eventide, as the bold, young star climbed toward his lady-love, the
moon, all these things, and what had come to pass after the victory.

For there came a day when the world wearied of its toy, and turned with
shouts of joy, and wreaths of fresh laurels for the new star. Then came
disappointments and miseries crowding fast upon her; the sorrows which
a loving heart knows when it finds its idols faithless. Then the love
for him which she had once repressed arose in all its strength which had
gained during the long struggle with the world, arose and overwhelmed
her with its might, and filled her soul with an unutterable longing for
peace and rest and him.

She wrote to him and told him all her heart, and begged of him to come
back to her, for Fame was but an empty bubble while love was supreme and
the only happiness, after all. And now she waited while the crimson and
gold of the west grew dark, and gray and lowering.

Hark! She hears his loved step. He comes, ah, joy of heaven he comes!
Soon will he clasp her in his arms, and there on his bosom shall she
know peace and rest and love.

As he enters the door she hastens to meet him, the love-light shining in
her tired eyes, her soft rounded arms outstretched to meet him. But he
folds her not in his embrace, nor yet does he look with love into her
upturned eyes; the voice she loves, ah so well, breaks upon the dusky
silence, pitiless, stern.

"Most faithless of faithless women, think you that like the toy of a
fickle child I can be thrown aside, then picked up again? Think you that
I can take a soiled lily to my bosom? Think you that I can cherish the
gaudy sun-flower that ever turns to the broad, brazen glare of the
uncaring sun, rather than the modest shrinking violet? Nay, be not
deceived, I loved you once, but that love you killed in its youth and
beauty leaving me to stand and weep alone over its grave. I came
to-night, not to kiss you, and to forgive you as you entreat, but to
tell that you I have wed another."

The pitiless voice ceased, and she was alone in the dusky silence; alone
in all the shame and agony and grief of unrequited love and worthless
fame. Alone to writhe and groan in despair while the roseate flush of
eventide passed into the coldness of midnight.

Oh faithless woman, oh, faithless man! How frail the memory of thy
binding vows, thy blissful hours of love! Are they forgotten? Only the
record of broken hearts and loveless lives will show.