Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1886-10-08

Before die mus INA Sc confession Of
my awful crime. / dare not die with it
untold.
81 loved my cousin Alice. TO me, she
WAS the one woman of the world she
was more to me thnn God, or my soul.
For love of her | have lost her, and my
SOUL
81 went away from her, leaving her in
the flush of rosy, beautiful health | came
back to find her dead. Dead The woman
loved had left my world and gone away
somewhere into the hereafter.
81 came back on n night of storm ana
darkness Coming near the house, saw
lights moving in the library, and looking
through the half-closed shutters, | saw
long, grim shape lying in the center of the
room, about which some men and women
stood. When they lifted the cloth that
covered the face | saw that the woman
who was lying there dead was my Alice.
"Oh, the anguish of that awful momentl
Had lost herr In the land to which her
feet had wandered would ever find her
again? Oh, God, not my Cod if had left
it all to Thee, | might have found her.
somewhere, sometime in the after world,
but not now, not now! For her soul, one
world, and for mine another.
standing there outside the window,
thought came to me like a lightning flash
l remembered that once she had said to
me that if She were dead, and willed that
she should come back to me from the
other world, she believed she would come
in answer To the call of soul to soul. Was
she really lost to me, after al> Could
not call back soul and breath to this form
of clay"
INSTANTLY my mind was absorbed by
that one idea To think was to act |
climbed into the room through one of the
windows, took the body in my arms, and
bore it by an used stairway leading from
the rear of the library to my room, and
through that to my tower-chamber, where
| knew it would be safe.
Il laid the body down in the solitude of
that lonesome room. Then | lighted
lamp, and set it at her head, trembling in
strange excitement, yet feeling n strength
| had never felt before, | almost felt my
self God in that awful moment, All, if
| could have died then! God of heaven
and earth why didst thou not smite me
with shaft from thy strong bow of ven
geance?
II knc,t down beside her. | took both
her hands in mine and held them fast.
Then | called up all the engery of my will,
and bent it upon the awful task had I'M
dertaken. Alice, | cried, with the voice
of NV soul, come back willed that life
should start to action again in the form be-
fore me. My whole power was concen-
trated in that one idea. If earth had gone
to wreck about me then | should not have
known it.
"'Come back, spirit called life | kept
saying over and over. Time went by, and
! needed ii not. | fancied that | felt a
warmth stealing into the hands held, and
that | saw faint color coming into the
face watched with such terrible intensity
a wild thrill of cXultation leaped like fire
through my veins. | would work a
miracle no other man had ever wrought!
AT last, at last There came fiutter of
the eyelids, and then they lifted, and the
eyes OF Alice looked into mine felt the
breath coming and going over her lips, and
then fell forward in the gray light of
dawn, and lay beside her ON the floor,
weak as II child The tension was removed
| from my brain, and the reaction was al
most like death. For hours | did not stir
But the wild triumph of Il work accom-
phShed beat back and forward in my brain
ike tide. had brought back life to the
woman loved. had conquered death
THE sun was high in the heavens when
| rallied strength enough to rouse myself
from the lcthArgy that had fallen upon me.
miscd myself to II sitting posture. and
touched the hands had held in mine so
long. They were warm and moist, but
there was no response to my clasp in them.
The eyes were wide open, but they seemed
staring into vacancy. There was color in
the checks, but the face seemed to lack
light, and the subtle play of mind on mat
ter was not to be seen in the features of
Of the woman before me.
Alice, | cried, Alice, speak to me >
But there was not SO much ms a movement
of lid or lip \ statue would have been
more unresponsive than was the form be-
fore me.
a wild fear began to creep over me,
but l shook it Off The ordeal had been
so terrible that | had no right to expect
much at first, BY and by she would rouse
from the trance of soul and SENSE.
II went down to the rooms below and
my friends supposed had just come home
! was always unlike other men. They had
become used to my strange ways. They
knew what Alice and | had been to each
other, and the fact of her death, and the
mysterious loss of her body explained t.
them any strange conduct on my part
81 got away from them as soon as posi-
bic and went back to the room in which
had hidden my secret.
Alice lay there still in the attitude OF
death. | knelt down beside her and called
her name. No answer.
81 flung back the curtains with swift
unutterable terror Mt heart. | came back
and looked at the face lifted dumbly tC
mine. There was no look OF intelligence
in it. The eyes stared up at me with no,
q thought in them.
Then knew what ! had done. haC
called back the breath of life, but the sou
of Alice-that which was the lice loved
had not come back. / had triumphe(
over matter but not mind. | had at
tempted the work of a God, had dared tC
rebel against the fiat of fate. | had med
died with the mysteries of the infinite
world, and here was my punishment. BE
fore me lay n breathing form, but tn,
principle of life only was in it, The sou
had passed beyond my power,
"Can you who read this understand tn,