The Argosy — page 326: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Letters from Majorca. 303 liberty in the grounds of Miramar. You have no canaries in Mallorca ; but why should they not live in your beautiful climate as well as elsewhere? At any rate, if they thrive, they will propagate, and their sweet song will be an everlasting chant and requiem to the memory of my dead friend. None shall know him; no other record of him shall appear.” The Archduke, who has much romance in his temperament, was moved by the poetry and beauty of the idea, and by such rare fidelity to the memory of a lost friend. He desired to know the stranger’s name. “Sir,” he replied, ‘‘permit me to remain unknown. I came to the island yesterday, I depart to-morrow. I wish to leave no trace, no record, behind me of my visit. Let the birds chant my requiem, with that of my lost friend. [I still live, it is true, but my happiness at least is dead. It may be that I shall some day return to see the success of my experiment, and then declare myself. But should that day never come, I would rather pass away in silence. My mission here is accomplished.” With a low bow he departed, and Mallorca knows him no more. The little yellow songsters are flying about the woods and lodging in the branches, and one can only hope, with the mysterious stranger, that their reign in the island has taken root, and will not cease. Reaching the Hospiteria, on the occasion of this first visit, the worthy people had recognised me immediately, and great was their welcome. For my own part I was almost as ‘ emotioned” as they, though outwardly calm. ‘Those three past winter days of absolute happiness came back in all their strength and vividness; the three happiest days, as I have told you, that I had spent in Mallorca. No cloud had dimmed our sky. To-day, I found myself wandering un- consciously upstairs in our old rooms, recalling old impressions. H.C.’s voice and footsteps haunted them. I missed him terribly, just as I had missed him in Barcelona Cathedral. ‘The view from the windows was more glorious than ever ; that wonderful combination of blue sea and sky, far stretching wooded heights, fertile terraces of vines and Olives ; with the intense sunshine over all, golden, molten, glowing. The people of course asked after H. C. Why had he not also come ? Surely we were inseparable, and had no right to appear one without the other? ‘They could not be made to understand that it is not always strife that separateth friends, but what poets would call “‘the trumpet note of duty.” Nevertheless, though appearing, as it were, single-handed, I was made much of, and received with all the rejoicing given to a lost sheep. But to-day, I had not cometo remain. A few hours spent at Miramar, and the lordly barouche would convey me back to Palma. SO was it on the occasion of this second visit. In the meantime the Archduke had left the island; Miramar was deserted. The Comicooolkks (SO) nn