Passaic City record., 1899-07-29

W&fsTi<[<y1QEk/ Lldl 2. IL y " u
|AsESaSI think it could be
SSg moved?"
- I hesitated and
80 murmured some
thing about the
trouble of having the furniture moved
in a hotel. etc., while handing my
wife the English letter had brought
upstairs for her. She had been lying
down after our journey, and now sat
up on the bed to utter the above re-
marks about the wardrobe. She was
very pretty, that little wife of mine,
with her curly, tousled head, and the
face that sleep had flushed to q soft
rosy-pink-very pretty, and so ludi-
crously, ludicrously young to look at.
Her letter did not occupy her long.
She looked at me again.
"Jack, darling, you will have that
wardrobe moved, won't you? Ii 1
were to wake in the night and see my
own face in it, I should be horribly
frightened. Do have it moved, Jack,
dearl' She knew perfectly well, lit
tie witch, that if she spoke to me like
that, and looked at me pleadingly out
of her pretty eyes, she would get ex-
actly what she wanted-and, of
course, she did this time. The ward
robe, which had been placed precise
ly opposite one of the two beds that
jutted out from the wall between the
door.and window, was now moved to
the corner near the window itself, SO
that, although from the beds we could
still catch glimpse of the glass, we
could see nothing reflected in it.
We were staying in big, pleasant
hotel, the locality of which matters
little. We found many pleasant folk
among our fellow guests, and we had
really a delightful evening, spent
chiefly in sitting upon the terrace
which overlooked the very lovely
garden of the hotel. The delicious
scents of the many Towering shrubs
filled the air with exquisite fragrance;
the fresh breeze blowing softly round
us seemed to come straight from the
great range of mountains along the
horizon, giant shapes, dim and misty,
outlined against the pale green of the
evening sky, where the stars were
cCming out one by one.
1t must have been very late before
we reluctantly dragged ourselves in
doors, and went up to our room. Just
before putting out the light, I opened
the venetians outside our window to
breathe the heavenly air once more.
cfit1 ntnht Tha
garden below me was quite dark, and
the dim mountain shapes could no
longer be seen. The nightingales in
the bushes sang and sang as if they
could never sing enough, and to the
music of their song, with deep
undercurrent of the bull-frogs' en-
phatic voices. fell asleep.
I slept the sleep of the just, as I
usually do, and, I should think, must
have been asleep for some time,
when, suddenly, fash of light be-
fore my eyes woke me. My first i'm
preston was that it must be light
ming; my next, that my wife had
turned on the electric light over our
heads. But, as I woke up fully, I
realized that the room was dark !;
from the bed next to mine I could
hear quiet breathing, showing, be-
yond doubt, that my wife was
asleep.
But-but-. sat up in bed and
stared; for the long glass in the cup
board, which had been moved that
afternoon, was entirely lighted up.
AS I have said, this cupboard now
stood nearer to the window than it
had done before, and, though it was
not opposite my bed, the light upon
the glass had evidently flashed into
my eyes and awoke me. But where
in the name of fortune had the light
come from?" I rubbed my eyes, I
leant little out of bed, as I tried to
persuade myself that some light from
outside must be reflected in the glass,
though I knew perfectly we'll that
this was impossible, for not only were
the venetians closed, but the curtains
inside the room were also drawn.
Then 1 tried to think that the light
came through the keyhole of a room
opening into ours; but this was still
more fallacious argument, for the door
in question was on the farther side of
my wife's bed, and nothing could by
any means have been reflected from it
into that glass.
"Well," I thought, ''I am the VIC
tim of most extraordinary optical
delusion" For, whilst I sat up in
bed and started at it, that glass re-
mained steadily lighted up!