Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1894-07-13
OUT OF THE TOMB.

The guests filed slowly into the hotels
great dining hall and took their places; the
walters began to serve them leisurely, to
give the tardy ones time to arrive and to
save themselves the bother of bringing
back the courses. And the old bathers,
the yearly habitues, with whom the sea-
son was far advanced, kept a close watch
on the door each time it opened, hoping
for the coming of new faces.
New faces, the single distraction of oil
pleasure resortsl We go to dinner chiefly
to canvass the daily arrivals, to wonder
who they are, what they do and what they
think. A restless desire seems to have
taken possession Of US, longing for pleas
ant adventures, for friendly acquaintance
perhaps for possible lovers. In this elbow
to elbow life our unknown neighbors be-
come of paramount Importance. Curiosi-
ty is piqued sympathy on the alert and
the social instinct doubly active.
We have hatreds for week, friendships
for month and view all men with the
special eyes of watering place intimacy.
Sometimes during an hours chat after
dinner, under the trees of the park, where
ripples healing spring we discover men
of superior intellect and surprising merit,
and a month later have wholly forgotten
these new friends, SO charming at first
sight.
That evening, then, as on every even
ing, we awaited the appearance of unfa-
miliar faces
There came only two but very peculiar
ones, those of o man and woman-father
30 CDR
ped from the pages of some weird legend,
and yet there was an attraction about
them, albeit an unpleasant one, that made
me set them down at once as the victims
of some fatality.
The father was tall, spare, q little bent,
with hair blanched white-too white for
his still young countenance-and in his
manner and about his person the sedate
austerity of carriage that bespeaks the
Puritan. The daughter was possibly some
"a or 20 years of age. She was very slight,
emaciated, her exceedingly pale counte-
nance bearing a languid, spiritless express
sion-one of those people whom we some
times encounter, apparently too weak for
the cares and tasks of life, too feeble to
move or do the things that we must do
every day. Nevertheless the girl was
pretty, with the ethereal beauty of an ap-
partition. 1t was she undoubtedly who came
for the benefit of the waters.
They CHANGED to be placed at table i'm
mediately opposite to me, and 1 was not
long in noticing that the father, too, had
o strange Notwithstanding wrong
about the nerves it seemed. Whenever he
was going to reach for anything, his hand,
with jerky twitch, described q sort of
fluttering zigzag before he was able to
grasp what he was after. Soon the motion
disturbed me so much 1 kept my head
turned in order not to see it, but not before
I had also observed that the young girl kept
her glove on her left hand while she ate.
Dinner ended, went out as usual for q
turn in the grounds belonging to the es-
tablishment, sort Of park, might say,
stretching clear to the little station of
Auvergne, Chatel-G uyon, Nesting in a
gorge at the foot of the high mountain,
from which flowed the sparkling, bubbling
springs hot from the furnace of an an
cient volcano. Beyond US there the domes,
small extinct craters, Of which Chatel-
Guyon is the starting point, raised their
serrated heads above the long chain, while
beyond the domes came two distinct re-
gions, one of them needlelike peaks, the
other of bold, precipitous mountains.
1t was very warm that evening" and ]
contented myself with pacing to and fro
under the rustling trees, gazing at the
mountains and listening to the strains OF
the band pouring from the casino, situat-
ed ON knoll that overlooked the grounds.
Presently l perceived the father and
daughter coming toward me with slow
| steps. 1 bowed to them In that pleasant
continental fashion with which one al
ways salutes his hotel companions. The
gentleman halted at once.
Pardon me, sir, ;" said he, "but may
ask If you can direct us to short walk,
easy and pretty, If possible9"
| Certainly, I answered, and offered
to lead them myself to the valley through
which the swift river flows-a deep, mar.
row cleft between two great declivities,
rocky and wooded.
| They accepted, and as we walked we nat
urally discussed the virtue of the mineral
waters. They had, as sur1nised, come
there on his daughters account.
"She has strange malady," said he,
"the seat of which her physicians cannot
determine. She suffers from the most In
applicable nervous symptoms. Sometimes
they declare her i'll Of heart disease; some
times Of liver complaint, again of o spi-
nal trouble. At present they attribute
1t to the stomach-that great motor and
regulator Of the body-this protean dis
ease Of q thousand forms, a thousand
| modes of attack 1t is why we are here.