Fantasy fiction; Utopian fiction; Utopias -- Fiction
Junius Cobb then narrated his meeting with Marie Colchis; how he had
loved her, but as a child; how he had promised to be her husband, and
how he had forsaken her to gratify his ambition. He told her how this
love of his little Marie had come to him in all its intensity since
his return to life, yet he knew that she was lost to him forever. He
informed her of his supposed love for Mollie Craft, and of his sudden
discovery that his heart could never be given to her. He related the
vision he had wherein Marie had been led to him by an angel. And during
all this recital his listener had sat, with tears in her eyes, but a
holy feeling of adoration for the man who had remembered her with such
love. It was only by a supreme effort that she refrained from declaring
herself and falling into the arms of this noble man.
"Miss Bennett--Leona," gently and slowly; "since my eyes have beheld
you, I have seen but one form, have known but one name--Marie Colchis.
Yours is the face, the voice, the grace and loveliness that would have
been hers at your age. It seems that in your form reposes her soul;
that through your eyes beams her sweet and loving nature. Never could
two beings be more alike."
As he spoke the words, Marie's overflowing heart gave vent to its
fullness in a deep sob.
"I know, Leona," proceeded Cobb, as he noticed her agitation, "that
you feel sad at the recital of my story; your great heart--her
heart--responds in sympathy to the sufferings of others. I feel that
the vision of her coming has been realized; that though departed from
this earth and among the angels in heaven, she has sent her soul,
her form, her mortal being, back again to earth that I might meet my
just reward--life or death. Marie Colchis--for by that name are you
henceforth in my heart--I love you, I adore you. Is it to be life or
death?"
Amid the sobs which came from her heart, she asked: "And will I always
be Marie Colchis to you, Junius? Will you always bear me the love you
profess for that other?"
"Yes; a thousand times yes," he cried, as he arose and took her hand
in his. "As my life, will I love you; as my life do I now adore you. O
Marie, my darling, my own. Will you give me life? Can you love me in
return, for her sake?" pleadingly, as he gently turned the beautiful
face toward him and looked into her tear-bedimmed eyes.
Her heart was overflowing; the flood-gates of her love, so long closed
and barred, were about to break asunder; her soul had passed out into
his keeping. With a passionate cry, she threw her arms about him, and
wept tears of joy. Gently he drew her closer to him, and kissed her
lips; kissed away the tear-drops in her eyes.
"You love me, my own, my darling!" he cried. "Tell me that you do."
"O Junius; as I love my God!" Again the tears of joy and happiness
flowed fast and furious from her eyes.
"And you reproach me not that I see in you my former love?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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