The river press., 1886-03-03
SHADOW ON THE CURTAIN

quarters in a. street Which mad once Deen
fashionable, but had now declined to
seninently respectable" being mostly
given over to lodging houses. Altogether
the retirement of the place, with its
large, handsome buildings pleased
Wyllis very well. He was refined and
Imaginative young fellow, not, lndeed,
averse to society, but still capable, aJ
times, of preferring quiet evening ana
q good book to the noise and excitement
of the tmadding crowd" as exemplned
BY his associates. His business kept him
down town all day, SO that, except on
Sundays, he was not familiar with any
but the nocturnal aspect OF the sCreeC.
Every feature Of that he knew by hearJs
from the first glimmer of the gas lamp ON
the corner to the color Of the curtains a5
the different windows. In one Of these
windows he became particularly inter
ested, partly because it was directly OPP
posite his own, and partly because, atthe
hour of his return, there was almost al
WAYS the shadow OF head outlined on
the white curtain.
After his fashion, Wyllis began TO
speculate about the oWnero OF this head.
On the Sunday following his removal he
looked over curiously to see what ne
could discern by daylight. Some one
was certainly in the window, but SO DIS
guised by the lace draperies that ne
could only perceive q general feminine
outline. Later when the church DeAs
were ringing, he saw very pretty girl
leave the house, but, devoutly as he
hoped it, he had no proof that this was
his unknown vis-a-vis. For all he could
tell this sweet divinity might live upon
the third or fourth floor, perhaps at the
back, where-horrid thought!-she filrted
with some fellow similarly placed; while
the Lady of the Shadow was perhaps
some venerable dame. In the midst OF
this uncertainty chance, in the shape OF
q fire alarm, came to his assistance.
When the bells began to sound Wyllis,
wondering if he was going to be burned
out again, leaned out TO see, if possible,
where the fire was Then he glanced
across the way, and saw his neighbor en-
gagged in the same attempt. Before
the window was closed and curtained
again, Wyllis had ascertained that she
was the same pretty girl he had seen
leave the house.
His mind was now at rest, and his
speculations began to take more def
mite form. Undoubtedly his beautiful
neighbor was musical, and the nightly
shadow was seated at the piano for the
regular drill Upon this basis he built q
fine castle-in the-air. In fact, he con-
structed an entire romance, Of which this
unknown pretty girl was the heroine,
whom he worshiped under the name OF
Mabel Her whole history was-in i'm
agination-as familiar to him as his own,
and he would often muse upon the cir
cumstances which left her lovely wait
upon the tide of city life. He kept all
this jealousy from the knowledge Of his
companions, who, he felt, would break
the charm, even if they did not 60 far
ther and try to establish an ordinary,
commonplace Irritation with the sacred
Shadow.
Here energetic youth will ask: Why did
not Arthur Wyllis, living as he did, OPP
posite his divinity, follow up his advan-
tage and contrive an acquaintance, as he
easily might have done? The answer is:
Precisely because he was Arthur Wyllis.
Retiring to fault, he was good deal OF
a dreamer by nature, and heaSSWas
quite capable of romancing about girl
for weeks, until she suddenly disappeared
from his horizon, leaving him with his
awakened sensibilities thrown back upon
himself. How long in the present case
he might have gone on in this fantastic
way it is impossible to tell. for one day,
several weeks later, something happened
which startled him out Of his natural
world This was the robbery and at-
tempted murder OF lady occupying the
second-f floor apartment in boarding
house not many squares distant. The
Il dad hr ma a.
and entered through window commun-
icating with a balcony. 1t was dusk of q
winter night, at an hour when the in
mates were presumably at their evening
meal, and the burglar no doubt expected
to find the rooms empty. AS it happened,
however, the lady who occupied the first
: which he entered was indisposed, and
was lying half asleep on a lounge. The
gas was turned down very low, and as
she was in an alcove out OF the range or
the window, the burglar did not suspect
her presence until he was fairly in the
room. When he did, he probably thought
he would not have his labor for his pains.
At any rate, the lady, in her subsequent
account of the affair, said that some
thing made her open her eyes to see ~
man standing by her toilet-table, with
HIS uISuuS Ol AC1 SOlS1 w e1GSfAs oAASso 51AS
sprang forward with scream and
caught at the watch-which had been
been the gift of a dead friend-that the
burglar tried to make his escape, and,
while she still clung to him, in her en-
deavor to get possession Of the watch,
struck her sayagely on the head until, at
the approach Of the people. who had been
alarmed by her cries, he Wrenched him
self violently from her hold and disap-
peared by the same way he had come.
It was a fashionable boarding house,
and the lady was Well-knoWn in society,
and the whole affair naturally made q
great sensation in the city. WyHis, how
ever, had his own special reasons for
feeling excited about 1t. Did not Shadow
also live on the second floor, and
though there was no porch to the
house, was there not trellis, by means
of which an evil-disposed and tolerabls
agile fellow could gain an entrance:
When Wyllis came home On the evening
T@s .-s II.