The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1886-03-03

wild winter and the clustering spring.
Early summer found him more and
more ready to surrender himself to the
intoxication of this singular madness.
Perhaps it needs that certain strain
of greatness shall lie in a mans nature
before he can 90 mad in that particular
way. The compact small creature
whose faculties are all of size is as
safe as the compact great creature
whose powers are equally well bal
anced.
Happily for most OF us, the world is
too much with us to allow us to develop
to complete fullness of eccentr.city.
Transplanted to Jupiter, the human
race might find elbow room enough to
grow into huge asylum of crazy hui
morists; but our crowded civilization
acts upon US as close shelter acts on the
trees in q plantation--the outer lines
grow a little twisted, perhaps, but in
the middle of the wood the stems are
straight and uniform. Tregarthen, in
his island castle off the Cornish coast,
was still little sheltered. By and by,
shelter he had not hoped for began to
grow about him.
The clustering spring had passed.
and here was day in mid-June, with
sky of sapphire and pearl, and a
breeze of warm spice and balm. Ire
grathen wandered, smoking and lost in
idle meditation, to the cliffs on the right
side of the sea-gate. and there cast him
self full length Oh the warm and scent
ed heritage. The splendor of the day
was nothing to him Just then; and
though his bodily eyes took cognizance
of one of the finest reaches OF rock
bound coast England can show. he had
no conscious pleasure in it. He pulled
his soft hat over his eyes and surren-
dered himself to his pipes and his
dreams. Everything was wonder
fully still He could hear the plash
of the waves on the rocks below,
though he gave no heed to it, and the
intricate murmurs of many insects
mingled drowsily with the voice of the
sea, as though they We're of equal vol
ume with it. Tregarthen's dreams, un-
der these conditions, grew more and
more dreamy; his fancies, like the
sounds about him, became dim and diff
fused. Anything was welcome to the
domination of his mind at such mo-
meut, and certain idle rhythm in the
fall and rise Of the waters down below
did well enough to think about.
He was certainly not quite wide
awake, and he was just as certainly not
quite asleep when vision dawned
upon him. Two or three vilely-painted
trees futtered on a ragged canvas and
libeled the forest of Arden. A dowdy
female, and melancholy male in a
FOOLS coxcomb walked before the
painted cloth, and libeled Celia and
Touchstone. Then suddenly came into
sight radiant creature, and voice
spoke in tones which blended resigna-
ton and fatigue with something almost
jesting-"Oh, Jupiter, how weary are
my spirits!" This voice was so near
and clear that it awoke him and brought
him bolt. upright, sitting in the bracken
There was y sound Of laughter and
voices on the little strip of sand below,
and, moving to the edge of the cliff, he
looked over.
In tine summer weather it was a
common thing for people to row across
from the mainland and picnic on the
island. Tregarthen's forebears had per-
mitted this, and Tregarthen himself
had never felt an objection to it until
now. 1t may pc allowed that. at the
moment at which he found himself in
terrupted, his studies We're not of the
most exigent sort, yet his first thought
was that the presence of these intruders
and their like would be inimical to
study. Thon he regretted the loss of
his dream, and blamed the intruders
for breaking it, though the dream itself
had awakened him.
His half-slumber had lasted for so
short a space of time that the pipe he
held between his finger and thumb still
sent up "a streak of faint blue smoke.
He stuck it between his lips again, and
had turned to ramble homeward when
the voice of his dream spoke in his
waking ear, and stayed his footsteps.
THAT is Miss Churchill, the actress,
he said to himself There is not an
other voice like that in the world,
should fancy. ] should know it among
thousand"
Since the night on which he had
earned his own ruin by rebuking
Colonel Pollard for his story of the ac-
tress he had scarcely thought about her,
but he felt curious pleasure and in
terest now in the belief that she was
near. In spite of his short-sightedness
he had very definite idea of what she
was Ike. 1t seemed to him that he
could summon her face before his
minds eye quite clearly, and, as he saw
1t, it was worthy of her figure and her
voice. He confessed to himself that he
would like to see her nearer at hand,
and to know how far her mind CORE
sponded to his own impressions of her
genius as an actress. 1t could not be
difficult to devise means of seeing her,
or even OF speaking to her, seeing that
She was actually trespasser upon his
grounds. He thought, however, of a
score of devices, none of which COM
mended themselves to him, and as he
thought he strolled toward the spot
where the gradual rise of the sands and
the more precipitous fall of the cliff
brought the two upon level. This
spot was about midway between high
water line and the gates of the old man
sion, and he reached it almost at the
same moment with the visitors to the
island. He heard the sweet voice talk
ing again, and was more than ever per-
suaded that it belonged to Miss
Churchill.
He polished his eyeglass in readi-
ness to observe, and before he himself
was seen he had secured good look
II In,