Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1905-03-11
||% Bound by a Spell $|

| child of the Norman gate her face color
less and statuesque, her hair glistening
in the moons rays, just as l had seen
it once before. She was waiting for me.
| We were going to fly together, whittier l
know not. | had begun my descent, and
was rapidly nearing the bottom, when
my steps were suddenly arrested. Just
on a level with my head, writing and
twisting it's coils round one of the pro-
| tuberant branches of the pear tree, was
red snake; but although its body was
a mass of moving coils its head was
| perfectly motionless; and out of it glared
pair of codl, stony eyes that held mine
| pair of cold, stony eyes that held mine
take away my gaze from them, but they
held me with a resistless power. All
| strength deserted me; my hands relaxed
| their grasp of the boughs. my feet slid
powerlessly from their hold, and | fell
| The reality. l awolSe-not with
start, but | slowly rose up into sit
! ting posture, as though an iron lever
worked by some hiddenu power, had
pressed me upwards. | could feel that
my eyes were wide open and staring
my whole body locked and rigid.
Upon the desk at the foot OF the bed
stood a lamp the light of which was
strongly intensified by a reflector. Its
glare fell full upon IA woman's face. In
! an instant recognized Judith Porter
| She was attired III a dress of black vel
vet. made high up to her throat; draped
| behind her head was a curtain of black
velvet upon which was, as it were
! thrown in powerful relief her pale coun-
tenance and red hair. Her eyes were
| unnaturally dilated and fixed They
seemed drawing my soul out of my body
and absorbing it in themselves.
! Ny next sensation was that | was
| speaking -answ erng questions, of what
nature | could not tell, for the answers
were made without any volition on my
part; they seemed drawn by come occult
influence from the most secret recesses
of my memory.
By and by all consciousness deserted
me, and | became motioness. When |
awoEe | was lying just as | had thrown
yself, half dressed, upon the bed. The
dull light of lowering sky, ont of which
the rain was descending I'll torrents. was
upon me. My visitant had left no trace
behind her; every article was precisely
in the same condition. as far as | could
remember, as when | retired to rest.
| got off the bed and bathed my head
and face with cold water This revived
me; but there was a dullness about the
brain that | could not clear away. AS
my faculties resumed their functions |
became conscious of sensations yet more
strange. There was a feeling of void
ness, as though some vital principle had
been drawn from me; but, above all,
there was an intense longing to be again
within the influence Of those eyes--yet |
shuddered at the thought. There was
spell upon me--a spell that drew me
irresistbly towards Judith Porter.
Mr. Porter's threat was no idle one.
Body and soul was, through his dau2h-
ter, utterly subdued to his will. Out
of her presence, / felt that | could not
exist | followed her about like
spaniel dog. | was ever trying to catch
her gaze; a few seconds beneath its in
fluence reduced me to a trance-like state,
in which my soul seemed to pass from
my keeping into hers. My slecp--when
| could sleep. which was seldom-was
haunted by the widest fantasies. My
! health soon began to suffer; my cheeks
s., became hollow, my looks emaciated. 1t
was as though a vampire was proving
upon my life. 1t was not love that
| she inspired me with. but fearful fasci-
nation; while | lay at her feet, passion
| ately imploring her to take pity upon me.
| to give me her love, to become my wife.
| | would have given the world to have
possessed the power to fly from her to
the furthermost extremity of the earth.
| was her slave-bound to her by chains
stronger than were ever forged by hui
mar hands.
And she was mereiess in her power.
| She hated me, loathed me, despised me.
She did not tell me So but my Instincts,
now preternaturaly sensitive needed no
words to divine her thoughts. While a
free agent | had refused. shrunk from
an alliance with her, and she was now
enjoying her vengeance.
You should have taken me when |
was offered to YOU" she said, mocking-
ly "now it is too latep'
/ l knew she did not mean. the latter
part of her sentence. knew that after
she had glHtted herself with my torture,
she would become my wife. I.could read
1t as plainly as though her mind had
been a printed book open before me.
still went through the form of super
intending the boys, but was very little
use In this pitiable condition, and Mr.
Porter himself was oftener in the school
room than had ever known him before
de treated me the same as usual, but he
never regarded me without cunning
leer of triumph. Except during the
school hours | was never suffered to
enter the Kitchen or to1exchanee a
word with Martha. | afterwards learn
gu tnat she made several attempts to get
to me, but all these efforts were baked
by the vigilance of her master or mis-
tress.
AS for me- made no effort to see her,,
: neither hNd lnninn. L ....-- .