Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va) 1886-1890, 1889-12-22
nd tho portralr dlsappcared.


Without, the shadows aere profound;
beneath the low and black sky vast trees
stood out, terrible against the night,
about great, pale space in which shiv-
cred furtive. steely lights and the dimmed
reflection of a single start was the
pool.
Shuddering, l knew not why, l gazed
at the heavens, the trees, the pool. 1t
slept, but it lived. 1 OWNED that
ceaseless agitation moved it, revealed on
the surface by the trembling of the
weeds; strange visions were in its inky
depths, shadowy dreams of that slum-
boring water whose respiration rustled
dolorously among the reeds. Some
thing inquieting and fascinating lay
prone in that sea. Near the side toward
the house the reeds were very thick;
their heads. now bowed, now lifted up
by the breeze, formed a moving black
surface, Which made still more somber
the shadows of the neighboring trees.
Was it possible that the thing now saw
balancing itself on the tips Of the reeds
was but the reflection Of tree? l
could distinguish perfectly body and
gigantic head, lightly stirred like those
of giant asleep, rocked on shadowy
waves, and two terrible arms stretched
forth toward my window.
1 stro,e in vain to draw myself from
the easement; a greater power than mine,
a mysterious desire, held me rooted to the
spot. I seemed to wait. For what? l
did not know-for something which was
to happen.
heard a slight noise beneath the win
dow and lowered my head. Along the
wall, something, I knew not what-white,
furtive, swift, like a white cloth in the
wind-moved toward the pool. 1t was a
woman or her ghost. One instant this
vague form stopped and turned back,
By the pale ray of the single star saw
a face and recognized it. Had I gone
mad? recognized the face of the por-
trait. That face was Medicines!
While she approached the pool the
wind must have shifted, for the reeds,
which Just now had leaned from the side
of my window, bent down now to meet
the young girl, and toward her reached
the long arms of the Shadow Graded on
the reed tips. Madeleine seemed to hest
tate, prey to violent emotion. Now she
started toward the phantom of the pool;
now she stood motionless and seemed
about to retrace her steps; but soon she
took up her interrupted course, and
reached the. spot among the interlacing
trees, the obscure and indefinite line
where land and water met. At the edge
of the pool, almost within reach of the
fantastic arms which strained toward her
as if to enfold her, she stopped.
In the heavens there was but single
star; there was single star, too, in the
pool. I was not dreaming, for l noted
that.
Long, long she stood undecided, and
sometimes she seemed to wish to fly to
the house; but oftener, lost, shive1Ssssz; IN
the breeze, in the garb of death or OF a
bride, she held out her arms to the shadow
which silently called her.
At last she threw herself into the ter
rible pool. The water must be up to her
waist, for saw only the whiteness of her
breast. She advanced ever toward the
Shadow, and the Shadow came to meet
her. Then I saw only her head, appear
ing from time to time between the reeds
then I saw nothing.
But the rushes ratified more dolorously,
twisted, bent, pushed aside; the phantom
which followed the movement of their
tips writhed SO that his chest shrank
away from one side, while his legs grew
long on the other, and his arms, as if
they enlaced in the depths some prey
caught at last, disappeared all at once in
q mighty parting of the reeds.
{ Madeleine had drowned herself IN this
eblarIS. awful 56oh I had not seen her,