The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1881-08-02
The Doctors Midnight Adventure.

T AM doctor, busy, professional
4 man, whose time is money when
ever, therefore, l can save it, l do. Many
and many a night have passed in the
train, counting the hours thus gained as
a miner does his gold. Upon this point,
unfortunately, my little wife and L do
not agree; but it is, / think, the only
point upon which we do not. Eight
hours in comfortless railroad COM
partment, wrapped up in your plaid
like a snake in its blanket, instead of
your comfortable sheet, stretched over q
comfortable spring mattress-no, she
can not be made to see the propriety of
the exchange, nor will she believe that
1 sleep quite as well, if not disturbed, in
the plaid as in the sheets.
The train was just off as sprang in,
and the shock of the start landed me on
my seat. Being of slow, placid nature,
L was in no hurry to recover from the
shock, and we were fairly off, speeding
away as only an English express can
speed, before / looked around. L had
not the carriage to myself, as / had at
first supposed; lady occupied the
further end, and at the first glance, spite
of dim light and the fact of her veil
being down, L saw her eyes, unnaturally
large and intense in their expression,
were fixed upon me. I at all times pre-
fer carriage to myself, and if a COM
panion must have, let it be gentle
man, not lady but there was no help
for it. The lady was there, and, more
over, she was looking at me, :" So she
may" said 1 to myself; " that shall not
prevent me from making myself as
comfortable as circumstances will al
low" Slowly and deliberately, there
fore, removed my hat, substituting for
it a cloth cap, which L drew well down
over my ears; then 1 folded my arms
and composed myself to sleep. But in
vain. The eyes of my fellow passenger
haunted me. l saw them as distinctly
as if my own were open. Was she
watching me still Involuntarily /
looked up and around, and my look met
hers, full, burning, intense, with far
more of meaning in it than L could at
all fathom. 1t was getting decidedly
uiffleasant, and was decidedly uncom-
fortale. Try as L might, l could not
keep my eS's closed. Hers were on me,
and meet them L must.
In her attitude, too, a. well as in her
look, there was something STANCE and
mysterious. Huddled up in the corner,
she seemed to be holding something
close pressed to her beneath the long
loose mourning cape, bending low over
it in crouching posture. Once or
twice, her eyes closely fixed upon mine,
saw her shiver but for that slight
convulsive movement, she sat perfectly
still.
Was she cold 1 offered her my
plaid, glad of an opportunity to break
the ominous silence. If she would but
speak make some commonplace remark,
the spell might be broken,
8 am not cold.''
A. commonplace remark enough; but
the spell was not broken. The mystery
that lay in her eyes lay also in her
voice.
What should try nextY looked at
my watch-l1.9O; our train speeding on
at furious rate, no chance of stop
page for some time to come, and the full
open-wide gaze of my motionless COM
panion not for one moment removed
from my face. 1t was unpleasant, GER
tainly. II / changed my position, faced
the window instead Of her, she must
remove her eyes from my face at least.
But there was sort of fascination about
her and her look, which preferred