The Red Cloud chief., 1874-08-15

door OF Mf. Ayscough Q apartment
The vision "a gone, hut two senses
had been appealed to-sight and hear
ing. l bad rensc enough TO OPEN the
front door. sound my whistle. and then
l dropped sen,eless. hen | resumed
my consciousness | found myself Oh
the sofa. The private watchman vas
bending over me and I told him my
story.
You're getting . brain fever,
ma'am." said be ; you're alone too
much /; you must try for q little more
company. If you saw a oma going
up stairs We II soon catch her: but |
guess she vas here" tapping his fore
head. So, summoning sorue Of his
brotherhood. we went to Mr.. Ays-
coughs rooms. which We found locked.
everything unii-turbed the portrait
was IN it, accustomed place. Wa, /,
true that she hat stepped from it to
come and peak to me? Or, had my
brain furnished the tall white figure?
OF course it was the latter. and [
did not intend TO tie conquered by such
al illusion. | mad al interview with
a physician, who told the that these
things are not uncommon.
1T is very natural, my dear mad
ame." said the doctor, ''that you
should have invited this particular ap-
pearance, both by your having looked
so much at the picture and By your
after conversations with Mr.. i, cough
on S%piTi,uali.m. You did Dot know
how much lodgrnent those topics had
made in your BRAIN. We never kunv
until the time is past how a thing H.
taken root. Now. | advise you to
leave this house aud travel. Alter
yOnr cour-e Of life, and you will not be
troubled by spectres.
After talking with the doctor, / de-
termiDed to remain; l did Got feel
that this Was q thing to be afraid of.
Wy natural courage came to M relief.
and determined to stay and fight NY
battle on the same field. Richard re
turned, heard my ghost 1t ~. aud Was
very much amused that his prnsa,c
relative ,houid have a VISION.
went on with my work, .iEcl nv
old life, and saw no more ghosts /
knew could conquer NY nerves, il |
had any, bat | was very glad VIXEN
Mr.. Ays;ough came to >pcIl ! few
days.
The next morning af er his arrival.
however, he came down to breakfast
with a very perplexed c%ountenance.
As he walked around my writing ia
BILE he took up and examined my let
ter paper. 1t wa of rhe plainest kind,
foOlscap. generally. and as he laid it
down he laughed rather ~nervously and
said
Mrs. Martin. you must pardon ME.
| have met with such a singular loss.
You remember my writing table; it
had q quantity Of note paper with my
monogram IN it. | vas 10 the habit
Of writing my notes from here, and
last evening 1 looked for some aud
found it all gone. Of course it is a
very trivial question: but do you know
anything about it?"
Ofcourse my Indignation smothered
every other sentiment. For a moment,
however, | remembered that to Mr..
Ayscough | was but u poor old wo-
man whom Mrs. Morton had placed
ia her house to take c.re OF il, and |
was in the habit Of using a great deal
of paper. So he pu: the twc together
and supposed l was guilty of the pet
ty theft.
l answered him as calmly as | could
that | An-w nothing -tou, ms paper.
He came again ate spending an
hour in his apartments, and asked me
To come aud examine them with him.
After a moments embarrassment, he
began Il don't know, Mrs. Martin,
but | am sure these things are not rs
| left them. ms. nothing. Jut they
hare been disturbeiI These dresses
Of Gertrude's. do they not seem 10
have been dl>placed-l couli Almost
say ,ov,."-he turned palc-''I feel
almost as if she hcrselI I'D been here.
There is q certain perfume 10 the air
which she used to u>e. Could Name,
have been fumbling amongst these
things!" w called the housekeeper,
who owned to having swept, bur was
above all charges as to v airing Of the
dresses.
We dismissed poor Nancy. and
looked over the valusbles. They we're
intact not a jewel hal been moved ;
but not my most a>siduous e~loquence
could induce Mr.. Ay>coush 20 emoye
these valuahle> to . safer place.
A. | vas looking through The room
before leaving them, | picked up a
little embroidered slipper, OF which |
could not find the mate, bu, | showed
it to Mr.. Ay~cough, asking him ii It
could have fallen out Of o Of the
trunks. Tie took it and looked at it
long aud earnestly, and finally said
thxt he thought it had belonged to .
costume that Gertrude had worn in
some private theatricals in Florence.
1t did not look TO me exactly like the
slipper Of . lady, but this explanation
seemed to give it . p ace. l took it
sha -oo,n -,,k nm .hoao,t~