Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-22
III,

enough to light a cigarette, and tsok ad-
vantage of the silence to say:
"a curious uncomfortable dreamP'
"Allow me to finish, my mate-ialist, be-
fore you criticise. If the dream theory sat-
lsfes you, accept it by all means, but wait
until all the data are gathered In. Some
three months after my dream experience,
as YOU would call it, 1 was in Cairo making
preparations to enjoy weeks excursion In
the neighborhood of the Pyramids. 1t is
not worth while to trouble you with the de-
tails of nv camp life. 1 made numerous
sketches-I will show them to you some
dav-and passed a week OF perfect content
ment, communing with nature and drawing
on a sacred memory for hope and insplra-
tion.
'On the day when had packed my tent
previous to returning to Cairo, I paid a last
visit to the Great Pyramid, and there 1 had
the good luck of meeting with three tour
lists who. were doing the curiosities of Egypt
with an earnestness and completeness that
was foreign to the tourists nature. The
little party consisted of one man and two
women. The former was my old friend,
Prot. Leon Lejeune. q great authority on
hieroglyphics and antiquities generally.
The professor was accompanied by his wife,
the most charming, amiable and sDirituelle
of women; and by a young lady friend of
his wife to whom / was introduced. She
was asspoken of Mile. Almah Carcinet; but nv
friend afterward informed me that she was
the child of wild Arab parents, but had
been adopted at an early age by couple of
benevolent, childless French people, whose
name she bore. What you would call the
strangeness of it was that the young lady
was almost an exact counterpart of my
dream; the woman who had ridden with me
on the camel. The only difference was in the
expression of the eyes, which in the living
woman were gaily defiant, and not tenderly
sad. With this exception, the living was the
counterpart OF the vision, even to the won-
derful musical voice She spoke in French,
but once, when she turned to the guides to
give some Sdirections in Arabic, l rubbed
my eyes, and for a moment a great joy
surged up to nv heart and lifted me to the
portals of heaven. At the same moment all
surprise died within me. turned TO Mile.
Carcinet as to an old friend, and she treated
me like one. What strangeness there was
we unconsciously made, from the lips out
ward, as it were; at heart We were friends,
or something greater, who had parted and
now met again. From the lips, as the civil
lied man, L asked:
You have never visited the pyramids
before?'
Perhaps, as child; L do not remem-
Der. Never since was adopted by my
good father and mother. Perhaps not now
shall sav?-were it not for the kindness
ofmy dear friend yonder. Ny parents say
have no right to 60 out until my husband
takes me-
Pardon me-your husband?'
&c I can never master your language; it
does not fit my tongue. I meant until am
married to the man my parents have selected
for me. 1t is curious she said, smiling
thoughtfully. since my illness can remem-
Der nothing
"'You have been ill?'
"'Unto death. Saved to life BY some
miracle, they tell me, but since then every
thing is different; feelings, ideas She
paused, staring outward in the direction of
the desert.
"I wish 1 were tigressP she said. sud-
denly.
"a tigress? Why?'
"'That might escape into liberty. They
may dress me and educate me as a civilized
woman, but they cannot tame the wild blood
in my veins, or the wild superstition In my
heart
'Superstitionsp repeated, watching the
food of color to her cheeks. and the sudden
sadness of her eyes. was again riding on
the eamel's back, staring at face that had
vanished from my life.
w
understand myself, and they cannot under
stand me. They read soul through the
microscope of science. Visions and spec
fral appearances are a disease OF the eve or
brain; the memory of a landscape we have
never seen, as we are, trick of imagina-
tion. They say the soul has not lived be-
fore we are born; that it will not live after
we die. 1t is all a subject for the micro
scope
"'You think?'
"'I know she said, firmly, yet with a
puzzled frown wrinKling her brows. 1t is
curious she said, with sigh. L feel as
if 1 were myself and someone else at the
same time. Words come without my will
ing. 1 grovel and fy. L set out to say
this or to do that, and say or do something
else. recognize myself, and yet am a
stranger to myself. But, see; whether put
on a new dress or a new body, it is extrinsic.
am what l am, in despite. Perhaps may
convince you some day.
'Ot what?'
Perhaps of the very thing that is now
troubling your BRAIN she answered. Her
eyes filled with the spirit Of gay mischief,
SO unlike the other.
"'Of what am 1 thinking?
"Of what am thinking she said, giving
q new meaning to my words by change of
voice and emphasis.
You still keep me in Ignorance, Mile.
Carcinetp
'Almah, my father called meI'she laugh
ingly and defantly retorted.
I am not your fatherP
MY soulr
81 started at the words and at the sup
pressed earnestness of the voice. Had 1
dreamed the words or had she uttered
them? She was placidly staring up to-
ward the pyramid, watching the exertions
Of the professor and his wife as they were
being dragged and pushed up the crumbling
stones by the guides. She quietly asked:
You are an artist?'
That is my profession
'"You will come to my father, and you
will paint my portrait?'
"'With the greatest pleasure
For yourself she said slowly, when I
am dead.'
You, so young"
This, so old;' she laid a small brown
hand on the pyramid. Time yesterday or
time tomorrow; old age or youth. 1 have
seen and am satisfied. Beyond the grave 1
from my tongue, the false shame from my
heart.
"Her voice was tremulous and she turned
a pleading, puzzled face toward me.
Sc i am bold, unwomaDly; but am help
less. 1t was not so formerly, and do not
understand it. 1 would be silent and must
speak.
''She rubbed her small hands nervously
together, hoVering between laughter and