The Arkansaw traveler., 1886-02-06

back into my own circle, or to accepk in- vitations in general. Alis0n's suggestion about Aldexth waite Hall had come upoo me with kind of shock 1t brought back all the memories from which vas trying to escape for could not help reaizing the impossibility of taking to that trouble haunted place the young wite for whose sake l had shut my eyes to the appeal made to me.
 l could never tell her all that happened to me there, how ] had nearly yieloed to the strange demand forced upon me, or hos had fled in a cowardly manner from the consideration of it. After my marriage that chapter of my memory must be closed book, and Alderth aite forbidden place. l could never face the reproaches possibly waiting for me, nor could mingle my love for Alison with my sympathy for that strange vision of a woman who had appealed to me so pas. sionately for herself and her fellcw-vic- tims.
 tried to think that it had all been an illusion, dream and that now, in my happier mood, it could never return, and yet the perplexity ot it haunted me and l asked myself continually whether had run away before the visions of a disor- dered fancy, or broken a promise to a creature who was capable of judgment and consciousness. felt great desire to settle the problem while my life was nay own, before it was quite bound up with Allsoa's. Her absence at this time gave me an opportunity of testing my re- covered nerve, and proving that Alder thw aite Hall had been haunted only by my own dreams. To convince myself ot this fact seemed really necessary to my peace of mind.
 did not write to Alison to tell her where was going, for knew that her letters would be forwarded to me ]; but l packed up my portmanteau and wet down again to the old house by the lake.
 shall not tell all that happened to me after l went back to Alderth waite Hall the recital of 1t would be painful, ana would bring back too vlvidly the memory of all that endured at the time.
 At first indeed there was false air of peace and quietness about the pllce, as if 1t held DO secret and hid 10 trouble and yet this calm failed to satisfy me. was not convinced that there was nothing strange to hear or see only felt that had perhaps sacrificed my power of hear. ing and seeing, and with it all hope of helping those who had appealed to me shining stiffness of the lake were not without their sense of desolation. Some where, pushed out of sight by my deter mined action, the miserable lives might go on, with the power of prayer or re- proach denied to them. felt like one of those pitiless experimentsrs on living ani- mals who content themselves with ad- ministering the cruel drug curari, which binds theu victims in hope ess stiffness and silence, while it leaves them fall pow CTS of perception and path. Of all pris- ons such one must be the most horri ble, because it is the narro vest ; the walls of it are the tortured flesh of the creature, within which it can make no struggle be- yond which 1t can cast out DO cry. Had done something like this in refusing to hear the appeal so painfully made to me, ln cutting myself of at once from sympa- thy and communion with those l might have helped9
 This was my first sensation when 1 found only commonplace world await ing me at Alderthwaite, the chickens cheerfully scratching h the yavd, the sandpipezs crying shIiliy over the water. It was succeeded by one of relief and tri- umph. My past experiences had been deluaons born of weakened nerves and solitude. had broken no promise aftex all and been guilty of no kindness.
 This happy assurance was, however very soon to be dispelled, and was to go through moro than ny Last experience oi horror. Gradually the power of knowing what was going on around me returned, at first with painful sense ot awakening to lost consciousness, one of fighting with intervening dreams. l knew tha. there was trouble near me, and strove vainly to understand what it was: 1 was certain that voices spoke and people moved around me, but the thread seemed lost which would guide my perceptions to clear knowledge of what they were. This time had to grope ny way alone out of the spiritual darkness; my old guide had abandoned me, discouraged by my unfAithfainess. And when at las l forced my way back into the shadowy world from which seemed shut out, no ono recognized my presence there was stI anger even to her.
 My experience was remarkable one {; l doubt if any one ever went through the like before By the force of my sympa- thy, comm anicated to me in the 6rS in- stance by the strange woman who had spoken to me l was admitted into a world which had little to do with my own, and enabled to sec all that happened there.
 l saw many unpleasant things, nearly everything that one would desire not to sec grayhaired father insnl,ed by his worthless son; noble woman cast eff asd scoffed at by an inferior lover a child murdered by is mother; a w,fe weeping over her dead husband. Even the ple asanter scenes brought their own horror 1 kne~ they were bu, the HowcTy ways which lead-without any hope of a turning-straght to a wretched cad. l grew sick of them at last; sick of watch ,u0 the hvrw hi he0lu n 1;ne e,u nf .oun-