Salome

“ Patience, that fair and beautiful angel, with its calm, sedate presence, will be needed for Salome as for us all through every stage of the journey. When the gates of love open for us, and we enter into what seems an Eden, we know that there are thorns amongst the flowers, rough places to tread, sharp angles to meet. Salome will take Patience with her, nor leave her gentle guidance till she comes to the Paradise of God. For there are no crosses to bear and no imperfect work to mourn, no sin to be hid in secret places, no sorrow, nor any more pain. ”

“ Each was named Salome. I too am Salome. It was always Salome, the witch. It will always be Salome, the witch, even when the mountains of ice have roared down from the pole and ground the civilizations to ruin, and a new world has risen from the ashes and dust—even then there shall be Salomes to walk the earth, to trap men's hearts by their sorcery, to dance before the kings of the world, and see the heads of the wise men fall at their pleasure."
"But—but you——" stammered Taramis. ”

“ Salome feels a strange longing, compelling her once more to hold in her hands this awful reward of her obedience, and slowly, very slowly, and with ecstasy mingled with dread, she seems to grasp the vision of her prize and lay it on the floor before her. Every fibre of her youthful body is quivering; a sensation hitherto utterly unknown to her is awakened, and her soul longs for comfort. ”

“ Thou art not listening. Suffer me to speak, Salomé.
SALOMÉ
The head of Jokanaan.
HEROD
No, no, thou wouldst not have that. Thou sayest that but to trouble me, because I have looked at thee and ceased not this night. It is true, I have looked at thee and ceased not this night. Thy beauty has troubled me. Thy beauty has grievously troubled me, and I have looked at thee over-much. Nay, but I will look at thee no more. One should not look at anything. Neither at things, nor at people should one look. Only in mirrors is it well to look, for mirrors do but show us masks. ”

“ So small a part of the lives of others do griefs and sorrows make. That evening, while Digby and Kate were so lightly discussing the coming of Ada and Raymond, of Aunt Emily and Reginald, Salome was standing in the fading light by her father's grave in the quiet churchyard of Maplestone, with some freshly-gathered flowers in her hand, and crying as if her heart would break! ”

“ Herod forgets crown and throne and every thing but the fascinations of Salome. All the magnificence of his realm is as nothing compared with the splendor that whirls on tiptoe before him. His body sways from side to side, corresponding with the motions of the enchantress. His soul is filled with the pulsations of the feet and bewitched with the taking postures and attitudes more and more amazing. ”

“ There was a grave pause of a few minutes, and then the voice of Salome was heard in solemn tones:
"The world won me. The world broke me and flung me back upon the convent, and forced me to remember and keep my promise. I return now to dedicate myself to the service of Heaven, at the altar of your convent, if indeed Heaven will take a heart that earth has crushed!"
She sighed.
"It is the world-crushed, bleeding heart that is the sweetest offering to all-healing, all-merciful Heaven," said Sister Josephine, tenderly lifting the hand of Salome and pressing it to her bosom. ”

“ Salome slowly raised those woeful eyes to the lady's face, and asked:
"Mother, good mother, did you ever know any one in all your life so heavily stricken as I am?"
The abbess put her arms around the young girl and drew her head down upon her own pitying bosom, as she replied:
"Have I ever known one so heavily stricken as you? My child, I cannot tell. 'The heart knoweth its own bitterness,' and one cannot weigh the grief of another. Salome, you have been heavily smitten; but so have many others. Daughter! I never do speak of my own sorrows. ”

“ Salome, I have tried to prove myself a mother to you since the day that I took you under my roof; and now, when I am passing away from the world,—when a few short months will probably end my feeble life, I think you owe it to me to give me no sorrow that your hands can easily ward off. Don’t leave me. When I am gone there will be time and to spare, for all your schemes. Stay here, and let me have peace and sunshine about me, in my last fading hours. Ah, dear, you can’t be cruel to the old woman who has long loved you so tenderly. ”

