Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1898-11-17

: THE PORTENT. !
CHAPTER y.

When the morning came, | began to
doubt whether my wakefulness had
not been part of my dream, and had
not dreamed the whole of my sup
posed adventures. There was no sign
of n lady's presence left in the room.
How could there have been? BY
throwing the plaid which covered me
aside, my hand was caught by a sin
gle thread of something so fine that
| could not see II till the light grew
strong. I wound II round and round
my finger, and doubted no longer.
At breakfast there was no Lady
Alice-nor at dinner. l grew uneasy
but what could l do? l soon learned
that she was i'll; and a weary fort
night passed before l saw her again
Mrs. Wilson told me that she had
caught cold, and was confined to hei
room. SO l was i'll at ease. not from
love alone but from anxiety as well
Every night l crept up through the
deserted house to the stair where she
had vanished, and there sat in the
darkness, or groped and peered about
for some sign. But l saw no light
even, and did not know where her
room was. 1t might be far beyond
this extremity of my knowledge; for
l discovered no indication of the proX'
unity of the inhabited portion of the
house Mrs. Wilson said there was
nothing serious the matter; but this
did not satisfy me. for l imagined
something mysterious in the way in
which she spoke.
As the days went on, and she did
not appear, my soul began to droop
within me; my intellect seemed about
to desert me altogether. In vain
tried to read. Nothing could fix my
attention. | read and re-read the same
page; but although l understood every
word as / read, l found, when l came
to n pause, that there fingered in my
mind no palest notion of the idea. II
was just what one experiences in at
tempting to read when half asleep.
But although my thoughts were thu.
beyond my control, my duties were
not altogether irksone to me. | re-
membered that they kept me neai
her; and although I could not learn,
1 found that could teach a little.
/ continued my work in the library,
although it did not advance with the
same steadiness as before.
That same day, l remember well,
Mrs Wilson told me that Lady Alice
was much better But as days passed.
and still she did not make her ap.
pearance, my anxiety only changed
its object, and l feared that it was
from aversion to me that she did not
join the family. But her name was
never mentioned in my hearing by
any of the other members of it; and
her absence appeared to be to them
q matter of no moment or interest.
One night, as l sat in my room, ]
found, as usual, that it was impos.
sible to read; and throwing the book
aside, relapsed into that sphere of
thought which now filled my soul, and
had for it's center the Lady Alice.
recalled her form as sne lay on the
couch. and brooded over the remem-
brance till longing to see her, al
most unbearable. arose within me.
Would to Heaven" 1 said to my,
self, that will were power"
In this concurrence of idleness, dis
traction, and vehement desire, l found
all at once, without any forgone reso-
luton. that l was concentrating and
intensfying within me, until it rose
almost to n command, the operative
yolition that Lady Alice should come
to me. In a moment more 1 trembled
at the sense of a new bower which |
sprung into conscious being within |
me. l had had no provision of it's ex-
istence, wnen 1 gave way to such ex-
travagant and apparently helpless |
wishes. | now actually awaited the |
fulfilment Of my desire; but in n con-
dition ill-fitted to receive it, for the |
effort had already exhausted me to
such a degree that every nerve was in
a conscious tremor. Nor had / long
to wait.
heard no sound of approach; the |
closet-door folded back, and in glided |
open-eyed, but sightless, pale as
death, and clad in white, ghostly- pure |
and saint-like, the Lady Alice.
shuddered from head to foot at what |
l had done. She was more terrible to |
me in that moment than any pale |
eyed ghost could have been. For had |
l not exercised a kind of necromantlc |
art, and reused without waking the |
dead? She passed me,
walking round the table at which I |
was seated, went to. the couch, laid |
herself down with a maidenly care,
turned little on one side, with her |
face toward me. and gradually closed |
her eyes. In something deeper than |
sleep she lay, and yet not In death. |
rose, and once more knelt beside her. |
but dared not touch her. In what |
far realms of life might the lovely |
soul be straying! What mysterious |
modes of being might now be the |
homely surroundings of her second |
life! Thoughts unutterable rose in |
me, eliminated, and sunk, like the |
stars Of heaven, as I gaZed on the |
present symbol Of an absent life-a |
life that l loved by means OF the sym |
Dol; symbol that 1 loved because of |
the life. How long she lay thus, how |
long 1 gazed upon her thus, 1 do not |
know.
Gradually, but without my being
able to distinguish the gradatlons, her |
altered to that of one |
who sleeps. But the change did not |
end there. A color, faint as the blush |
In the center of q white rose, tinged |
her lips and deepened; then her cheek |
began to share in the hue, then her |
brow and her neck. The color was
that of the cloud which, the furthest
from the sunset, yet acknowledges the
rosy atmosphere. 1 watched, as 1t
were, the dawn OF soul on the hori-
zon of the visible. The first approach
es Of its far-off flight were manifest:
and as watched, I saw 1t come nearer
and nearer, till its great. silent, speed
ing pinions were folded, and It looked
forth, q calm, beautiful. infinite wo-
man, from the face and form sleeping
before me.
l knew that she was awake, some
before she opened her eyes.
When at last those depths Of darkness
disclosed themselves. slowly uplifting
their white cloudy portals. the same
she had formerly mani
tested. accompanied by yet greater
anger, followed.
"Yet againl Am your slave, be-
cause / am weakr She rose in the
majesty Of wrath, and moved toward
the door.
Lady Alice. have not touched you
l am to blame, but not as you think
Could 1 help longing to see you
And If the longing passed, ere ] wai