Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1903-03-05
CHAPTER XIX.


trating rain, before Frank Armath-
where he had first met Alma Cros-
mont, at the junction of the higher with
the lower road. He glanced up the hill
to the right, and saw the sharp angles
of Ned Crosmonts house standing out
black in the darkness, without ray of
light from any of the windows to in
dictate that there was life within. And
yet it was not ten O'Clock. The draw
ing-room, the dining-room, Alma's bed
room, and the little chamber with the
UNCOVERED window where she shut
herself in to listen to the dream
music which comforted her, were all
on the same side of the house, and the
faintest CLEAN of light in any of them
would have been visible to him from
the spot where he stood staring up at
the blank, cherries building with III
tent eyes. He did not attempt to ap-
proach it; the attraction which had
drawn him so far seemed to have sud
denly ceased, and giVCn place, exactly
as it had done on the two previous &C.
casions when he had been under it's
power, to commonplace reflections on
his own idiotcy in giving way to it.
His reason had resumed its full sway;
and while he was surprised at the dis
covery that Alma, who by all analogy
should have been a bad sleeper, afraid
of the darkness and prone to long
night-watches, had evidently retired to
rest exceedingly early, it was quite
plain to him that he had come on a
fools errand and that 1t would be the
height of indiscretion to. go a yard
nearer and risk being caught proving
round the house when all folk Of hon
est intentions were supposed to be
safely in their homes.
So he turned his back on the house,
and retraced the few steps he had
taken up the hill But when he reach
ed the bottom, and faced the thicket
of trees growing by the water-side, he
became conscious of a signing wind
that came through the branches and
over the lake, and he heard the little
waves splash up against the shore,
and the boughs ru1tle and crack over
his head, and In each sound there was
low wall that pierced his heart, and
made him cold and sick with a vague
fear. For he knew that it was no
physical human voice that was calling
to him, and that these noises OF the
night, which now seemed to bear a
human message of pain and prayer to
him, were only such as he had heard a
thousand times before and taken no
note Of
After standing a few moments long
er in a state of hazy stupefaction, his
reasoning faculties in vain trying to
get the mastery over the hayward
brain, 1t seemed to him that the faint,
fancies which began to run riot in his
wailing note which formed the accom-
paniment to every sound he heard
came from the opposite shore of the
lake. At the same moment the rest
less fever to go forward seized him
again: why should he not make the
tour of the lower and the higher roads
and thus passing close under the walls
of the Crosmont's house on his way
back, try to discover an explanation of
the impulse which had driven him
forth in the mud and the rain on a
miserable February night, BY the
time he got to the point where the
higher road again joined the lower near
the entrance of the village. however,
his thoughts had wandered away to
DR., Peele and his story, and to the con
nection between the opera written by
the so-called mad composer in the lit.
tie front room, and the dream-musiC
which his own daughter, twenty-five
years later. heard within the same
walls, Had not the dreams of the
mesmeristmusician been realized
Did not the poeucal creation of his
heart and mind stand embodied il
Alma, whose pure and sensitive sou
shone out of her brown eyes as thar
Of the imaginary Psyche" had done
in his inspired fancy? Through
Armathwaite's excited brain Their,
flashed reminiscer Ces of the old Greel
legend of the beautiful maiden con
demned to marry monster, and pen
secuted by Venus for her innocen
rivalry; and mingled with thes
scraps OF legend came vivid picture
of the realities among which he live,
OF Lady Kildonan in her splendi
beauty coaXing him, commanding Cro
mont; of the simple and kindly middle
aged husband who could think no i
of the wife he loved; of the old do
tor dying oppressed by the burden {
a secret which weighed upon hi
night and day; of fair. sweet woma
in whom the life and reason were b
ing Slapped out at the will OF riv
who was something worse than hear
less.
This last picture stood out in h
mind with striking vividness, and r
manned there clear as material pi
ture. long after the rest had faded oil
of his brain. Through the mis-
through the soft rain, he seemed
see her bodily presence. with fail
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