“ The man had thrown himself, fully dressed as he was, upon the bed, and had already sunk into a heavy, drunken slumber. Salome stood looking at him, the tears running down her cheeks, mingled love and indignation in her aching heart. Then the love overcame all else, and she sank on her knees by her father's side, and prayed earnestly for him who was unfit to pray for himself, whilst the words the Vicar had spoken to her that evening—
"'The eternal God is thy refuge,
and underneath are the everlasting arms.'"
—recurred to her memory, and fell like balm upon her sorrowful spirit. ”

“ If Salome, whom I loved an infant on the knee and love to this moment, the most ingenuous and happy-hearted being on earth, has been betrayed into a fondness for this stranger, have we the right to force her inclinations? I know the depth of understanding that lies under her playfulness; can she have been deceived, and least of all by those arts? Impossible! If she has sacrificed her obedience to the noble form and high accomplishments of the Greek, we can only lament her exposure to a captivation made to subdue the heart of woman since the world began. ”

“ Some day, Salome, that same voice that startled the old man of Uz will make you bend and tremble and shiver like that acacia yonder, which the wind is toying with before it snaps asunder. When that time comes the clover will feed bees above my gray head, but I trust my soul will be near enough to the great white throne to pray God to have mercy on your wretched spirit, and bring you safely to that blessed haven whither you can never pilot yourself. ”

“ Oh Heaven grant I may be permitted to die!" fervently prayed Salome, clasping her hands.
"Hush, hush, my poor, unhappy child. I know not what your sorrow has been, but it cannot possibly justify you in your sinful petition. Life, my child, is the greatest of boons, since it contains within it the possibility of eternal bliss. We should be deeply thankful for simple life, whatever may be its present trials, since it holds the promise of future happiness," said the gentle abbess.
"Oh, mother, my life is wrecked—is hopelessly wrecked!" groaned Salome. ”

“ Herod describes the jewels which he promises to give to Salome so she relieve him of his oath, and the music of the orchestra glints and glistens with a hundred prismatic tints. Salome wheedles the young Syrian to bring forth the prophet, and her cry, "Thou wilt do this thing for me," is carried to his love-mad brain by a voluptuous glissando of the harp which is as irresistible as her glance and smile. ”

“ Fowler moved towards the house, the others following.
Margaret's thoughts were all of Salome during the remainder of the evening. And before she went to rest, she prayed earnestly that God would give His help and protection to the lame girl, and reward her patience and love in His own good time.
"Drink is an awful thing," was her last waking thought that night, as she crept into her little, white-curtained bed, and laid her head down on the soft pillow. "I only wish poor Salome's father could be brought to see what an awful thing it is." ”

“ And Salome looked at him severely.
His blue eyes filled with sudden tears, and his rosy cheeks paled as he gasped, "Oh, I never thought—I never thought—"
"No, I don't suppose you did, Master Gerald, or if you did, it was yourself you thought of and no one else," Salome cried indignantly. "You 're the most selfish little boy I know."
"You 're very unkind, and—and nasty."
"I daresay you think I am; but I love Miss Margaret, and I know you've been the cause of her illness. I wonder what your mother and father will say." ”

“ Wilton, "is that Percival is one of the best and noblest of men. May our daughters be equally fortunate."
So we leave Salome standing on the threshold of her great happiness. Patience has had her perfect work in the days of her girlhood. Will she need it no more in the womanhood which is dawning upon her with the soft, sweet radiance of a faithful heart on which she may rest? ”

“ You make an idol of that monster of iniquity who was an accomplice in the murder of your father—"
Salome uttered a low cry, and hid her face in her hands. The abbess went on steadily, almost pitilessly:
"A man who, having already a living wife, of whom he had grown tired and ashamed, married you, and so would have ruined you in soul and body."
Salome groaned deeply, and then suddenly broke forth in passionate exclamations:
"I know it! I know it? I know it from the evidence of my own senses, no less than from the testimony of others! I know it, but I cannot feel it, mother! I cannot feel it? ”

