Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-05-31

my life. One minute ago I saw Clarice
| Wynne standing by that table as dis
| tlnctly as | see you now, all dressed in
sweeping white robes, with coral
necklace clasped round her throat
But, my dear fellow, only consider
how very unreasonable YOU are" re-
monstrated Lyndale, raising his eve
brows. Here we are in the heart of
Ecuador, and Miss Wynne, by your own
| Oft-reDeated account, IS no one knows
how many thousand miles AWAY"
| Reasonable or unreasonable. 7 am
telling you only the truth said Nose
ley, speaking in 4 low husky voice. Il
saw Clarice then, if ever l saw her in
my life. Lyndale, cannot 90 farther
up the country now; l must return
home at once"
Return home! What for?" demand
ed his astonished companion, almost
disposed to doubt Moseley's entire san
ity.
Something has happened to Clarice.
She is ill-she is in some trouble-I
must 90 to her without days unne-
cessary delay"
'sMoseIey, you are not absurd enough
to believe in apparitions,'' exclaimed
Lyndale.
''No-but Clarice wants me; I must
go to her."
''We'll go home. then" he said, ''for
[ see that nothing but actual ocular
proof will convince you of your folly.
It's not at all unnatural, thinking as
earnestly as you were of your lady
love, that you should fancy, for an in
slant, that you saw her; but for her
needing your Observation-Disclosures!
81 cannot argue upon this subject
can only feel" answered Moseley, pas
sionately. Tomorrow we will start
for home. What day is it? The sec
ond of July! Oh, the long weary weeks
that must el&pse before we can reach
her, even now"
And on the morrow, accordingly,
they started on the long and fatiguing
journey that lay before them, led by no
more substantial beacon than the APP
partition that Ralph Moseley fancied he
had seen.
The golden glow of the August sum
set was throwing its long spears of IA
dience across the low piazza of the old
homestead-the self-same where they
had stood side by side, scarcely 4 year
ago, as the two wearied travellers rode
up to the door.
Moseley sprang from his horse with
out waiting for the servants to come,
and entered the house with anxious
eagerness.
Mrs. Wynne met him; she was dress
ed in deep black.
''Ralph, can it be possible that this is
you?"
'Clarice?" was all he could say, as
he sank gasping on the sofa in the hall,
with inploring eyes and parched lips.
''Then you have missed our last let
ter?" she faltered.
Tell me about Clarice -Clarice'-
he interrupted impatiently.
''Ralph, my dear, dear boy, how can
tell you? Clarice is with us no long
er. She is blessed angel now in heav-
en-
''Lyndale, what did I tell you?" fall
tered Ralph. Il knew it was so. [ told
you. She died on the night of the I'd
of July"
"How did you know it?n asked Mrs.
Wynne in surprise.
''She came to me, my sainted angel,
my own golden haired Claricer' muir
INJURED Moseley through the strong con-
vulsive sobs uninterrupted hisspeech
'She died with your name on her
lips, Ralph. Her last wish was to be-
hold you," said Mrs. Wynne sadly.
''And she besought me when she was
dead to give you the coral necklace that
was round her neck
Lyndale stood silent and appalled,.
He remembered his friends words,
ringing through the fragrant silence of
the tropical night: 'sAll dressed in
sweeping white robes, with coral
necklace clasped round her throat
The next instant he sprang forward
with a suppressed cry to support his
friends head. Ralph Moseley had lost
all sense of his overwhelming misery
in blessed Inconsistencies at last.
SO passed away Clarice Wynne in the
glow and beauty of her early youth,
and Ralph Moseley lived and died faith
full to her memory.
He never could satisfactorily account
for the strange vision in the tent at
Ecuador.
Whether his oyer-excited imagination
had conjured up the Elusive phantom
of the face and form he loved best on
earth, and the coincidence of time was
nothing more than coincidence, or
whether the departing spirit had actu-
ally paused a moment in the abiding
place of one it had once cherished so
tenderly ere it crossed the threshold of
time and fioated out into the great I'M
known, will ever remain a mystery.
But, in spite of reason and philoso-
ply, Ralph Moseley chung to his first
theory, and to his dying day he firmly
believed that he had seen Clarice
Wynne's ghost in the starry glow of the
trnnic midnio OH that nimhf nj Ecuaanr