The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1894-02-09
A TEMPTATION.

On the morning of Aug. IL, 1872, a young
man who had arrived on business connected
with his law practice at a hotel in west
ern town the night before awoke suddenly
with a sensation of having been abruptly
called.
1t was still early, and after listening
moment he found that everything outside
his door was silent. Thinking he had
dreamed, he turned again on his side. A
folded strip of paper then met his view. 1t
was pinned to the pillow Surely it had
not been there the night before.
He sat up and rubbed his eyes He look
ed again. He was certainly awake, and
yet the paper was still there.
Doubling his senses, he unfolded the
strip. A few words were traced upon it in
hand characteristic and peculiar and ut
terly unknown to him. The young man
read:
HE who journeys toward the west may
turn with wisdom his footsteps backward
to the east-baclrward to the spot where
hath been left the better part Of his soul"
There was no signature.
The young man rose and went to the
door. 1t was still locked from the inside
He turned to the windows. They were fas
tened securely. Nor did investigation on
the outside disclose the presence of fire
escape or other means by which entrance
could during the night have been effected.
In the room all things were as they had
been left when the occupant had retired.
The young man dressed and repaired, with
inquiry, to the office. Nothing unusual
had transpired since the night before.
Was he, then, the victim of hallucinationt
n or If with ,.;t
handwriting was there, a tangible reality.
1.-THE better part of his SOUP were not
obscure terms to the young man. Thespot
designated in the mysterious communica,
ton was perfectly clear TO his conscious.
ness. By whatever agency, natural or SUI.
pernatural, this message had reached him,
it could not refer but to one circumstance.
What had happened, what was happening
in the east, at that place where, truly, he
had left the better part--nay, the whole
of his soul?
He might be the sport of some grizzly
practical joke. He knew not He might
be an easy dupe. He cared not.
He had explained nothing to himself OF
what had occurred. But a few hours later
found him at the railway station of the
western town purchasing a ticket for the
east
ITO meet Mr. Bhao Mira of India"
Thus read the invitation for the garden
party at Wildwood Hall
A sapphire sky arched over sea and
shore and over the stretch of emerald
sward under the old, far branching elms
An open air theater had been erected fol
that day, and there scenes from Shake.
speare had been played by little group OF
well trained actors The twinkling jet of
fountains showered with prismatic drops
the pink and purple and the white ole
anders.
The chief guest, Bhao Mira, turned a
long glance of his deep black eyes on the
girl who walked by his side, the young mis-.
tress of Wildwood, the daughter of the
house. All the brilliant clearness of the
day, the softness of the wandering breezes,
the perfume of the flowers, seemed to him
concentrated in this slight, girlish presence,
crowned with the poetry of II summers.
She was as the incarnation of every lovely
thing in nature and art. The yellow sheat
of wheat on her dropping garden hat was
no more golden than her hair beneath it.
And Bhao Mira, looking back at the vista
of sea and sky between the elm's branches,
thought the azure of both pale beside the
radiant light of her eyes blue depth.
Before they knew it they had wandered
away from the crowded center of the fete,
and then Ethelnd lifted her glance to his
and said timidly, with the rose leaf color
springing into her cheek, the color that
came there when she addressed him:
You told me that some time you would
speak to me of yourself-of how you hap
pened to come here, so far from your own
home"
He was silent a moment and then he
smiled little sadly, and the look of his
eyes grew remote. Eyes, it is far" he said.
and he appeared to be speaking almost to
himself Few men of my country, few
cultivated Hindoos, come to your England.
Men travel for knowledge, but we-some of
us-have the means of acquiring by other
methods than insight into life that wisdom
which the men of the occident seek vainy
by going about the earth. And yet we also
sometimes are compelled by an inward
voice to wander forth amid new scenes
Perhaps it is that it may be given us some
where to help Others. Perhaps"-his voice
grew deeper-"we are sent forth to meet
some great final experience, some great
hnal tempSatiOn, at the ends of the world"
He paused. They had reached point of
the sequestered garden path where little
terrace crowned a rocky promontory A
circular bench was about the terrace. Be-
low, the water washed against the rock
gently. Ethelind sank upon the bench.
She clasped her hands in her lap; her breath
came and went with the soft palpita ions
of her young bosom.
She was ineffably happy. He was telling
her something of himself-he was lifting a
corner of the veil that hung over that mys-
FERROUS existence which his new friends
here in the prosaic western world OWNED
vaguely and with which they connected
him in this PARKWAY land of India
Those who knew something of such mat
ters asserted without hesitancy that they
believed him to be a mahatma. theosoph-