answer to the question anddwelling upon the final syllable:
"Let us talk togethe-e-e-e-r!"
"Are you happy?"
"Happy-y-y-y!" responded the echo.
"I-I-I-I!"
To these interrogations, framed so that the answershould make sense with them, succeeded phrasesuttered without any other object than that of hearingthem reverberated with str