San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-07-08
Ten Minutes to Twelve,
By NJ. G.. MCLELLAND.

ASOl o. LuASAiG LAaNC JLlOu9lA, duu W Spcdh
the words which John Royal might have
spoken, made him at times feel almost
ready to cut his own throat, if only to
evict the interloping spirit which seemed
to share the material tenement with his
own.
"Iknow to the finest fiber of sensation
how it feels to be haunted" he whimsi-
cally declared to Mrs. Hart. Ever since
that fellow thrust his identity upon me
my soul has had a Siamese twin. He
ought to be ashamed to hang on to earth
so. It's stealing a march on the other
ghosts who have cut into the Infinite the
instant death shuts the door on them"
1T won't be for long now" comforted
the lady. "And after a while, when it
shall have become past experience, you'll
view it as a psychological phenomenon
of great interest and Importance. You'll
take pride in it as an exceptional mani
f~estation of heaven knows what, and
write articles, which nobody will read.
or could understand if they did, devoted
entirely to its analysis-from which you
will gain renown."
"That may be-" grumbled Royal, "but
as present experience l find duality of
being disconcerting. If l don't get out
of this before long I'll blurt the whole
truth out to Phyllis, if only to give my
incommOded soul standing room in its
own body"
Mrs. Hart laughed. II wonder Phyllis
has never suspected anything. The idea
that you may be other than you seem
ever appears to shadow her mind. To
be sure, the time has been short and
your intercourse desultory and super
fetal; added to which, her whole soul is
absorbed in anticipations about the re-
covery of her sight. But you are obliged
to make blunders-multitudes of blum
ders-and she ought to notice them. I'm
disappointed in her penetration"
you needn't be-" Royal retorted.
My familiar stands by me better than
that. When l blunder 1 recover myself
with a nimbleness and CELEBRITY which
would shame an acrobat. You under
rate my ability. I'm getting in a stock
of substitution and suppression which
would furnish capital for the founders
of many theories. Besides, we've the
margin of those six years. into which
considerable change may be crowded"
In which last statement Royal fastened
on a truth, for with Phyllis all discrep-
ancieS land the time, as Mrs. Hart re-
marked, had been too short for many
were put down to the inevitable growth,
modification and readjustments effected
by the passage of time. Phyllis was a
sensible girl, wise with the wisdom of
thought and nature, and she was con-
scious of so much change in herself that
it seemed reasonable to suppose that her
cousin had changed also. That he had
ceased to be a demonstrative man had
surprised her at first, because the lover
of her memory had been addicted to en-
dearments.
Then she reflected that it was quite
natural he should no longer love her in
the old way, since, latterly, that long
gap had not even been bridged by let
tiers. 1t would take time and mutual
knowledge to erect a new love, or rather
a new sup~erstructure of love in which 70
dwell; for determination must be secure
still, else he could not have done for her
sake the things which she knew he had
done. She did not associate the idea of
the money with his conduct in any ig-
noble way. There was no intimate jux-
Imposition between love and money in
her MUD, for life on a lonely country
farm prevents the two from seeming in
any way interdependent.
She could think the matter out at
leisure and demonstrate it quite to her
satisfaction, for she was no more active
ly in love than she supposed her cousin
to be-only deeply grateful, and filed
with trust in him and content that he
should be her husband. No man could
be more considerate, she thought, or
show more solicitude in regard to obedi-
ence to Observation-Disclosures, to be
sure, he was a physician himself, which
of course gave them greater value in
hts eyes. His self control appeared to
her noble and beautiful, and she deter
mined that when her eyes should be
opened-unconsciously she used the
s%criptural phrase-she would show him
how sweet a thing could be a woman's
gratitude.
Then her thought would hover yearn-
ingly, as it had done for years, over her
chances of recovery of sight, until she
would bethink her of the oculist's in
.structions and dismiss the matter as
much as might be from her mind.
Save in the matter of caresses (Which
he felt would be an unfair advantage to
take of herr, Royal was not remiss IL
loverlike attentions. He intended to
win the girls love if possible before he
should claim her as his wife, for he had