“ That oval piece of canvas had become the one fetich to which Salome’s heart clung in silent adoration, defiant of the iconoclastic touch of reason and the adverse decree of womanly pride; for natures such as hers will always grovel in the dust, hugging the mutilated fragments of their idol, rather than bow at some new, fretted shrine, where other images hold sway, commanding worship. ”

“ CHAPTER XXXI. THE ABBESS' STORY.
"'Not the Duke of Hereward!'" echoed Salome, astonishment now overcoming every other emotion in her bosom.
The abbess bowed her head in grave assent.
"'One whom you thought numbered with the dead, full twenty years ago?'" continued Salome, quoting the lady's own words, and gazing on her face.
"Full twenty-five years ago, my daughter, or longer still," murmured the abbess.
"This man is young. He could not have been grown up to manhood twenty-five years ago."
"He is well preserved, as the selfish and heartless are too apt to be; but he is not young." ”

“ It is nothing to be ashamed of. Love is natural. Love is holy. Oh, it is your mother that should be telling you all this, my poor girl, not your awkward, blundering old father," suddenly said the banker, breaking off in his discourse as his daughter hid her crimson face upon his shoulder.
"My dear, gentle father, no mother could be tenderer than you," murmured Salome.
"Tell me all, then, my darling. It is the first wish of my heart to see you happily married. And no trifling obstacle shall stand in the way of its accomplishment. Who is he, Salome?" ”

“ Nothing but a perfect confidence that her mother's soul was about to wing its way to a realm of unutterable bliss, and that the same faith which opened the portals of heaven to Salome's ransomed spirit, would also enable her to join her there, could have taught her to look on the dying and beloved form before her and not feel that her heart was breaking. ”

“ Salomé is openly impertinent to me this morning. It is high time for me to put an end to these insolent comments on my conduct. You see, Nello, they look upon my loving you as a crime, and they approved of my supposed love for the avaricious Lanfranchi. They are all low-minded or foolish creatures. I must inform them this very day that I passed the night, not with my lover, but with my husband. It is the only way to make them respect you and refrain from betraying me. ”

“ Constantius and Salome
The natural playfulness of the sweet and light-hearted girl became manifest, and she replied “that a philosopher ought to know all things without questioning.”
“But there is much in the world that defies philosophy, my fair Salome; and of all its problems, the most perplexing is the mind of woman!—of young, lovely, dangerous woman!” ”

“ The first is an intermezzo in which all action ceases except that which plays in the bestially perverted heart and mind of Salome. A baffled amorous hunger changes to a desire for revenge. The second is the music of the dance. The third is the marvelous finale in which an impulse which can only be conceived as rising from the uttermost pit of degradation is beatified. Crouching over the dissevered head of the prophet, Salome addresses it in terms of reproach, of grief, of endearment and longing, and finally kisses the bloody lips and presses her teeth into the gelid flesh. ”

“ So the weeks passed slowly into months, and the winter into spring, yet nothing more was seen or heard of the Duke of Hereward.
Salome lost the habit of looking for him, and gradually recovered her tranquility. In the work to which she had consecrated herself—the care of helpless and destitute infancy—she grew almost happy.
Already she seemed as dead to the world as though the "black vail" had fallen like a pall over her head. No newspapers ever drifted into the asylum, nor did any visitor come to bring intelligence of the good or evil of the life beyond the convent walls. ”

“ Bless me! How your feelings have overcome you. Family affection is charming, idyllic, but—don't spill the tea as you did the cream.'
'Would you kindly pour out for yourself?' asked Salome. 'It is true that my hand shakes. I am not very well this morning.'
'Delighted. As I was saying,' pursued Mrs. Sidebottom, drawing the teapot, sugar-basin, and cream-jug to herself—'as I was saying, in the small hours of the night I was aroused by the snoring and could not sleep. So I rose, and opened the spare room door and looked in.'
Salome's frightened eyes were riveted on her. ”