Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1903-06-20

!
lines of description. Beyond a doubt
the furnishings and what may be call
ed the arrangement" of that room
were set down upon that paper.
"You did not recognize it as your
ownw asked. "That seems strange"
"Ah! So you know all aboutl my
dream" said he. 1T may indeed seem
| strange that did not know this place,
yet did not To be sure, the outlines
are regular; there was really nothing
except the furniture by which it might
be recognized. 1t has been repapered,
the rugs and the hangings are differ
ent'-
II should have thought that the view
from the windows I began. But
perhaps you did not look out"
There is one of the peculiar facts
about this Dream" said he. There
was no view from the windows; it was
night The room seemed to be dark,
and yet 1 perceived all that was in it
and had an impression Of the things
| just as if / had seen them"
His manner far more than his words
absurd of course, for what is death or
the view of death to shake a mans
heart?
II don't understand why you should
conceal this from your sister," said I.
'Your revelation was dumb as to time.
That you expect to die in your own
chamber some day cannot alarm your
friends. How can they hope for any
thing better?
This is surely the rational view, and
it was extraordinary that it had not
sprung up before Winthrop's mind i'm
mediately. 1t had not, and in response
to my suggestion he said repeatedly:
''It will alarm her. The thought that
she herself planned these changes will
torture her mind"
"You are mistaken" / insisted. eff
you do not tell her you can never go
from home without raising in her mind
the fear that you have gone straight to
that closing scene of your life which
has been so strangely revealed to you
| The upshot of it was that he was
overpe1 suaded and agreed to take Mar
ion into his confidence, the more espe-
| cially because he had been confronted
by the necessity of leaving home for a
| few days upon a matter of business.
The result of this disclosure, however,
was precisely what Winthrop had fore
seen. 1t was to Marion as if she had
built a gallows for her brother upon
| which he must die the sooner because
of the work of her hands.
She concealed this feeling from STAN
ley, but to me she was explicit. 1t was
at this time that she and I began to re-
alize the nature of the tie that was
binding us more closely to each other.
| We had misnamed it friendship for
more than year.
This monstrous notion, that the room
| and her own affectiOnate efforts to
make it more comfortable for her
brother had somehow accelerated the
approach of his doom. would not leave
her mind Her brother dwelt in the
apartment with a certain placid impa-
/ tience, but Marion viewed his cOntln-
ued use of it with an ever present ter
ror which seemed to me utterly unrea
sOnable.
The situat ton was the worse because
no one dared try to mend it. To per-
suade Stanley to give up the room for
ever or to consent to a change of it's
furnishings was the same as asking
him to set date for his own exit from
the world, since he believed that he
was to die in that scene as it then
stood Absurd as this belief must seem
to a normal mind, it had surely taken
possession Of the brother and sister,
and the effect was disastrous upon
each, though in a different way. To
Stanley it meant an increasing concen-
tration of his thought upon morbid
theme, to Marion a constant, tortur-
ing apprehension, dread Of night and
morning.
1t speedily became necessary to take
decisive action. l took advice of STAN
ley's physician, man more intolerant
of all morbid and mystic nonsense than
any. one else whom / ever knew, and
consulted certain members Of the Win
throp household. The result was de-
termination to overthrow this super
stition by direct proof of it's falsity.
1t seemed likely that in this attempt
/ might lose Stanley's friendship, but
l had reached a pitch Of desperation
where I was willing to risk anything,
and, moreover, the doctor, who was
bluff old fellow, agreed to assume
all responsibility and to make all the
arrangements.
One evening at the Winthrops' dinner
hour DR.. Evans and gained access to
Stanley's room from the veranda. We
were accompanied by some Of the serv-
ants, and we had the means of effect
ing a very considerable change in the
appearance of that apartment.
1t was an evening prematurely dark.
The western sky almost to the zenith
was dead black, so that the earth
seemed to be rolling into the mouth Of
pit. 1 was the first to enter the
room, and CROPPED my way at once to