The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-02-01

alone beside the PROSTATE and shrouded
form left with him, keen abrupt fear
began to ice his blood. He clinched his
hands, threw back his head, and for a
moment put forth intense effort at self
control. Then he went toward a small
cabinet and drew from it decanter of
brandy, pouring himself large draught,
which he drank almost at a single gulp. 1t
was the first stimulant he had tasted that
day, and it almost instantly tranquilized
him.
The light from the chandelier just above
the covered figure poured forth searching
beams. He slowly drew aside the drapery
that obscured the face of the corpse.
Good Godr' he said, louder than he
knew, and recoiled little, letting the
cloth which he held fall sideways along
an edge of the slab-like table.
He had thought perhaps it might be a
woman. but he had not dreamed it would
he woman so fair as this one. Her face
looked as If il had been cut from a great
grossless pearl. Death had laid its cold
finger with no rude touch on those folded
cyelids. that met the chill cheek with their
black, up-curling fringes in two delicate
little arcs. Her hair was still moist from
the river whence see had been dragged
but a brief while since. One heavy
tress flowed downward upon the table and
gave forth the same reddish tints of the
smooth, lit wood surface itself Gerald
stared into the still face and his amaze
ment deepened AS it began to blend with
vague, EARRING sense of recogni-
ton. Where had he seen that
dead face before? Had he seen it before 2
A mist shrouded his ewes for
moment He staggered backward with
one hand over his brow. Somewhere
somehow you have seen it. said voice.
Soon he had quite mastered himself. He
went close to the prone shape and gazed
upon it. The wrappings which inclosed
il were still almost intact \ glimpse of
neck had been disclosed, but no more than
that. lie stared down upon the statuesoue
face. How beautiful it wasl A thought
flashed through his mind: s'If / had
known that woman while living, how 1
could have loved herl"
Unconsciously he pressed his hands to-
gether, and still stared with keen ar
dor into those colorless features. A
strange impulse, full Of passion that bewil-
dered while il beset him, now fired his
veins. TO love dead woman How
horrible !" he swiftly reelected.
Then he tried 10 laugh. and his laughter
died away with forlorn fall. 1t was an
impossible passion, he told himself: il was
indeed no passion at all. Fascinated, be-
wildered, almost ignorant of the act COM
mltted, lie leaned down and pressed his
lips against the woman's frigid cheek
while at the same time (for some reason
which slept among the mystic wells of
human feelingl he drew closer toward her
throat the attire displaced by his grasp of
few moments ago.
The reverie which now possessed Gerald
was pregnant with pain. He could not re-
member where he had seen this lovely face
before, but that he had seen it before was
certain TO him. That he had distinctly
cared for II was also certain, though his
brain had not grown so completely clouded
as 10 let him believe he had ever been amor
ously thrilled by it till now. And vet now
there entered his soul a reverence. q yearn-
ing, despair which dizxied and distracted
him. He wildly told himself that
never in the whole history of human
experience had man thus been placed.
He loved this dead creature devotedly-
or was II merely that he could have
loved her ii he and she could have
known one another in life? Yes. il
must be Enthusiastically il was that ana
nothing else In such little while she
would be spoiled and furnished by the
one hideous fate OF all hesh. Would he
so on loving her then? "Ah, yes" his
spirit seemed TO respond, ''for her men,
CRY VIII abide with YOU alwavss"
lie stlti gazed down at the heauteous.
hueless face. Anguish iilled his heart.
3nd SLOW. heavy tears dropped from his
ewes. The kiss he had given her had
not repelied him, but 1t had seemed 10