Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1891-08-08
coDclnded nom Art mage

walker than with a lunatic, still even
the former condition Of affairs was
sufficiently awkward, and he fervently
wished that he had got into another
compartment.
However. there he was, with no
possible chance Of escape. SO there
| was little use In wishing. He had bet
ter devote his energies TO making the
best of the situation. Only, what was
he to dot The young lady was moving
slowly toward the door Of the carriage.
Supposing she should try to open it and
get out He should be obliged to stop
her by force with the almost certain
result of waking her up. And that
las he had heard) was liable to cause
fatal consequences. lie was on the
horns of most embarrassing dilemma;
and as he realized its full horrors, a
sickly pallor succeeded to the previ-
ously rubicund hue of Mr. McParson's
countenance.
But when the young lady reached
the door of the carriage, and Joshua
McParson, with his heart in his mouth,
was about to lay a OBTAINING hand upon
her arm. she suddenly turned round
and began to walk the other way. The
old fellow noticed now that she was
lifting her feet unnecessarily high, like
a person ascending steps, and he con-
cluded that she imagined herself to be
going up stairs. This view was soon to
receive confirmation of a strange and
startling kind
While he was still watching her with
anxious alarm, in case she might try to
get out of the door at the other end of
the carriage, he saw her, to his immense
relief, stop her peregrination and sink
down upon the seat. THANK heaven"
he murmured. II hope she will now
wake up before she attempts any more
walking" But he soon found that he
had been somewhat premature in bis
expression of gratitude.
The young lady's first act after sitting
down was extraordinary, perhaps,
though not at all frightening, being
merely to take off her bonnet and lay
it upon the seat beside her. But it
soon became clear to her Mortified com
panion that this had only been the
prelude to a far more alarming and en-
barrassing purpose. For, after calmly
divesting herself of her outside jacket,
she next proceeded to unbutton and
take off the bodice of her dressl What,
in the name of horrors, did this meanl
What on earth did the sleeping young
lady dream that she was doing2
Her next move threw some light
upon the matter. She commenced
with great deliberation to take the hair
pins out of her hair and let it down
about her neck and shoulders Then,
possessing herself of a hairbrush from
the travelling bag at her side, she pro
ceeded to comb her long, thick tresses
very energetically.
Mr.. McParson was not a genius in
point of penetration, but by putting
two and two together-that is, by COM
pairing the young lady's former action
of appearing to walk up stairs with her
present occupation-he had sufficient
intelligence to divine the motive in
fluence at work within her.
She imagined herself in her bedroom,
Just retiring for the night; and the no
ton of disrobing, with which her sleep
ing thoughts were busy, had set her
unconscious hands performing that task
in very earnest.
The old gentleman did not arrive at |
this conclusion all in a minute; but |
when he did arrive at it he felt no |
doubt whatever that he had hit the
right nail on the head. And as he be-
gan to realize the consequences likely, |
nay, certain, to result from such a sit-
uation, he felt something more than
embarrassed and Mortified.
The worst part of it was, he felt
helpless to do anything. He dared
not wake the young woman up, not
only because of the danger to her life
involved in so doing, but also because,
even If she got over that safely, she
would be so startled, taken back and
overwhelmed at finding herself in such
situation that, before he had time to
give any explanations, she would prob
ably shrek out for help. And should
the train be stopped and they two be
found under these equivocal conditions
alone together in the carriage, why
matters would look rather bad for him.
to say the least.
On the other hand, to let her pro
ceed further with the work of disrobing
was to make his present position even
more distressingly embarrassing than it
was. And, of course, the more ad-
vanced the state of deshabille in which
she found herself when she ultimately
woke up, the more intense would be
her agitation and horror. Yet, what
could he do to stop herl He was, in
this respect, as helpless as an unborn
babe.
There is no denying, indeed, that the
situation was sufficiently awkward, and
calculated to make the most bold and
reckless of men wish themselves safe
out of it, But an ordinary person car
scarcely realize the overpowering hor
ror, Tepidation and dismay which il
produced in this prirn and pompous old
Puritan. He sat motionless in his seat
wiping the elammy moisture from hi
forehead and looking the very pictur,
of helpless desperation, his eyes rivetet
in horrorstruck gaze upon the un
conscious young lady.
by and by she stopped brushing he
hair and put back the brush in the bag
! Now would come "A still morn enbarrass