Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1885-11-18
here remains but one door of doubtful es


| ape"
Linburn was completely sobered and con-
siderably astonished. There was some
hing queer in the way Kerr talked, whose
usual, cold common sense gave additional
| color to the strangeness of the outbreak.
"Wkat unutterable ideas you havep' said
Ginburn, with a nervous shudder. "But
YOU are sadly wanting in chivalry to the
ady. You have only met her once, yet you
are ready to swear away her character b.
sause she has melancholy expression and
agly hands,"
The young men had now reached point
where the lane suddenly increased to twice
is previous width. The boundary wall
urned at right angles with itself, and af
er running couple of yards turned again,
ind was replaced by an open iron railing,
'ehind which the park stretched away in
What seemed illimitable snowy vistas. Kerr
'tood still, and, leaning against the ratings,
ooked into the misty distance.
You will acquit me of any very vivid
belief in the supernatural ?' he asked.
Linburn smiled sad but re-assuring
smile
"Yon believe in nothing that is incapable
# demonstration in the lecture-room,' he
answered.
'Well, then. don't laugh when l tell you
that tonight saw into that woman's miud !;
It least, that is the only way can account
TOR the phenomenon am going to describe.
by her side at dinner there stood child.
<new then that the snow had fallen, for
half melted snowfakes were trickling down
its head and neck. NJ yer could see its
ace, which was constantly turned toward
hers, but with its little ill-shaped, wither-
I'd fingers it stroked her hand or drew TO-
ward her her knife. If you had observed her
It all you would have seen that the whole
If dinner she played with her table-knife-
sometimes balancing it idly between her
fingers, sometimes feeling stealthily along
its blade-but saw it was the child who
guided her hand, and when she would have
put it out of reach the child drew it back
again. You remember once passing her a
knife of your own? You were unconscious
ly mesmerized by her thoughts, but to me
it seemed that the child was stretching an
arm across your plate, and SO close to you
that could swear its sleeve had touched
you. Once, her fan or her napkin slipping,
she bent sideways TO restore it, and the crea
ture Instantly transferred it's hand from her
wrist to her throat. drawing its fingers
across the skin with slow caressing move
ment. If any one spoke to her, and TINS
disturbed the current OF her ideas, she be-
came free-the child was no longer there;
directly she sank back into abstraction. it
stood again oy her side, stroking her wrist
and looking up INTO her face. When the
iadies LETT the dining room 1t went, too,
holding on to fold OF her gown.
"A queer hallucination, was it not ?" said
Kerr after pause, during which, for once
IN bis life, Llnburn found absolutely moth
ing to say. "You will understand my re-
uctance to speak OF it. 70 morrow by
daylight shall inevitably appear to mys If
either madman or fool. And yet after
all, is may De merely case OF pronounced
thought-reSdlng, the liked idea which she
dwels on so persistently; that it has become
tor her visible presence, may, through