Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1899-05-18
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1 alone should have been singled on
for so hideous a fate. This mood woult
In time give place to another where /
seemed that the rickshaw and | werl
the only realities in a world of shadows
that Kitty was a ghost; that Manner
ing, Heatherlegh and all the other mel
and women | knew were all ghosts, anC
the great, gray hills themselves bur
vain shadows devised to torture me
From mood to mood | tossed backward
and forward for seven weary days, my
body growing daily stronger and strong,
er until the bedroom looking glass told
me that had returned to everyday life
and was as other men once more. Curl
ously enough, my face showed no signs
of the struggle | had gone through. II
was pale indeed, but as expressionless
and commonplace as ever. | had ex-
pected o mepermanent alteration-visi-
bic evidence of the disease that was eat
ing me away. / found nothing.
On the 10Th of May | left Heather
legh's house at II O'Clock in the morn
ing, and the instinct Of the bachelor
drove me 10 the club There | found
that every man knew my story as told
by Heatherlegh, and was. in clumsy
fashion, abnormally kind and attentive.
Nevertheless / recognized that for the
rest Of my natural life | should be
among but not of my fellows, and / en-
We'd very bitterly indeed the laughing
coolies on the mall below. | lunched at
the club and at 4 O'Clock wandered aim
lessly down the mall in the vague hope
of meeting Kitty. Close to the band
stand the black and white liveries join
ed me, and | heard Mrs. Wessington's
old appeal at my side. | had been ex-
p%ecting this even since | came out. and
was only surprised at her delay. The
phantom rickshaw and | went side by
side along the Chota Simla road in ST.
lence. Close to the bazaar Kitty and a
man on horseback overlook and passed
us. For any sign she gave | might have
been a dog in the road. She did not
pay me the compliment of quick
ening her pace, though the rainy after
bad served for an excuse.
So Kitty and her companion and !
and my ghostly light o. love crept
round Jakko in couples. The road was
streaming with water. the pines drip
ped like roof pipes on the rocks below
and the air was full of fine. driving
rain. Two or three times | found my
self saying to myself almost aloud
ttIfNV. lab ID nauu - 1aaHvn ~ Gs.,1a /
Simla-everyday, ordinary Simlai
| mustn't forget that mustn't forget
that. Then l would try to recollect
some Of the gossip | had heard at the
club, the prices Of So-and-so's horses
anything, in fact, that related to the
workaday Anglo-Indian world | knew
we'll | even repeated the multiplica-
ion table rapidly to myself, to make
sure that | was not taking leave
# my senses. 1t gave me much COM
iort, and must have prevented my hear
ng Mrs. Washington for a time.
Once more | YEARLY climbed the con-
rent slope and entered the level road
Here Kitty and the man started off at
canter, and | was left alone with
tIrs. Washington. "Agnes, said /,
will you put back your hood and tell
ne what it all meansf" The hood
noiselessly, and | was face to
ace with my dead and buried mistress
he was wearing the dress in which /
ad last seen her alive; carried the
anne tiny handkerchief in her right
and and the same cardcase in her left
woman eight months dead with a
ardcasei | had to pin myself down to
he multiplication table and to set both ,
ands on the stone parapet of the road /,
, assure myself that that at least was !
al
agnes, 4" repeated. 'for PHYS sake,
II me what il all means. Mrs. Yves
ngton leaned forward, with that odd. Z
lick urn of the head | used to know e
well. and spoke. 7
If my story had not already so madly a
-erleaped the bounds of all human be- i
#. / should apologize to you now. As s
that no one-no, not ever Kit e
, for whom it is written as some sort K
justification Of my conduct-will be- c
we me, | will go on. Mrs. Washington o
oke, and | walked with her from the a
road 10 the turning below p
e commander in chiefs house as Il
.ght walk by the side of any living "
rickshaw. deep in CONVERSE IL
N. The second and most tormenting eC
my moods of sickness had suddenly al
d hold upon me, and, like the prince =
Tennyson' : poem, Il seemed to move
lid a world of ghosts" There had
m a garden party at the commander
chiefs, and we two Joined the crowd
homeward bound folk. As | saw I
m then it seemed that they were the
dows-impalpable fantastic shadows '
hat divided for Mrs. westinghouse
kshaw TO pass through What we
d during the course of that weird -
/ cannot-indeed | dare not HI
ell. Heatherlegh's comment would
Te been a short laugh and a remark
t / had been ''mashing a brain, eye
stomach chimera. II was a ghast- OF
ind yet in some indefinable way a sue
rvelously dear experience. Could it N
possible, | wondered, that | was in ~