The Southern herald., 1886-02-20
A "SHADOWY" ROMANCE.
Why Arthur Wyllis Called His
Wife's Name mabel"


One day Arthur Wyllis' boarding
house burned down, obliging him to
transfer his belongings elsewhere. He
found new quarters in a street which
had once been fashionable, 1T had now
declined to "eminently 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 a refined and imaginative young
fellow, not, indeed, averse to society,
but still capable, at times, Of preferring
a quiet evening and a good book to the
noise and excitement of ''the madding
crowd" as exemplified by his associ-
ates. His business kept him down
town all day, so that, except on Sun
days, he was not familiar with any but
the nocturnal aspect of the street
Every feature of that he knew by heart,
from the first glimmer of the gas lamp
on the corner to the color of the cur
tains at the different windows. In one
Of these windows he became particu-
larly interested partly because it was
directly opposite his own, and partly be-
cause, at the hour of his return, there
was almost always the shadow of q
head outlined on Che white curtain.
After his fashion, WYllis began to
speculate about the owner of this head
On the Sunday following his removal he
looked over curiously to see what he
could discern by daylight. Some one
was certainly in the window, but SO dis
guised by the lace draperies that he
could only perceive general feminine
outline. Later, when the church bells
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 UiS-a-UiS. For all he could
tell this sweet divinity might live upon
the third or fourth floor, perhaps at the
back, whre-horrible thought!-she
fiirted with some fellow similarly placed;
while the Lady of the Shadow was per-
haps some venerable dame. In the
midst of this uncertainty chance, in the
shape of a fire alarm, came to his
assistance
When the bells began to sound Wyllis,
wondering if he were 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
engaged 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. w H
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 hero
inc, whom he worshiped under the
name of Mabel. Her whole history
was-in imagination-as familiar to
him as his own, and he would often
muse upon the circumstances which left
her lovely waif upon the tide Of city
life. He kept all this jealously from
The knowledge of his companions, who,
he felt, would break the charm, even il
they did not go farther and try to estab-
iish an ordinary, commonplace fiirta-
ton with the sacred Shadow.
Here energetic youth will ask: Why
did not Arthur Willis, living as he did
opposite his divinity, follow up his adj
vantage and contrive an acquaintance,
as he easily might have donep The
answer Isl Precisely because he was
Arthur Wylliss Retiring to fault he
was good deal of dreamer by nature,
and he was quite capable Of romancing
about girl for weeks, until she sudden
ly disappeared from his horizon, leav-
ing 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
70 tell, for one day, several weeks later,