The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1897-06-29

/ llB o3 bAo UNA ublo VI tio utnpCd WiuuoNs
Nevertheless felt that she saw me.
| A cry escaped hsr, and abe drew the gar
ment about her and buried hsr faos In thu
pillows
pushed open the window and stepped
| quickly across the room. Bending over
her hidden face, poured ont O torrent Of
excuses and accusations against myself
called myself boor and coward. I i'm.
plored her to strike me- TO drive mo away,
but with word Of pardon, For o long
time continued to plead thus without q
sign from her. At last she turned, and
saw young face, extraordinary and
charming, which smiled at me.
ut is you, 1t Is your she murmured.
What she meant by that could not com.
prehend, but l, too, felt that had seer
her before. 'There was something In hen
face, her glance, her graceful movements,
that awoke vague memories
stood gazing at her speechless for O
moment, and then . mad desire came over
| me to take her In my arms. But she read
| the thought in my eyes, and, evading me
with surprising agility, she ran to the
lamp and extinguished It,
There was hooking laugh, then ST.
lence. Hastily striking match, relit the
| lamp and looked about me- The woman
| was nowhere to DO seen. had heard no
door open or close, and yet she was not In
the room. Besides myself there was no liv-
ing thing there except the golden cat,
| which came to me and rubbed herself
| against my legs I had not noticed her
before but evidently she had been asleep
in some corner, and my entrance had
aroused her.
I could not very well search the apart
ment, SO waited a few moments and then
returned by the balcony to my room. The
light In the neighborlng apartment
streamed out from the window, but there
was no sound to indicate living presence.
AS / pondered on the affair began to
feel vague fear of this woman, with her
strange beauty and her enigmatic smile,
who said to me, sit is youl" as if she knew
no. could not drive away the memory
of those green eyes that had flashed at me
from the darkness as she extinguished the
lamp nor Of the electric shock that had
thrilled me once when ! touched her hair
with my hand.
Scarcely was in bed again when I felt
q weight fall upon my legs. 1t was the
golden cat. I pushed her away, but she
returned. Finally gave up the struggle
and fell into a troubled sleep, with this
strange companion, as on the other night,
still on my bed.
The next night again entered my
strange neighbor's apartment. She SEEM
ed not surprised to see me now, and we
chatted together for half an hour, at the
end of which time she dismissed me, with
o smile, but in way not to be denied, and
l returned to my own room. She had told
me that her name was Linda, but beyond
that she would give DO information about
herself.
And so ii ran on for week. What had
taken place on the second night was re-
peated again and again. Scarce had / left
Linda and returned to my own room when
the golden cat appeared, leaped up on my
bed, installed herself there and remained
until morning knew now to whom the
animal belonged. Once when spoke of
1t Linda said ooh, yes; my cat. Is 1t
not the ono which seems to BIO all of
gold?'" Nothing new took place, but new
ertheless little by little an intangible ter
ror took possession of me-
There were moments when these two be-
ings, with their great green eyes, their
supple movements and their glory Of gold
en- hair, became confused in my mind
and seemed to me to be only the dual form
Of single soul In spite of my impor-
tunities of Linda and my efforts to surprise
her have never been able to see thom at
the same time l tried to reason with
myself, to convince myself that, as a mat
ter Of fact, there was nothing absolutely
inexplicable in what had befallen me. 1
rallied myself on being afraid Of a woman
and pet cat And then, as the result of
all my reasoning, found that in reality
was afraid Mother of the animal nor of the
woman, but of symbolical duality which
existed only in my own mind
actually suffered from this obsession.
After the nights III their presence had
days Of secret torture such as madmen I'M
dergo. Little by little resolution was
born, grew and ripcncd in my mind-the
woman held mo by her beauty, but re-
solved that should kill the animal,
Ono evening before going to Linda's
room l laid out from my supply of drugs
pot of glycerin, u flask of hydr0cyanic
acid and one of those little glass sticks
that chemists call mixing rods.
When l regained my room, the cat, as
usual, followed me there. | called her, and
she ran to me, her back arched, her tail
erect, purring took the glass rod, dipped
the point in the glycerin and held it to-
ward the animal She licked it dry with
her rosy tongue. l repeated this operation
three times. The fourth time l dipped the
rod In the acid. The cat licked it unsus-
piciously, and Immediately she became
rigid. Then she bounded into the air and
rolled over and over in terrible agony.
Finally she fell back upon the floor with @
fearful cry-a human cry, one would al
most have said She was dead.
With great beads Of perspiration on my
temples and my hands trembling violently
I leaned over the warm body. Her staring
eyes had look in them that froze me.
Her black and swollen tongue stuck out
between her sharp, white teeth. Her limbs
were extraordinarily contortcd. With an
extreme effort Of will took the animal up
by her paws and left the house. I hurried
straight before me down the deserted street
to the quays, and there threw my burden
into the river.
Until day broke I wandered about the
city, knew not where At last the sky
grow pale with the coming dawn, and l
decided to return to my house. As my
lElEu UDuCHtu SIliNtlCh
was afraid Of finding still alive as in Poc's
celebrated story, the animal / had just
killed But no, my room was empty. l
flung myself exhausted on the bed. For
tho first time in days slept, sure Of being
alone
Next day they told me Linda had disap-
pcared In her room were found her clothes
everything she had, even to the ftlmy
wrap she had always worn when I had
secn her But nothing that could reveal
her identity. The proprietor had rented
tho apartment TO mile. Linda, lyric art
ist." He knew nothing more about her
Who she was and whittier she went remain
mystery, for which the story have told
offers tho only hint Of solution. Adapt
ed For San Francisco Argonaut From the
French of Marcel Provost.