St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-08-25
4 Strange Case
;. LOUISE as;s ssss'--. Of 7e'epafhy,


best type of EnglisEzlan always is.
Why she was not in love with him
Jasmyn herself could not have told
you. Indeed, she thought that very
possibly she should be later on:
One night they were sitting out a
dance which she had promised him.
He had persuaded her to go into the
conservatory instead of dancing, and
she sat on a low seat over which
some strange, foreign plant leaned.
An odor that seemed like incense
burned at the shrine Of some old-time
god half intoxicated her. And there
and then Lord Gainsford told his
love story. She had charmed him
from the first, he said, and now he
very instant it seemed to her as if
she heard a voice from far, oh, so
far, away-a voice that said: "Wait!"
And just then, before she had spoken
at all, her partner for the next dance
appeared and Lord Gainsford said,
with that cool self-possession that
belonged to his age and rank, 81
shall see you tomorrow"
That night sleep did not come to
Jasmyn. She lay with wide open
eyes, vaguely wondering. What
should she say to Lord Gainsford?
Could she love him-and why not?
Would she be happy as his wife Pillow
much there would be to make her so.
Then suddenly it seemed to her as
if the room opened it's windows to
the stars and the infinite night, and
she looked far, far off, as perhaps we
all shall look when death has taken
us by the hand and led us far away
from what we now call life. She
knew that her vision had gone be-
yond the sea, and that it was room
in New York in which she saw a
young man writing. He had just
turned a page. She did not know
these words:
81 am twenfy-four now, and you
are twenty-one. You can no longer
call me a boy. I was admitted to
the bar year ago. I have succeed
ed so we'll that in October I shall
make my first important plea. Re
member that you promised to hear
it. l will cross the sea and bring
you back in time. I shall be with
you almost as soon as this letter.
have obeyed you hitherto in keep
ing silence. 1 write now because
wish you to know before we meet
that 1 am unchanged"
And when she had read thus far it
seemed to her that suddenly the win
dows that had opened to the vastness
of the night were closed and she was
alone.
What sdid it all mean? She was not
asleep. 1t was no dream. Plainly as
if she had held the sheet in her own
hands she had read those written
words. Plainly as if he had been in
the room with her she had seen Robert
Marsh. What had made this possible?
Could it be that she had cared for him
all along more than she knew? And
he would be on his way TO her-per-
haps almost at once. She should see
him, hear him, understand, perhaps,
by what unknown power this vision
had been vouchsafed. How would she
answer Lord Gainsford tomorrow?
Then, once more, as if from some
farthest star, she heard, as she had
heard in the conservatory, the one
word "Waiti"
Yes, she would wait. She would de-
eide nothing until she knew. She
turned on her side and drew a long,
calm breath, and then sleep, the de-
linquent, kissed her parted lips and
led her, at last, into dreamland.
The next day Lord Gainsford plead
ed his own cause, but he pleaded in
/ vain.
eff you will wait two weeks" Jasmyn
said, 81 will answer you then. If 1
say anything today it must be no.
l do not feel that I understand myself
VIII you give me time, or shall it end
heIe?"
OF course, he gave her time. He
turned to Mrs. Meredith. Mrs. Mere
dith was his senior by three years,
sympathetic confidante.
The two weeks We're not over, in
fact, only nine days had passed, when
a letter came to Jasmyn, in a hand
she used to know. She opened it. She
read the first page, and then she turn
ed the leaf, and there she saw the very
sentences she had read when the win
dows of her maiden chamber opened
into the infinite night.
And that same day Robert Marsh
followed his letter Then Jasmyn
Meredith knew for the first time her
own hearts secret. The love that was
strong enough to conquer time and
space and speak to her across the es-
tranging sea was the love of her own
life, as well as of her lovers.
The next day she told her mother
that she had made up her mind. Nat
urally Mrs Meredith did not like It
but she was helpless. John Meredith
had left his fortune to be equally divi-
ded between his daughter and his wife,
and after Jasmyn was twenty-one she
was absolutely her own mistress. Mrs
Meredith would fain have been moth
er-in-law to a lord, but there was moth
ing to be said against Robert Marsh
SO she quietly resigned herself to the
inevitable.
You deserve she said to Jasmyn,
with little veXed laugh, that should
marry Lord Gainsford myself" And
that is precisely what she did six
months later.