Mower County transcript., 1891-06-10

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They acere sitting II, a dGrEened room.
A decision once reached, Royals mind
clarified, like pool in the quiescence
which follows violent stirring up. His
difficulties were by no means dissolved
or dissipated, any more than is the mud
at the bottom of the pool, but for the
moment they sank out Of sight.
The day following was the one ap-
pointed for the operation, and when that
should be over he would go away for a
time, SO as to leave Phyllis in the state
of absolute calm which would be es-
sential to complete the cure. He had
already exceeded the limit he had al
lowed himself for holiday making, and
his affairs in the west required his
presence. His practice had been in
trusted to a brother physician on whose
time and courtesy he felt he could no
longer trespass, and, as be had assumed
new responsibilities, and was, moreover,
man by no means independent of his
own exertons, it behooved him to re-
turn home and look after his interests.
Phyllis must remain in Alexandria to
be near the oculist for many months to
come, and during that time Royal hoped
to arrange matters in such a fashion as
to Withdraw his future, in measure,
from the shadow of the dead mans past.
The feeling Of possession, of being him
self, and yet other than himself, which
had been SO strong upon him during the
ceremony, had modified, but enough Of
it remained to make him restive. To
himself he neither denied the impression
nor attempted to explain it, and he spoke
of the matter to no one. That the soul
of dying man, freed from the material
in the intensity of dominant and un-
fulfilled desire, should, operating through
spiritual or imaginative laws, influence
tho soul of another man dominated by
the same desire and in an abnormally
quickened condition by reason of nerv-
GUS excitement, was to him thinka BILE
proposition, and one which it would re-
quire no more credulity to admit than
would be demanded by nine -tenths of
the theses constantly presented for the
consideration of mankind.
The intellectual man was in Royal
sufficiently developed to enable him to
recognize that all thought pertaining to
that infinite which permeates and tran
scends material things must forever root
itself in instinct and intuition, and also
that his individual knowledge of the laws
of spirit or imagination, CLEANED from
observation of their manifestation in the
Life of matter, was, relative to his ig-
norance, as single plume from an
eagles wing to the sum of the birds
aerial journeyings.
Still, withal, Royal was very human
natured man, and since realization that
Phyllis was his own wife had come to
him matrimonial association of her, even
in idea, with another man had become
offensive. It was not that he was jealous
of the dead mans memory; Royal was
not sufficiently in love for that, and
would besides have been incapable Of the
meanness. Phyllis, as his wife, would
be quite as free to expend regret upon
her cousin as though she were still un-
wed. That which CALLED Royal was his
inability for the time to escape, in her
thought, from the dead mans Identity
the knowledge that he was not himself
to her, but the incarnation of another
soul. It gave him when with her sense
of duality which was maddening. The
endeavor to think the things which John
Royal might have thought, and to speak
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.
81 know to the finest fiber of sensation
how it feels to be haunted" he whima-
cally declared to Mrs. Hart: Ever since
that fellow thrust his identity upon me
my soul has had Sianese twin. He
ought to be ashamed to hang on to earth
SO. It's stealing march on the other
ghosts who have cut into the Infinite the
instant death shuts the door on them"
cit won't be for hong now," comforted
the lady. '<And after while, when it
shall have become past experience, you'll
view it as psychological phenomenon
of great interest and Importance. You'll
take pride in it as an exceptional mani
festation 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, ssbut
as present experience find duality of
being hsconcerting. If 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. wonder Phyllis
has never suspected anything. The idea
that you may be other than you seem
never appears to shadow her mind. To
be sure, the time has been short and
your intercourse desultozy 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- of blum