Connecticut western news., 1901-07-04
A STRANGE CASE.
.-sus--
The Story of an Infatuation For a Figure In Tapestry.


 ly in my study reading from a volume of Gautier's short stories, when he sud denly jumped from his chair and began pacing the room.
 Wonderful, wonderful" he kept re- beating to himself. "There Is no case like 1t on record" Then he would re- fer to the book again and repeat: Wonderful, wonderful, that I should stumble upon the explanation here. It Is the same, exactly the same, hallu- cination. And the suggestion that l had given up hope of finding Is here too. Extraordinary!
 Unconscious of my presence, my uncle went on In this strain for perhaps five minutes, and then, noticing that l was staring at him in bewilderment, he smiled with that air of satisfaction that Is seldom seen, except upon the face of the student or investigator who has finally solved some scientific riddle.
 Hugh, my boy" he said, T have stumbled upon a complete explanation of the most mystifying case of hallu- cination that has ever come under my notice. Explanations often come to us too late, but rarely in such strange way"
 Completely mystified, took the book from my uncle's hands and discovered that he had been reading "Omphale," Gautier's weird story of a young man who became enamored of figure in piece of tapestry that hung on the wall of an old chateau owned by the Chev- alier de D. in the dismal Rue de Tournelles. l had not had time to re- fresh my memory of the tale when my uncle almost snatched the book from my hands and began reading again to reassure himself of the cor rectness of the conclusion he had ap- parently formed.
 Hercules spinning at the feet of Om- phale," he began aloud. ''The very same tapestry. Hercules holding There could not be two of them. His little finger raised with the air of a French marquis taking pinch of snuff, his muscular neck covered with ribbons and women's gewgaws; draped in gorge-de-pigeon petticoat with huge panniers.' Fancy that! Of course 1t Is the same. And 'Omphale, half covered with the Nemean lions skin; her slender hand resting on her lover's knotty club; her true Andalusian feet, that would be lost in Cinderella's slip pers, shod with antique sandals of delicate lilac sprinkled with pearls; her head thrown back with q mock swag- ger; the delicious pout of her dimpled mouth; the beauty spot (assassin, Gau- tier calls it) cunningly placed upon her cheek, and the Cupids, the indispensa- ble Cupids.' Well, well, 1t Is certainly extraordinary"
 Naturally my mystification and won- derment grew as my uncle delivered. as from a catalogue. the features of this wonderful tapestry, tortured aft CT the fashion of Vanloo," the drift of his speech being so strange as to cause the liveliest curiosity. Tt Is plain as day." my uncle finally explained.
 Pardon me-" said, with some irri- tation, but 1t Is not at all plain to me. The story always struck me as being a particularly wild flight of an unruly imagination"
 
 piled. You must think me in need of my own medicine. I will tell you about It. The tale Is preposterous. I was not thinking of that when I said 1t was plain. I was thinking of the case of a young man who was placed in my charge last summer. Poor chap! He Is dead now. 1 could do nothing for him, and his people took him abroad, where he died-in Italy, I think-dur- ing the winter.
 "The man-Wiltse was his name was suffering from q most peculiar hallucination, the nature of which was discovered by his family when they in- stltuted close watch upon him to dis cover, If possible, the cause of his strange behavior and demeanor. To be brief, he had fallen In love with that piece of tapestry identical with that described In this tale of Gautier's. And not only this, but he imagined that his adoration was reciprocated to some ex- tent by the woven figure, with whom he would tenderly converse when he did not know he was being watched.
 "Mr. Wiltse informed me that he had purchased the tapestry several years before, having been attracted by the absurd treatment the subject had re- ceivcd at the hands of the artist in- spired of Vanloo. The piece seemed grotesque to our vision, but 1t was not without merit and, gazing steadily at 1t for any length of time. had strange effect even upon so prosaic person as h,, F., f,NI tI.,,, that I saw an undulating movement in the lines of Omphale's beautiful neck and that the delicate glow of her cheek changed to deeper or paler shade. You may laugh at me If you like, but no one looking at the tapestry could shake off the impression that the figure of woolen and silken shreds was ami mate. Her languishing glance followed one about the room. growing intense as one gazed at her eyes.
 Naturally I tried the experiment of separating my patient from the influ- ence of the tapestry, but this, as fear ed, only had the effect of changing his habitual melancholy into violent pas sion that was much more difficult to deal with than melancholia. We then tried hanging the tapestry in a much used room, where some member of the family was likely to be at all times There young Wiltse would sit before 1t in silence, with an imploring express sion on his face. Finally he became so callous in regard to his strange infat- uation that he took small pains to con- zeal 1t. Uncomplimentary remarks about Omphale would send him into uncomfortable fits of passion that bare ly stopped short of violence to the per son who had made the aspersion. No one ever heard him address his enchan- tress by name, but he would call her 'Marchioness,' and that, too, Is explain ed, though at the time we were In the dark as to his reason for conferring this particular rank upon Omphale
 Perhaps I exaggerated the impress sion the tapestry made upon whoever looked at 1t for any length of time. I,