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

depressed, and was preparing to go forth
and seek an early swim, when the door
opened, and to my amazement Olga
glided into the room, pale and dropping
with dark lines under her brown eyes
After mutual exclamations and greetings
| demanded the reason of her wan and
detected appearance. She did not an
swer at first, but turned her face away
and tormented the braid on her travelling
dress in silence. "Well, if you win
know, dear friends" she said at last
with charming gesture of resignation,
81 think your old foreign Office has be-
witched me- No, it is not that unhappy
r., wEo has the evil eye, for / have a
feeling as if some danger was hanging
over you, and l could not sleep all night
for it. Oh HaTyw continued the i'm
petuous damsel, suddenly throwing aside
the dignity with which she was wont to
treat me, now that the worst was out
'come away with us to-day. Never mind
thousand governments and clerkships
| will not go without you. Something
dreadful will happen; you feel it too. You
look fit for the hangman Yourself" 1t
took me long while to restore Olga to
calmness. laughed at her prognostica-
tions and was careful to betray no simi-
lar feelings on my own part. She was
more or less convinced at last of the utter
ruin it would be to my future prospects
to desert my post, and we were reasonably
resigned if not cheered by breakfast
time.
Well, saw them all off from Euston
station, and trailcd away, hapless vic
tim, to my dreary task in the exalted
gloom of Whitehall. That day seemed
interminable, yet there was nothing to
look forward to at the end of it. and still
with the previous nights weight on my
spirits, | started on my way back to the
bowling wilderness in Lancaster Gate.
Near Hyde Park corner, where very
few carriages remained to make hay of
the dust, l was startled from melancholy
reflection by great bang on the back.
Turning sharply round, confronted that
athletic giant, Jack Oliver, who had been
at the same college as myself, and whom
| had not met since we took our respec-
tive degrees at Oxford three years before.
At Oriel | had been wont TO write Jack
down as an ass, because his invariably
boisterous spirits and perpetual athletics
were at times perfect nuisance. but in
my present forlorn condition his jolly
face and infectious laugh were a real God
send.
We dined at the club together, and
afterward went to the theatre, then
smoked a pipe or two in company at
divers lodgings, so that it was toward
l O'Clock when | left him to return to
Lancaster Gate. Walking along under
the park ratings, the trees made occa-
sional ghostly rustlings overhead; the
air was very still and heavy, in expecta-
ton of a travelling thunder storm. The
tall shut-up houses facing the park
looked as forbidding as so many mauso-
leums in the moonlight, and only the
footsteps of stray wayfarer here and
there, or the welcome rattle of an occa-
sional hanson, broke the strange still
ness.
All the uncomfortable feeling of the
past twenty-four hours, temporarily
thrust back by divers cheerful company,
returned with overwhelming force In
dignant at being so befooled by what /
declared TO myself must be a dispeptic
imagination Though my acquaintance
with dyspepsia was happily of the
slightest, argued iercely with my
own folly; but all in vain, that indie
scribable dead weight of apprehension
still crushed my spirits. The senseless
sense of unseen danger grew stronger at
every yard. l was ready to roar for very
disquietude of spirit. "Confound it all, "
! almost shouted, this is beyond joke
What an abject piece of imbecility for a
man who has always tlattered himself on
having too much reason to fall prey to
any superstitious delusions whatever! |
must be i'll; if things go on like this to-
morrow | shall give in and 90 to old
Burrows (the family Esculapius) TO be
put together again"
Meanwhile every step forward APP
peared to grow more and more difficult.
A sudden sound of footsteps close be-
hind most unaccountably paraylyzed my
powers of locomotion, and filled Inc with
a horrib,e dread. This was monstrous;
with kind of groan of disgust and mis-
cry over my own decrepitude, l resoutely
turned around and waited till the steps
reached me.
Merciful heaven! What was this that
came up, brushed past me, and went on
My brain reeled, a cold perspiration
broke out on my forehead, for frantic as
it may sound, it was myself that l saw
go by. My exact image and counterpart
came toward me, looked me full in the
face with cold, indifferent eyes, differing
from mine only in their expression at the
and passed on, brushing me with
the sleeve of light overcoat exactly
like the one l wore. l noticed with
despairing recognition on the creatures
left hand, which was raised, holding the
unbuttoned flap of his coat in front of
him "a favorite trick of mine), the very
ring Olga had given me a week ago, and
which was also on my finger at that mo-
ment
For one long minute l stood stupefed
with horror; the next l darted forward
after that terribly familiar form, which
crossed the street and went on toward
our door, felt sure that I must be mad,
or in the clutches Of copa bidda. upin.bt