Is
there a Mary Callen dead, and a Mary Callen livin'? and did both of them
love a man that went from Farcalladen Rise one wild night long ago?'
"'There's but one Mary Callen,' said I, 'but the heart of me is dead,
until I hear news that brings it to life again?'
"'And no man calls you wife?' he asked.
"'No man, Sir Duke Lawless,' answered I. 'And no man ever could, save
him that used to write me of you from the heart of Australia; only there
was no Sir to your name then.'
"'I've come to that since,' said he.
"'Oh, tell me,' I cried, with a quiverin' at my heart, 'tell me, is he
livin'?'
"And he replied: 'I left him in the Pipi Valley of the Rocky Mountains a
year ago.'
"'A year ago!' said I, sadly.
"'I'm ashamed that I've been so long in comin' here,' replied he; 'but,
of course, he didn't know that you were alive, and I had been parted from
a lady for years--a lover's quarrel--and I had to choose between courtin'
her again and marryin' her, or comin' to Farcalladen Rise at once. Well,
I went to the altar first.'
"'Oh, sir, you've come with the speed of the wind, for now that I've news
of him, it is only yesterday that he went away, not years agone. But
tell me, does he ever think of me?' I questioned.
"'He thinks of you,' he said, 'as one for whom the masses for the dead
are spoken; but while I knew him, first and last, the memory of you was
with him.
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