Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1901-08-19
Continued.

this piece Of linen tightly around my
thumb-that is right, thank you!
Now. sit down, old lady, and drink
some punch with u.s." he continued
condescendingly addressing her in
the second person. "And give me a
rational answer-what has Robert re-
piled to the Whitsun Invitations"
The old lady, who was at the mo-
ment emptying a bottle of wine into
the bowl, did not look at him.
81 wrote him nothing about it,
she replied, chat was surely only
joke, sir?"
Heaven forbid! pray you, write
to him tonight" She shook her
head. That is not my office"
"Ah. am I to humble myself and
write to him?" he asked angrily.
81 certainly do not require that, !"
she replied, ION the contrary, I would
advise you against it, for he will not
come"
He put down the fork he had raised
to his mouth, and looked at her as il
he wished to read her inmost
thoughts. How do you know this?"
"I fancy So"
eYou fancy too much, dearest
cousin; you as well as this young
lady here should check the activity of
her brain. Anneliese seems to be
suffering from a sort of illusion, for
she frequently tells me things she
heard on the day upon which her
mother died. I have already talked
with the doctor about it, he says it is
a serious symptom, dear child. The
only help is to rouse yourself, or you
may become very ill-here!" He
tapped his forehead with his index
finger. "Do you see, my little daugh-
ter?"
A peculiarly mocking tone ran
through his words, and it drove the
blood to my brain. With my former
. rashness / cried: "It is fortunate that
am not the only one who is suffering
from these illusions" that other
people have them too, and that this
hallucination indeed exists in black
and white"
Cousin suddenly seized me by my
shoulder. 'You do not know what
you are saying, child! The beer is
probably too strong for you-come.
come, you are nervous, and the air is
oppressive"
She lifted me from my seat, pushed
me towards the door and across the
threshold. The door closed noisily
behind us. Wollmeyer did not stir; I
could not see how he looked, the
room was too dark. l felt that | had
been unwise, that had given him
warning to be upon his guard, that [
had betrayed to him that all signs Of
the crime had not been eradicated Y
the letters so dearly purchased from
Brankwitz.
"AnneIiese!" whispered cousin in a
tone of rebuke. Then became
violent and accused her and Robert.
For what was he waiting? l would
not be free until he acted, and
wanted to be free, wanted to go away,
to be independent, away from that
slavery, from that atmosphere laden
with guilt and baseness. If he did
not come soon, | should fall i'll, and
then Herr Wollmeyer could have me
put in an insane asylum. took a
shawl from the nearest chair and
rushed out into the dark garden.
The old house lay behind me in
silence and darkness like the house
of ill-luck it was Even the garden
when flooded with sunshine wore a
gloomy air, today it seemed to me al
most unearthly. The surface of the
pond lay there unrippled, rejecting
the dark sky; the air was sultry, op-
pressive, and thunder rumbled in the
distance.
Mamma, mamma, were with
you'll" my soul cried out. Then I
paused and listened; a nightingale
began to lament and to sob, and the
entire enchanting, yearning charm OF
spring night laid hold upon my
lonely heart. Why cid Robert hest.
tate, if he really loved me He must
know that should die in that house
he must have OWNED that I had only
refused him out of sense of duty.
If at this moment he had stood before
me as upon the night of mamma s
death, would have rushed into his
arms and have said: eyes, you are
rigHg what are the dead to us, what
Lhei Some which yet is not home
we are Lying. we will find over the
water another, q pleasanter home;
come, come away, ali, come away from
herew
Never had 1 felt the isolation the
defencelessness of my position as ut
this hour.
A lamp was lighted in cousins
room; through my tears / could see
the old, bent form moving hither and
thither in the lamplight, just as | had
seen it as child from the same spot
the large elm, whose trunk higher up
branched out into two trees, and at
this point formed fine seat. Today
l had climbed from the bench to his
natural seat and was watching cousin.
She seemed to be busy at her chest
OF drawers, she bent over and stood