Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1904-04-29

slight, in white gown that chung tC
ler arms and shoulders and rounded
waist and swept about her feet in
heavy folds. A cross swung from her
neck by long silver chain, and she
wore a broad-brimmed hat with a
gauzy white veil, so her face was in
shadow. She leaned slightly towards
Ashe as he clutched the arms of bis
big chair and sat forward in amaze
ment
I'm the Princess Constantia Gregg
rious, she said gently.
"Of-of Russian" he asked stupidity
trying to fan away the blaze Of to-
baco smoke.
There are other lands" she said in
differently. And not so far away"
Great Caesar!" he breathed, bewil-
dered, and his pipe dropped from his
astonished fingers. With the feeling
that it was the only bond between him
and nationality, he stopped to pick it
up, and as he rose he struck his head
sharply against the corner of the H.
brary table. Dizzy from the blow, he
staggered to his feet and looked tow
ards the door. She was gone, as mys-
teriously as she had come. He rushed
blindly around the table and
across the room, stumbling over easy
chairs and footstools, and sending a
revolving bookcase spinning round.
The hall was brilliant after the smoky
library, and was it also empty. No trail
ing gowns had turnedu the edges of the
rugs, nor could he hear any hurrying
steps on the polished stairs. He blinked
at the sun pouring red and purple
through the painted window for mo-
ment, and then turned back and sat
down on the nearest chair. Good
heavens! what a dream! Who was
she? What was her motive in appear
ing and announcing herself in that
royal way? And he hadn't seen her
face! Well, if it was as pretty as her
fgure-oh, confound his head! and he
was still feeling it gingerly, too dazed
to think of more than one thing at a
time, when he heard his friends cheer
full whistle in the hall.
well, old chap" said Thurston,
coming in. 'Phew! but that pipe of
yours is a fright! If we don't air this
room before the mater gets into it,
your goose is cooked"
why, what will she do?" inquired
the other, uncertainty.
you'll never get another bid for
Sunday" said the first, throwing open
one of the windows. Gee! l didn't real
lze how rank Cissie is getting. Retire
her, Billy, and get another But, say,
what's the matter, old man? left you
composing sonnet and going to sleep
over it. What's wrong?"
She looked down at his maligned
pipe, and then up at his friend
Say, do you suppose she thought it
was rank?" he asked.
THE mater?" said Thurston puzzled,
"She hasn't been here already, has
she? If so, we'd better go back to-
night. Did she wake you up?"
mo, l just dreamed it," said the
owner of the pipe, and began to feel of
his bump with a frown of pain. His
friend looked at him for a moment
curiously, and then aimed heavy
leather cushion from the nearest Nor
ris chair at him.
Wake up, you idiot" he said. ''This
is no sleeping car"
Dick, has your sister friend visit
ing herr" he inquired.
NO." said the other.
well, there was one In here any
way" pursued Ashe.
"One whati' demanded Thurston.
Zone princess" said the other. His
host surveyed him in silence for mo
ment.
"Ashe, you're crazy!" he said at last
Come out and take walk"
Mr. Wilmerding Ashe was making
for himself rather neat reputation
with readers of current magazines as
a writer of clever little occasional
verses. Among his friends at his clubs
he was considered good fellow, and
they chose IL assume that somewhere
he kept hidden away the person who
wrote his verses for him. His moth
er's friends approved of him be-
cause he paid his calls, and he was
chiefly famous with the young ladies
of his rather general acquaintance as a
and bandinage. But no one was pre-
pared for the almost Oriental beauty
and mysticism of his latest verses,
which appeared in one of the best of
the monthly periodicals under the
name of my Lady of the Realms of
Dreams and which would have done
credit to a much more ambitious poet
than Billy Ashe. Ashe himself thought
rather we'll of them; he felt that it In
some way compensated for the very
nasty knock on the head that the Lady
had been the means of giving him, and
that he had turned a most perplexing
dream to very good account 1t was
better than taking it to the Society of
Physical Research, which he had
thought of doing in the vividness of
his first impression, but six months
without any further developments,
waking or sleeping, had dulled his
keen conviction of its psychic value.
Meanwhile, comfortable check from
the magazine had seemed to take the
thing out of the province of psychic re-
search.
Ashe was modest man, but not too
much so to find a little lionizing quite
to his taste, and he went to afternoon
teas and cotillions with feeling that
tomorrow would be some one else's
day, and he must gather his roses
while he might So he entered Mrs.
Fosters long drawing room prepared
to smile as he listened to his verses
misquoted by fair flatterers: he re-
tanned that serene attitude of mind
while he shook hands with Mrs. Fos-
ter, and. mot one minute longer For
beyond Mrs. Foster, and standing just
outside the ring of light from tall
lamp, was the lady of his dreams, with
her white gown that chung to her
shoulders and round waist, and fiared