The Portland daily press., 1895-04-29
4 CURIOUS DREAM.

He made 10 favor Of it. "Only too glad
to see you, he said. I'VE are very lonely,
and there is little to do; no birds in the
covers, for I can't afford ganelzeeper,
bat if you want to work the place is quiet
enough. 1 shall not be at home for a day
or two as l am going to town and shall
pick up my daughter from friends house
On my way back, but William knows the
place and can show you all there is to see. 81
Howard conducted me to my bedroom
the first night.
"L say he said, "there is a curious
point about your room-of course you
don't know this rambling old place yet
you can walk round your bedroom"
"Of course I can, you crock [ re-
turned. ~ can walk round any room. -
"Ah, but mean on the outside. You
see, this room is in the middle of the
house, between four intersecting Corridors
so that you can walk right around the four
walls
There was nothing else remarkable
about my room. II was comfortably fur
nished. Against the wall opposite my bed
and nearly under the skylight stood a
large sofa, which seemed an unusual piece
of furniture for a bedroom. 1t was too big
to go through the door, and I was inclined
to think that it must have been lowered
into the room by derrick before the roof
was put on.
I turned into bed, but found it impossi-
BILE to sleep. A strange bed always means
several wakeful hours to me- and I lay
with my eyes closed, listening to the cid
stable clock as it savagely Changed out its
quarters and practiced every effort of me-
chaniosl repetition that seemed likely to
soothe my restless brain.
AT length [ gave up the attemp5 az sleep
in despair and lag or my back wide awake
l began to picture to myself the most
horrible phantomg I could imagine, to see
If I could make myself nervous or fright
ened. thought Of figures with rolling
eyes and gibbering lips, phantoms that
carried their heads under their arms, shad-
owy, fornless objects of mist, but all to
no purpose. My ghosts were feeble frauds
| could not invest them with the na1neless
dread, and I laughed at them.
] must have fallen asleep as was thus
meditating, for when I next awolze the
moon was high in the heavens and shone
brightly through the skylight into my
room. My eyes at once fell on the face of
a beautiful young woman who was ar
ranging her hair at q mirror that stood on
d table which seemed to me to have not
been in the room when I retired. I was
about to utter an exclamation, when
look of terror came into her face, terror
so intense as to freeze me into an unspeak-
able silence. She seemed to be listening to
a noise without In the next strained mo-
ment the figure vanished.
AS I was turning over to sleep again
heard a light footstep in the corridor at
the head of my bed. 1t passed along the
wall and was followed by a heavier though
yet stealthy tread. By this time my fac
ulties were fully aroused, and sitting up
listened intentiy.
Suddenly the first footsteps broke into
rapid pattering as though in flight, and
the pursuer' heavier tread was correspond
ingly accelerated. Twice they sped around
my chamber, and as they passed along the
corridor nearest to my bed 1 thought that
could hear their painting breaths.
At the third round my bedroom door
flew open, and the young lady I had seen
before dashed in and dropped exhausted
upon the sofa. She was followed by man
dressed in black, who carried murderous
looking knife in his hand. She looked at
him imploringly as he stood over her for
an instant, but spoke never a word.
In that moment of time I could see their
faces with great clearness in the moon
light and have never forgotten them. The
girl was fair, with long hair streaming
down her shoulders, and her lovely face
was contracted by mortal terror. The man
was of medium height, with a low fore
head, dark lnustache and an expression
that reminded me, grotesquely enough, of
the trademark upon the Demon" tennis
rackets.
L was summoning up courage to spring
out OF bed when the man raised the hand
that grasped the knife. saw the weapol
uplifted above his head, 1 saw the girl
throw up her hands in despair, and then q
thick cloud passed over the moon and
placed my chamber in total darkness.
The next point in my memory following
that awful scene was q loud halnmering
upon my door, and William Howard's
cheerful voice demanding to know if l
meant to sleep all day. It was 9 O'Clock
upon clear October morning, and my
bedroom looked as commonplace in the
daylight as though it had been situated in
London hotel I must confess that I ex-
amined the sofa, but found no traces of
disturbance, and dressed, feeling ashamed
of myself for being so frightened at an Or
dinary nightmare. A trashy ghost story
of Howard's, a walk around the corner by
candle light and an uncomfortable bed
we're materials enough to furnish 20 sim
liar dreams, and l went down to break
fast resolved to say nothing of my expert
ence.
During the morning we attempted to
work at our novel, but Howard was fdgety
and restless, with the result that we ac-
complished very little. After lunch we
ordered trap from the village inn to fetch
Mr.. Grosvenor's luggage from the station
and walked thither to meet his train.
Mr.. Grosyenor was too poor to keep
carriage, his income being limited to the
revenue from one or two farms and his
large garden. The station, however, was
but half mile distant and the day being
fine we should have preferred to walk,
even had we been able to ride.
The train came in, and Mr.. Grosvenor
shook hands with us and introduced me to
his daughter. Upon looking in her face 1
was astopnded to see the exact counterpart
OF the dream girl who had rushed into my
bedroom. Miss Grosvenor, who was very
pretty and yivacious, rallied me during the