The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1877-01-20
" Certainly" 1 replied; "but you are not

going to stop me y
No, am not going to stop you; but
| want you, now that you are starting
again, not to wander alone more than you
can help. Prosecute this search by all
means, but see as much society as you can;
and | must add my entire concurrence
with your fathers proposal On your re-
turn, marry if possible; it is the only thing
that will cure you"
May l ask you again, as | did before,
Doctor, what do you think are my chances
of success ? What does all this mean ?"
"That is easier to ask than to answer.
One reading of it would be as follows =
You are exercising involuntarly strong
influence over some person unknown to
you. What has been called odic force
may in rare eases act in this way Wheth-
er tho person you influence has any def
nate knowledge of the impress on your
mind, it is impossible to say She may or
she may not. This explanation, you OBJ
serve, postulates her existence in real life.
II, on the other hand, she exists only in
your dreams, then it must be looked upon
merely as dream, recurring in this way
because your mind during your waking
hours dwells upon it with such persistence
But | never dreamed Of her in France,
aud yet she was hardly out Of my thoughts.
can tell you no more. There are
more things in heaven and earth, Horato
-"Y ou eau finish the quotation yourself"
So once more | started on my search
and now, instead of having the light of
her face withdrawn, it was with me day
and night Most distinct in dreams, but
still ever with me to cheer me and to up.
hold me during my wanderings.
And yet even with that solaco it was
weary work, and it was with a heart very
little attuned to them that observed the
doctors instructions, and went out into
such society as could command in places
where | was very often an entire stranger
Every female figure in the faintest degree
attractive raised my hopes only to disap.
point me, and journeyed from place to
place till l realized the truth of the lines /;
" Day and night my tolls redouble,
Never nearer to the goal;
Night and day feel the trouble
OF the wanderer in the SOUL
| also, as was to be expected, became
more and more uneasy as the months went
by and the time drew near when, in fulfill
ment of my promise to my father, must
60 home, and instead of indulgiDg in a
mad chase after heroine of dreamland, |
must settle down with the wife he had
chosen for me, if, indeed the lady would
have me, The thought maddened me
when | reflect upon what the doctor had
said. If haply / was influencing the dar-
ling Of my dreams, and she too might be
conscious Of it, how could prove traitor
to my unknown loye2
There was nothing to do, however, but
to wander on, and did so in vain, until
within month of the time when should
have to so back my father and declare my
willingness to obey him. .....
was staying at the time for day or
two at little seaside town called Rock
ford, and there meeting couple Of bache.
lor friends, consented to 20 to a ball,
which the visitors had arranged, and of
which they were stewards The idea was
distasteful to me; but | had promised the
doctor, and / should see new faces, so |
went to the festivity. Some country peo-
pie were coming, and stood leaning list
lessly out of an open window watching the
arrivals. The moonlight shone across the
sea, and beneath me the carriages rolled
up to the door, and gay parties alighted at
the portico of the hotel where the ball was
given.
Suddenly | saw there was some commo.
tion below, and the crowd at the door
closed round q carriage which then drove
rapidly away, gentleman apparently
mounting the box near the coachman, while
the servant, who had occupied the place,
hurried off in an opposite direction. Some.
body had been taken i'll, l supposed, and
so it appeared; for when one Of my friends
came up, he said. Extraordinary thing,
Frewen; carriage drives up, the father,
it seems, gets out and hands out the ladies
mother first and then the daughter.
The moment the young lady steps out she
looks up, then she starts back, and falls in
a dead faint on the carriage steps. She
looked as If she had seen ghost, they say;
| wonder what was up2 Egad, old fellow,
she must have caught sight Of your woe.be.
gone face, and turned faint at the idea of
dancing with such scarecrow.
| listened idly and said tNo, | don't
think she saw me, forgetting, be it oh.
served, that the Moonlight shone full on
my face, and that the glare of the gasight
streamed out of the room.
attached no Importance to the incl
dent, though the reader will possibly won.
der at it. | felt nothing unusual, only
perhaps little sadder and more uneasy;
aud the face of my dream-lovc looked sad,
too, when she came in my sleep, and paler,
l though, than it was wont to look as of old.
But no revelation came to me; and
month afterward, when | returned to Lon.
don, it would have required an effort Of
memory to recall the fact that at the Rock
ford ball a young lady arriving started
as if she had seen a ghost" aud had fallen
fainting in her fathers arms. Had then
given up the search when the prize was so
near? Had she seen me in her dreams
and recognized me, while no indication of
her presence was vouchsafed me I?
The reader must form his own conclu.
sions, My mad errand was over. re-
turned to town to do my fathers bidding
in any matrimonial speculation he might
suggest, and to forget, as | best might,
that ever had love in dreamlaud.
CHAPTER III.
My father made no attempt to conceal
his satisfaction at my return to him, and,
as he was good enough to say, to my senses
Having relieved his feelings by that re-