Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-22
Her Dream1and Tryst
Continued rom page 8


read it for the first time not five min
utes ago, as it was handed to me at the
desk" He laid the volume and letter on his
knee, and focused the cleaning bulb of the
wonderful story, sweetheart, more wonderful
than | have ever heard. | am going to add
chapter to it, which l think will exercise
the terror of your dream forever
She looked up, puzzled, for his face was grave
to reverence, yet softened and glowing as if
from some briiliance within.
Your first Dream he went on, came last
November. What am going to read you now
is the closing page of Burlingame's letter
Listen:
Il inclose you clipping from 'Galignani's
to the effect that one Nicolini, discredited
medico here, has been arrested for manslaugh-
ter. 1t seems that when irresponsibly drunk
he dosed a poor tourist with something deadly
cyanide of cacodyl | believe, instead of
ipecac Apropos this interesting Italian, |
am going to confess here something you never
knew. Do you remember last November
when certain comrade of mine was down
sick the yacht with touch of Mediter-
ranean fever? Well, the first day he got off
his head, l sent for doctor, and by some evil
luck drew this same rascal He hadn't made
his bad name then, and my ignorance was
complete; so told him to leave some medicine.
You remember my hatred for the magnolia
scent? Well, the idiot used some such perfume.
He left the cabin positively reeking with it and
when | came in | was so ill-tempered as to up
set the glass and spill all the medicine he had
left. If the clipping and my tale of this acct
dent, combined, do not convince you that some
patients bear charmed lives, the word of the
consulate surgeon whom | got an hour later,
may do So He took oath that the glass had
held enough laudanum to kill the entire crew,
including your friend and ex-commander,
"BURLINGAME."
She had not spoken, and the shade held her
face but her hands were claspinl his arm with
an almost hysterical pressure. He had read
slowly and distinctly, while the beam from the
lens wavered on the cracking white paper like
huge glow-worm. He laid down the letter
now, and turned to the thin morocco volume.
Your second dream, he said, was the
night of the twelfth of February. This book
is my diary. At that date-he turned the
leaves rapidly-the yacht lay at Assuan in
Upper Egypt" He broke off a moment to
pencil some figures on the margin " At dawn
here, on the day of your dream, it was then,
let US say, sunset, eight clock in the evening,
at Assuan. You see what | am coming tor"
Yes, yes" she cried, her breath coming
faster her pulses beating to riot. g Go onp'
He turned to folded leaf and read:
"AssUAN, February IA dull day. Bur
lingame and / had an unpleasant row this
morning with couple of the servants of Aman
Pasha, over the beating of a save-boy. He
threshed one and | was obliged to ditto the
other 1t seems the beating was by the pasha's
order.
"LATER-Burly is going to make it all right
with the old hypocrite by giving him an
American dinner at the local Sherry s'-dress-
SUITS champagne and carte blanche to Sid
as to courses.
"AssUAN, February IA dull day. Bur
lingame's dinner to Aman Pasha in the even
ing ended with fireworks"
She looked up, startled, into his smiling
face. That is all the entry he said. This
diary, YOU see, IS for my mothers eyes. What
really happened that night in Assuan, Bur
lingame, the British Consul, and | agreed to be
silent about. But l know now sweetheart
what should never have guessed but for your
story-a knowledge that makes me very
humble | know now and his voice shook
that your love has twice sent your spirit to
me in moment of deadly peril once to snatch
my life from hate that failed only by a
fraction of a second. Dearest, don't you
understand? | am the comrade Burlingame
speaks of in his letter-the sick man you loved,
who lay in his berth that third of November
am the man you loved. who stood in the sun
set shadow that evening with the chair 1t
was Burlingame who spilled the laudanum at
Alexandra, Birlingame whose revolver stop
ped the man behind the pillar at Assuan; but
it was you-thank God, you Jessica who
both times came to warn him and to save me"
He had opened his arms, and she crept into
them in great wonder.
1t was YOU only that loved all the while
she whispered, and never knew But it was
the flowers after all. They spoke where l
could not. / am glad always loved them so.
That reminds me- he said; there is a