The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1896-12-05

ing circumstances gave q sudden start
| and exclamation. She rubbed her eyes,
and gave herself a little pinch to see il
she could be dreaming. No, she was
wide awake, and in the easy char near
her sat a man, a stranger to her. Strange
to say, she felt neither alarmed o EN-
~barrassed, and after the moment of
surprise at this sudden visitation she
stole another look at her unexpected
companion, who was gazing intently
into the fire.
He was rather tall and slender, and
his regular features and dark, dreamy
eyes were pleasant to look upon.
She mad a vague impression of IA
miliarity as she watched him, and q
haunting resemblance to some one, per-
haps a mere brain image, puzzled her.
Just then he turned toward her and
smiled slightly.
Il do not wonder that you like to sit
here" he said in courteous accents; at
liz a pleasant room and gratifies ones
esthetic sense. You like to watch the
fire light glimmer through the room,
now playing upon the gilt of the picture
frames, or suddenly lighting for a mo-
ment some dusky corner; but, best of
all, you like to watch the warm glow
leap over that marble Psyche. You
have a passion for color"
"Yes," she said, wonderingly; "but
how did you know? Who are you?"
There is no thought of yours that I
DO not know" he said; land 1 came
here in response to your wish. I am
your longed-for kindred soul-your re-
slized ideal"
Miss Rossiter was silent for a mo-
ment and sat vainly trying to recall the
theories that Herr Gundlach had adj
vanced before the German club concern
ing kindred souls and affinities. If she
remembered rightly he had said that
each soul had a kindred soul, but that
sometimes there were limitations of
time and space which in another world
but just here the stranger interrupted
her thought by saying:
"eYs, that is true, but sometimes,
under peculiar conditions. as tonight,
time and space are as nothing and SO il
is that 1 am with you now"
He ceased speaking. Surely It was
the opportunity of Miss Rossiter's life
for unbounded soul revelations, but, odd
to relate, she felt strangely silent.
A number of naturally curious ques-
tons fitted through her brain, but she
checked her thoughts a little guilty.,
as it occurred to her that in all prob
ability the stranger was cognizant of
her thoughts and might consider her
inquisitive.
NO" he remarked, politely, 81 am
not permitted to reveal the laws which
govern me, nor can I tell how long l
may be able to remain with you"
Then he really did not know what she
was thinking.
She had never imagined how very
p~erplexing it would be to constantly
control ones thoughts: to put a check
rein on them, to quote Toms language.
She turned a little uneasily in her
chair, and in doing so inadvertently re-
vealed n of her daintily slippered feet.
Now Tom had a special weakness for
a dainty slipper, as she well knew, and
forgetting for a moment that it was
not Tom who sat there she looked up IN
apparent Inconsistencies of any little
feminine art, only to meet an amused
smile in the strangers eyes.
Eyes, most men like to see a pretty
slipper" he commented, benevolently.
coquettishly-placed ribbon, a flower
in the hair, are SO many arrows to the
masculine heart. Little men dream
of the time and thought that have been
given to what seems to them some I'M
conscious little arrangement"
Miss Rossiter flushed angrily, and
drew her foot back with a jerk. Real
ly, this thing of laying bare ones every
thought was too much, and yet
was it not exactly what she had wished
for-to be perfectly understood?
She ought to be above such little
anyhow.
Perhaps if she tried books the con-
might become more ami
Liz lldHSCI IOIlONcu utI SlduCS dS
it rested on a small table near her,
where several books were lying.
you have been reading" he re-
"Ah, yes, L see - Ibsen,
Tolstoi." He smiled a lit
tie YEARLY.
You, OF course, have read them all"
said Miss Rossiter, a little shyly, for she
happened to think that "boundless
knowledge" was one of her wished-for
attributes.
81? Oh, yes" he answered. "You
do not quite know whether you care
for Ibsen or not, do your"
Now, this was indeed true, but as the
president of an Ibsen club Miss Rossiter
had never before faced the fact.
She was a clever girl and accustomed
20 being looked up to as quite an au-
on literary matters by her own
coterie. Had got Dunning Jones,
he most successful journalism The city,
told some one that Miss Rossiter was a
very interesting girl. well read and up in
,~verything? But before ~"unbounded
knowledge" how could one talk easily
Dr. air ones little opinions?
For the first time in her life the self
possessed, cultivated Miss Rossiter felt
crude and ignorant. She was real