The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1886-08-14

could see. Only one among these misty
shapes had visible human face. And
that one advanced toward me with
smile which l shall never forget. 1t
was tho face Of young man. slightly
dropped, rs II its owner were shy or
defcrcntial, with blue, bright eyes and
gentle, handsome features, and fair
hair, and lips that seemed 10 be made
for laughter, and smile that shone like
u CLEAN Of sunshine there. And in a
moment the face and forms had vanished.
The darkness seemed to grow darker.
heard soft steps walking in the air.
felt as If cold wind were blowing in
my face. Suddenly / saw the chill sea
shining far off under the white stars. A
voice that was harsh broke out in honrse
laughter beside me. and them awoke.
Two days after / set out for Edn-
burgh. with three objects. wanted to
consult an eminent advocate. ] want
ed to get new servant. And want
ed, at least, to find out where the
Frasers were.
/ saw the great advocate, and he con-
firmed my fears. "Unless the missing
deed is found, my dear slr," he said in
his blandest accents, ''your title is so
defective as to be entirely worthless.
should u rival claimant arise"
did not see the Frasers. but got
their address, and / wrote one letter to
the father and four to the daughter. |
engaged new man servant in this
way:
Our need for q man servant being
pressing. l went, for tine first and last
time in my life, to n registry Office. The
shop lay in the south of the town. up
beyond the High street, and when en-
tered it there were several subdued-
looking beings, unfortunate applicants,
! suppose, standing round. Behind the
counter were man and woman. and
to the former, having prejudice in
favor of doing business with my own
sex, begotten, perhaps, of shyncss, APP
piled. He kept me waiting long time.
Then he looked over a prod 'gious ledger
and read me out numerous applications
which were perfectly useless. At last,
however, he came to one which l
thought would do. l told him so, and
he thereupon invited me to wait little
longer. as the "young man. in question
was likely to call shortly. At first re-
fused, but on consideration decided to
go out and have my hair cut, and then
to return and see if the young man were
there.
When came back some twenty min
utes later, the small Office was full of
people. AS entered, something in the
look of the place and the attitude of the
figures struck me rs familiar. But l
dismissed the idea Mt once. The shop
man came to meet me.
'1he young man is here, SIR" he
said, and he turned with wave of his
hand to figure behind him. The
figure advanced 1t was the figure of Il
good looking boy rather than OF man,
slight and fair, and with the head.a lit
tie dropping. AS the boy raised his face
to look at me, started back. Feature
for feature. as clear as it could be, it
was the face had seen in my dream!
| don't know what followed; / don't
know whether my conduct appeared
very strange j don't what the boy
said to me, or what l said to him. /
have only vague idea that generally
assented to everything. And | know
that when went home to Tullybardanc,
Sydney Loeb went with Inc rs my man.
Tullybardane is desolate place. II
lies in narrow gorge which runs down
straight to the shore. The hills slope
up on @ ther hand, and end in tumbled
rocks and caverns where the sea- foam
breaks and the sea waves sing. The
old grange is rambling house. From its
windows you can look over the beach,
and only the falling gardens separate
you from it, On the right hand is tho
library, which faces down long avenue
of frs to the sea, and beyond the libra
ry stretches the deserted part of the
house, which for fivc-andthirty years
have been me ming to repair. The Ii
brary was rather a gloomy room, com.
municating only by a long passage witt
the other inhabited parts OF the house
Indeed, the whole house was rather
lonely. For myself, l never minded
that, but fancy it struck my new serv,
ant rs bit solitary and weird
Now, l must tell you about the do
ings of this young fellow. A day OIL
after my return, both my mother and
began to notice something strange
about him. 1t was not that did moi
like him, for took Il strong fancy to
him ut once, and here, iive-and-thirty
years after, he lives to this day less,
think, of servant to us than Il faithful
and .rust"d friend. But certainly hi,
behavior was odd, and the first thing We
observed was this
One afternoon l was sitting with my
mother in the drawing-room. My
mother had ordered tea. Personally,
am afraid of these unwholesome drinks
and never have taken to that surrepti
tious fashion of working in an extra
meal in the afternoon. But | was sit
ting with her and talking very discon
solately, for i felt thoroughly depress, I'd
Presently Sydney came in with somt
cups of tea on tray-a detestable plar
of taking tea if you must take it, bu
one to which my dear mother was par
tial. He handed the tray to my mother
and he handed it to me. Then, to oul
surprise, he walked straight across tn,
room to a big armchair that stood neal
the window, and handed the tray to thu
empty chair! But the armchair, or it,
invisible occupant, refused it, apparent
ly, and the man withdrew Tam en-
dowed with large fnnd of Scottisl
humor, and burst out laughing. M,
mother was equally perplexed.
"He must have thought there wa
some one sitting there. she said. "H'
must be very short-sighted, poor boy
It's very strange"
"He must be rs blind as bat,' an
swered, "or else have been playing ,
practical Joke on us. never saw any
thing so absurd in my life."
| But in the next few days was DIES
tined to SEQ stranger things. asket