The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1884-08-13

separated us. Would he stop at 2049
The suspense was almost intclerable. He
disappeared through the door, though
the only surviving family latch-key was
in my pocket. When reached the door
it was shut, and bore no signs of cny
unusual treatment | could not 90 in.
could not follow into the house and run
the risk of meeting him on the dark
stairs. A horror unspeakable had taken
possession of my senses. / turned and
fled, and spent uncounted hours in walk.
ing about the silent streets and squares,
unconscious of the lapse of time.
The early sunshine aroused and cheered
my scattered wits. Gradually the sounds
of common life awakening brought back
my reasoning faculties. The discordant
cry of that bird of dawn, the early sweep,
was as music in my ears and seemed to
make the dreadful night fade into re-
moteness and unreality.
Imade my way back to Lancaster Gate,
footsore and exhausted. The milkman
was driving merrily up and down; when
| reached our doorsteps, it seemed year
since | had last assembled them. rushed
up to my ROOM it was, of course, empty.
the bed untouched. But on the pillow
and turned down sheet, exactly where my
head and shoulders would have been in
the natural course of things, lay the ruins
of large bust, the Hermes, which had
been wont to stand on bracket over the
head of the bed. This bracket my moth
er had frequently entreated me to replace
by firmer support; it had given away at
last under the ponderous weight of the
wi ril fbos
of the bed, had broken into the two or
three murderous portions that reposed on
the pillow and sheet, the bracket only
having chosen to glance off on the floor
Had l been there Hermes must certainly
have crushed my skull.
Thrilled with fresh emotion, but too
exhausted then to mediate long over the
event, | went slowly down to the dining
room and fell asleep on the sofa. The
old charwoman, who appeared later with
my breakfast. told me she had been
startled by hearings loud crash in the
night soon after the clock had struck,
but having been only half awake at the
time, she concluded that it was the thun-
der of my boots bein~ thrown out to
await the mornings cleaning. She was
now, however, much excited about it.
and disposed to revel in a tragedy. I
told her that 1 found the statue fallen
on my bed, and that, as it took three
men to move it in a general way, had
been obliged to content myself with the
sofa. The brief and matter-of-fact tone
of my explanations quite failed to quell
her exclamations of wonder and amaze.
ment, and she was not to be debarred
from the pleasure of gloating over all
the details of the tragedy which had been
averted.
Since that night all has gone well with
us. My blessed chief at the foreign
office found means to let me go in day
or two, and our time at Grasmere was all
we had expected it to be- After Christ
mas, to our great joy, Mr.. Fielding gave
up his house at Copenhagen and came to
London. Olga and were married the
following summer, and we have never
again been disturbed by presentments,
apparitions or any other subjects worthy
to exercise the industry of society for
physical research.-LOngman'S Magazine.