Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1891-01-29

falling.
Just as he was on the point of reach
ing her, however, the plank on which he
stood gave way, and at the same mo
ment she whom he had meant to save
tottered and fell. He closed his eyes for
an instant; then he felt his arm seized
by some one from behind, and, looking
round, he found himself standing on tho
stage Of the opera house, with Mariana
herself before him in the costume of
Marguerite, with bunch of daisies In
her girdle. He heard the applause of
the audience, like the roar of the sea,
and perceived that the performance was
going forward, and that he. instead of be-
ing properly attired, was in his every day
dress. It came across his mind also that
the figure he had mistaken for Mariana
was Mephistopheles, disguised to mis-
lead him. He looked at Marguerite; her
face was deathly pale. She said below
her breath, ''You did not believe in me;
do YOU know who Her voice died
away, the lights were suddenly extin-
Ruished, and in the silence and darkness
Belhngham swoke.
Too much disturbed to sleep again
for the dream, grotesquely extravagant
though it was, had seemed absolutely
real to him-he got up, Lit pipe, and
sat smoking at his window watching
the dawn slowly illuminate the eastern
sky.
He took an early breakfast and went
for solitary walk along the coast, and
from the summit Of lofty headland
saw a great ocean steamer pass west
ward through the gray sea. She was
bound for New York. As he watched
her diminish and vanish in the distance,
till only faint plume of smoke remain
ed on the far horizon, for the first time
since his journey began he was conscious
Of an urgent longing to return-tO return
at once. The unfinished question in his
dream kept ringing in his ears, it assum-
ed a momentOus Importance; he must
know what it meant. He laughed at his
own absurdity, but the longing remain
ed. At last he returned to the inn.
He found Helwise painting in the
room he used as studio; he was in his
shirt sleeves, slippers down at the heel
were on his feet. and he wore an old
straw hat to shade his eyes from the
light. He was whistling softly to him
self, and would turn his head on one
side after putting touch on the canvas.
"Did you hear any noise last nightT'
he asked after they had chatted for
while.
81 had bad dream. What was it,"
THAT young fellow who calls himself
Edwardes. His room is next to mine.
He came in little later than usual last
night, and by and by fancied heard
him crying. was debating whether 1
ought to go in and see what was the
matter, when he knocked at my door.
He looked badly cut up. 1 made him
sit down and gave him some whisky
and cigarette. He seems to be in
scrape."
Ibid he explain the mystery
"Well, he talked somewhat. He fell
in love with this woman in Moscow.
From what he said judge she is an act
ress or singer, as we were saying yes
terday. She is a public character of
some kind, and has had adventures be-
fore this. She took a great fancy to
him, so he says, and believe him. But
it seems to have been somewhat as you
suggested; she liked him too well to
let him have his way. She wouldn't
risk a disbursement; perhaps her
heart had never been touched before.
She would not marry him, either;
for that matter, 1 suppose the one
thing is about the same to her as
the other. But she did an odd thing
she offered to suspend her career, what
ever it is, and be with him as long as
he wished. And she appears to have
given mp some important pecuniary ad
vantage TO do 50. He accepted her offer,
thinking 70 doubt that she would capt.
ulatc il due time, in the meanwhile
taking care that she should lose nothing
in the way of money. He represented
himself to her as inexhaustibly wealthy,
and she took him at his word. But the
fact is, after he had spent hundred
thousand or so, and ruined his father
and sister, as he tells me, there was no
more left. He was ashamed to confess
this to her, and it is only within the last
few days, when he had got down to his
last fifty pound note, that she found it
out"
''And now she means to shake him-is
that it, said Bellingham.
"Well, apparently not. She seems to
have plenty of money herself, and she
has made him proposition which does
her credit She has proposed to marry
him and pay back the money that he
has spent on her. have begun to fall
in love with her myself! And 1 may do
it if she'll have me; for Mr.. Edwardes'
pride, as he calls it, would not allow
linn to accept her proposal, and hence
his misery, which at one time last
night assumed quite a suicidal complex
ion, but I demonstrated with him, and he
felt little better this morning."
While they were sitting there the
door was suddenly opened, and in came
young Mr. Edwardes himself in a state of
great excitement. He had newspaper
IN his hand.
Ibid you know what was in this pa
PER- demanded he, striding up to Hell
wise.
''What one generally finds in New
York Sunday paper two weeks old" re-
turned IItlwisc. tipBing' back his hat
That night Bellingham dreamt vivid
~ of Nile. Mariana, and his dream
awakened him before dawn in great dis
tress Of mind. He imagined that he
was walking across the Brooklyn bridge,
which on this occasion extended from
4hn-oof If tl,a .r,arn l,c,r,so II, NIorr Vol,